Parenting: Repeatedly getting angry or yelling at children can affect their brain

Parenting: Repeatedly getting angry or yelling at children can affect their brain

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How ‘hard parenting’ can affect your child’s BRAIN: getting angry, hitting or screaming children can shrink their neural regions associated with anxiety and depression, warns study

  • Scientists analyzed parenting practices and took brain scans of children aged 2-9 years
  • Those subject to ‘hard parenting’ have 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

By Shivali Best for Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A new study warns that your child repeatedly gets angry, hits, shakes or screams at your child.

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 widely and, according to the team, widely regarded as socially acceptable around the world.

The researchers hope the findings will encourage parents to take less harsh measures when dealing with their children.

A new study has warned that your child repeatedly getting angry, hitting, shaking or screaming at your child can affect their brain structures.

A new study has warned that repeatedly getting angry at the child, hitting, shaking or screaming at your child can affect their brain structures.

Which areas of the brain are affected?

The team used data from children monitored at CHU Saint-Justine Hospital since they were born there in the early 2000s.

Parenting practices, child anxiety levels and brain scans are evaluated annually while the children were between two and nine years old.

Worryingly, the results revealed 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 rise of anxiety and depression.

In the study, researchers from the University of Montreal and the University of Stanford aimed to look at the effects of hard parenting on children’s brains.

Dr Sabrina Suffren, who led the study, said: ‘The implications go beyond changes in the brain.

‘I think what’s important is that parents and society need to understand that the use of harsh parenting practices can harm a child’s development.

“We talk about their social and emotional development, as well as their brain development.”

The team used data from children monitored at CHU Saint-Justine Hospital since they were born there in the early 2000s.

Parenting practices, child anxiety levels and brain scans are evaluated annually while the children were between two and nine years old.

Worryingly, the results revealed that children subject 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 rise of anxiety and depression.

Dr Suffren explained: ‘These findings are important and new.

Worryingly, the results revealed that children subject 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 rise of anxiety and depression.

Worryingly, the results revealed that children subject 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 rise of anxiety and depression.

“This is the first time that harsh parenting practices without serious abuse have been linked to the decline in brain structure, similar to what we see in victims of severe abuse.”

The researchers hope their findings will encourage parents to continually implement less serious parenting strategies.

In the UK, it is illegal for a parent or caregiver to hit their child, except where it is ‘reasonable punishment’.

Child legal advice explained: ‘Whether a’ slap ‘amounts to reasonable punishment will depend on the circumstances of each case, taking into account factors such as the age of the child and the nature of the slap.

‘There are strict guidelines covering the use of reasonable punishment, and it will not be possible to rely on the defense if you use severe physical punishment on your child, which amounts to injury, actual bodily harm, serious bodily injury or cruelty of children. ‘

However, statistics released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) suggest that emotional abuse in families is still very common in the UK.

WE explained: ‘The UK and Wales Crime Survey (CSEW) estimated that 1 in 11 adults aged 18 to 74 experience emotional abuse before the age of 16 (3.8 million people); this includes offenders aged 16 and over.

‘The abuse was mostly committed by the parent (s) of the child; about 5 out of 10 were abused by their mother, about 4 out of 10 were abused by their father. ‘

Helicopter parenting: a form of overprotective parenting

Parents who are overprotective are sometimes called ‘helicopter parents’.

They deserve this stereotype because they are considered to be relentlessly hovering over their children and trying to micro-manage their affairs.

The first use of the term is widely attributed to Dr. Haim Ginott’s 1969 book Parents & Teenagers.

In it, teenagers said their parents would hover over them like a helicopter.

The term became popular in 2011 to become a dictionary entry.

Helicopter parents pay close attention to their children to try to protect them from failure, rejection and injury.

They want ‘happy’ children and often believe that teachers should pay attention to their children in the same overprotective way.

This approach has sparked controversy, and some experts have argued that they need to experience a full range of emotions in order for children to adapt well.

Parents who want their children to always be happy are doing their children a disservice.

The ‘helicopter’ parent speeds in to help rather than allow their child to manage a challenging situation on their own.

Some experts believe that it can lead to children not being able to handle even minor problems, as they are never given the opportunity to fail and then learn from their mistakes.

Some experts suggest that such ‘intrusive’ parenting may provide benefits to children later in life.

Among them is Dr Matthias Doepke, a professor of economics at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at the North-West University.

He argues that the intensity of parenting has increased in many countries in line with increasing inequality.

Intrusive ‘helicopter’ parents, usually from more economically disadvantaged backgrounds, usually produce offspring with higher performance.

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