Harsh parenting practices in childhood have long-term repercussions for children’s brain development, a study has shown.
Repeatedly getting angry, hitting, shaking or yelling at children is linked with smaller brain structures in adolescence, according to a new study published in Development and Psychopathology.
It was conducted by Sabrina Suffren, PhD, at Université de Montréal and the CHU Sainte‑Justine Research Centre in partnership with researchers from Stanford University.
Harsh parenting style
The harsh parenting practices covered by the study are common and even considered socially acceptable by many people around the world.
“The implications go beyond changes in the brain. I think what’s important is for parents and society to understand that the frequent use of harsh parenting practices can harm a child’s development,” said Suffren, the study’s lead author.
“We’re talking about their social and emotional development, as well as their brain development.”
In this study, researchers observed that the same brain regions were smaller in adolescents who had repeatedly been subjected to harsh parenting practices in childhood, even though the children did not experience more serious acts of abuse.
Significant revelations
“These findings are both significant and new. It’s the first time that harsh parenting practices that fall short of serious abuse have been linked to decreased brain structure size, similar to what we see in victims of serious acts of abuse,” said Suffren, who completed the work as part of her doctoral thesis at UdeM’s Department of Psychology, under the supervision of Professors Françoise Maheu and Franco Lepore.
She added that a study published in 2019 “showed that harsh parenting practices could cause changes in brain function among children, but now we know that they also affect the very structure of children’s brains.”
This study is the first to try to identify the links between harsh parenting practices, children’s anxiety and the anatomy of their brains.
