Research
Harsh parenting during preschool years can have widespread effects on the brain
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Freya Lucas
Jan 13, 2025
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Early exposure to harsh parenting during preschool years can have widespread effects on the organisation of the entire brain’s communication, a new University of Michigan study has shown.
Developmental timing of associations among parenting, brain architecture, and mental health highlighted how harsh and warm parenting during early, middle and late childhood impacted brain development during adolescence and how these changes predicted later mental health.Researchers used a new statistical method to identify whether there are “sensitive periods” in childhood when the brain is particularly susceptible to external influences and whether experiences during these sensitive periods would predict mental health during a stressful period like the COVID-19 pandemic. They also used advanced brain imaging techniques to explore how information flows through the developing brain.
“Understanding these sensitive periods can inform more effective policy and intervention strategies,” Professor Luke Hyde explained.
Cleanthis Michael, first author of the study, said the findings indicate that earlier interventions may offer broader benefits for brain development.
Data came from a 21-year longitudinal birth cohort study of low-income youths and families from Detroit, Chicago and Toledo, Ohio. The data, which originated from the Future of Families and Child Well-being Study, were collected from February 1998 to June 2021. The current study sample includes an analysis of 173 youths.
Parents reported their harsh behaviour—psychological and physical aggression—and observers recorded warm parenting (responsiveness) for children at ages 3, 5 and 9 years. A follow-up substudy with neuroimaging was done for youths at age 15 years of age. Six years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, participants reported their symptoms of anxiety and depression.
The findings indicated parents’ harsh parenting during early childhood affected the overall organisation of the brain in adolescence. However, harsh parenting in late childhood more specifically affected the corticolimbic circuit—a specific part of the brain that includes the amygdala and frontal cortex and is involved in processing and regulating emotion.
The researchers also examined positive aspects of parenting and found that warm parenting during middle childhood was associated with how the amygdala, a small part of the brain involved in emotion and processing threats, was differentially connected to other parts of the brain. Importantly, parenting warmth predicted reduced anxiety and depression 15 years later during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its effects on the amygdala.
Professor Hyde says the research shows that the impact of positive and negative experiences on the brain may be different depending on when in life we have these experiences.
“It uses new methods to test age-old questions from developmental psychology about whether children have sensitive periods of brain development,” he said.
The study’s other co-authors are Arianna Gard, Scott Tillem, Felicia Hardi, Erin Dunn, Andrew Smith, Vonnie McLoyd, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Colter Mitchell and Christopher Monk.
Access the findings in full here.
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