Rigid Parenting Style and Future Mental Health

Research involving 7,500 children found that those exposed to ’hostile’ parenting are 1.5 times more likely to have ’high-risk’ mental health symptoms

Parents who frequently exercise harsh discipline with young children put them at significantly higher risk of developing long-lasting mental health problems, new evidence shows.

In a study of more than 7,500 Irish children, researchers from the University of Cambridge and University College Dublin found that children exposed to "hostile" parenting at age three were 1.5 times more likely than their peers to have health symptoms. mental illness that they classified as "high risk". at nine years old.

Hostile parenting involves frequent and harsh treatment and discipline, and can be physical or psychological. It may, for example, involve yelling at children regularly, routine physical punishment, isolating children when they misbehave, damaging their self-esteem, or punishing children in unpredictable ways depending on the parents’ mood.

The researchers recorded the children’s mental health symptoms at ages three, five, and nine. They studied both internalizing mental health symptoms (such as anxiety and social withdrawal) and externalizing symptoms (such as impulsive and aggressive behavior and hyperactivity).

Around 10% of children were found to be in a high-risk band for poor mental health. Children who experienced hostile parenting were much more likely to fall into this group.

Importantly, the study makes clear that parenting style does not completely determine mental health outcomes. Children’s mental health is determined by multiple risk factors, including gender, physical health, and socioeconomic status.

However, researchers argue that mental health professionals, teachers and other professionals should be alert to the possible influence of parenting a child who shows signs of poor mental health. They add that additional support for parents of children already considered at risk could help prevent these problems from developing.

The study was carried out by Ioannis Katsantonis, PhD researcher in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, and Jennifer Symonds, Associate Professor in the School of Education at UCD. It is reported in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences .

“The fact that one in 10 children were in the high-risk category for mental health problems is concerning and we need to be aware of the role parenting can play in that,” Katsantonis said. “We are not for a moment suggesting that parents should not set firm limits on their children’s behavior, but it is difficult to justify frequent harsh discipline, given the mental health implications.”

Symonds said: “Our findings underline the importance of doing everything possible to ensure that parents are supported to provide their children with warm and positive parenting, especially if wider circumstances put those children at risk of poor mental health outcomes. “Avoiding a hostile emotional climate at home will not necessarily prevent poor mental health outcomes from occurring, but it will probably help.”

While parenting is widely recognized as a factor that influences children’s mental health, most studies have not investigated how it affects their mental health over time, or how it is related to internalizing symptoms and outsourcing together.

The researchers used data from 7,507 participants in the ’Growing up in Ireland’ longitudinal study of children and young people . Mental health data were collected using a standard assessment tool called the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Each child received a composite score of 10 for their externalizing and internalizing symptoms at ages three, five, and nine years.

A second standard assessment was used to measure the parenting style experienced by the children at age three. Parents were profiled based on their inclination toward each of the three styles: warm parenting (supportive and attentive to their children’s needs); consistent (establish clear expectations and rules); and hostile

The researchers found that, based on the trajectories along which their mental health symptoms developed between ages three and nine, the children fell into three broad categories. The majority (83.5%) were low risk, with low internalizing and externalizing symptom scores at three years, which then decreased or remained stable. A few (6.43%) were mild risk, with high initial scores that decreased over time but remained higher than the first group. The remaining 10.07% were high risk, with high initial scores that increased at nine years.

Hostile parenting increased a child’s chances of being in the high-risk category by 1.5 times, and in the mild-risk category by 1.6 times, at the age of nine. Consistent parenting was found to have a limited protective role, but only against children who fell into the ’mild risk’ category. However, to the researchers’ surprise, warm parenting did not increase the likelihood that children would be in the low-risk group, possibly due to the influence of other factors on mental health outcomes.

Previous research has highlighted the importance of these other factors, many of which the new study also confirmed. Girls, for example, were more likely to be in the high-risk category than boys; Children with single parents were 1.4 times more likely to be at high risk, and those from wealthier backgrounds were less likely to show concerning mental health symptoms in middle childhood.

Katsantonis said the findings underlined the importance of early intervention and support for children at risk of mental health problems, and that this should include personalized support, guidance and training for new parents.

“Appropriate support could be something as simple as giving new parents clear, up-to-date information about how best to manage young children’s behavior in different situations,” she said. “There is clearly a danger that parenting style can exacerbate mental health risks. This is something we can easily take steps to address.”