How ‘hard parenting’ can affect your child’s BRAIN: Getting angry, hitting, or yelling at kids can shrink their neural regions linked to anxiety and depression, study warns
- Scientists analyzed parenting practices and took brain scans of children aged 2-9
- Those subject to ‘hard parenting’ had smaller amygdala and prefrontal cortex
- These brain structures play a key role in emotional regulation and anxiety
- Researchers hope the findings will encourage parents to take less harsh measures when dealing with their children
Getting angry, hitting, shaking, or yelling at your child repeatedly can affect their brain structures during adolescence, a new study warns.
Researchers found that children raised with ‘hard parenting’ developed smaller prefrontal cortex and amygdala – two brain structures that play a key role in emotional regulation and the onset of anxiety and depression.
It is worrying that these harsh parenting practices are common and generally considered socially acceptable according to the team.
The researchers hope the findings will encourage parents to take less harsh measures when dealing with their children.
Getting angry, hitting, shaking, or yelling at your child repeatedly can affect brain structures during adolescence, a new study warns (stock image)
In the study, researchers from the University of Montreal and Stanford University wanted to look at the effects of hard parenting on the brains of children.
Dr. Sabrina Suffren, who led the study, said, “The implications go beyond changes in the brain.
“I think it’s important for parents and society to understand that the frequent use of harsh parenting practices can harm a child’s development.
‘We are talking about their social and emotional development, but also about their brain development.’
The team used data from children who had been followed at CHU Saint-Justine hospital since they were born there in the early 2000s.
Parenting practices, childhood anxiety levels, and brain scans were evaluated annually while the children were between the ages of two and nine.
Worryingly, the results showed that children subject to higher levels of harsh parenting developed smaller prefrontal cortex and amygdala – two brain structures known to play a key role in emotional regulation and the onset of anxiety and depression.
Dr. Suffren explained, “These findings are both significant and new.
Worryingly, the results showed that children subjected to higher levels of hard parenting developed smaller prefrontal cortex and amygdala – two brain structures known to play a key role in emotional regulation and the onset of anxiety and depression.
“It is the first time that harsh parenting practices that do not lead to serious abuse have been associated with decreased brain structure, similar to what we see in victims of serious abuse.”
The researchers hope their findings will encourage parents to implement less stringent parenting strategies in the future.
In the UK, it is illegal for a parent or guardian to hit their child unless it amounts to ‘reasonable punishment’.
Child Law Advice explained, “Whether a” blow “amounts to a reasonable punishment depends on the circumstances of each case, taking into account factors such as the age of the child and the nature of the blow.
“There are strict guidelines for the use of reasonable punishments and it will not be possible to rely on the defense if you impose severe physical punishment on your child, be it injury, actual bodily harm, serious bodily harm, or child abuse.”
However, statistics released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) suggest that emotional abuse in families is still common in the UK.
ONS explained: “The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated that 1 in 11 adults aged 18 to 74 years was emotionally abused before the age of 16 (3.8 million people); this only applies to offenders aged 16 or older.
The abuse was usually committed by the parent (s) of the child; about 5 in 10 were abused by their mother, about 4 in 10 were abused by their father. ‘