Category: Child Psychology

Why A Happy Childhood Isn’t Enough For Good Mental Health

Mental health problems can strike anyone.

Mental health problems can strike anyone.

A happy childhood does not guarantee against developing mental health problems later on.

Even people who experience many positive early childhood experiences can go on to develop anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues.

This shows how mental health problems can strike anyone.

The research also reaffirms the connection between negative childhood experiences and mental health problems, like depression and paranoia.

While childhood experiences can set the tone for our lives, they do not determine our destiny.

Instead, our mental health often hinges on our ability to adapt to stressful circumstances in adulthood.

Those who struggle to cope are more likely to succumb to these conditions.

The conclusions come from a study that tracked over 300 children in Australia.

Ms Bianca Kahl, the study’s first author, said:

“This research shows that mental health conditions are not solely determined by early life events, and that a child who is raised in a happy home, could still grow up to have a mental health disorder.

There’s certainly some missing factors in understanding how our childhood environment and early life experiences might translate into mental health outcomes in adulthood.

We suspect that it’s our expectations about our environments and our ability to adapt to scenarios when our expectations are not being met, that may be influencing our experiences of distress.

If, as children, we learn how to adapt to change, and we learn how to cope when things do not go our way, we may be in a better position to respond to stress and other risk factors for poor mental health.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Current Psychology (Kahl et al., 2020).

The Poop Paradox: How Parenthood Rewires Your Brain’s Disgust Response (M)

Something merciful happens to parents’ brains after years of diaper duty.

Something merciful happens to parents' brains after years of diaper duty.

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The Age At Which People Now Become Adults

There is something very strange happening to adolescence.

There is something very strange happening to adolescence.

The period of adolescence is lasting much longer than it used to, according to some psychologists.

Traditionally, the period of adolescence — when people transition to adulthood — ended at 19 years old.

Now some researchers believe this transition is not happening until 24 years old.

Many now do not marry until their early 30s, compared with a few decades ago, when many would be married in their early 20s.

Todays young adults are also living with their parents longer than they used to.

They are having children later and spending longer in education.

Many young people in the UK do not leave home until they are 25 years old, on average.

Professor Susan Sawyer, the study’s first author, said:

“Age definitions are always arbitrary, but our current definition of adolescence is overly restricted.

The ages of 10-24 years are a better fit with the development of adolescents nowadays.”

The study’s authors write:

“An expanded and more inclusive definition of adolescence is essential for developmentally appropriate framing of laws, social policies, and service systems.

Rather than age 10–19 years, a definition of 10–24 years corresponds more closely to adolescent growth and popular understandings of this life phase and would facilitate extended investments across a broader range of settings.

Related

The study was published in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health (Sawyer et al., 2018).

The Personality Trait That Makes Children Smarter

The children ate better, slept better and were in stronger control of their emotions.

The children ate better, slept better and were in stronger control of their emotions.

Mothers who believe they have control over their lives raise smarter children.

Psychologists call it an ‘internal locus of control’ and people with this trait do not blame outside forces, or fate.

Instead, they believe in choice and consequences.

Mothers who think like this have children who score better in tests of maths and science.

These mothers were also more likely to:

  • feed their children brain-healthy diets,
  • read stories to them,
  • and show interest in their school work.

As a result of believing that what they do matters, children eat better, sleep better and are in stronger control of their emotions.

Professor Jean Golding, the study’s first author, said:

“It is widely known that the locus of control of a child is strongly associated with their academic achievements but until now we didn’t know if mothers’ locus of control orientation during pregnancy had a role to play in early childhood.

Thanks to the longitudinal data from Children of the 90s study we can now make these associations.”

The Children of the 90s study started with 14,541 pregnant women in England who have been followed since 1992.

The results showed that mothers who had an internal locus of control brought up smarter children.

Professor Stephen Nowicki, study co-author, said:

“Internal parents believe that they have behavioural choices in life.

…when they expect life outcomes to be linked to what they do their children eat better, sleep better and are better able to control their emotions.

Such children later in childhood are also more likely to have greater academic achievements, fewer school related personal and social difficulties and less likelihood of being obese.

Parents are not necessarily stuck with how their current locus of control, said Professor Nowicki:

“It is possible for a parent to change their outlook; we’ve demonstrated in the past that parents who become more internal (i.e. learn to see the connections between what they do and what happens to their children) improved their parenting skills which would have a positive effect on their children’s personal, social and academic lives.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (Golding et al., 2019).

An Early Childhood Indicator Of Poor Mental Health Later On

A common childhood complaint that hints at depression and anxiety later on.

A common childhood complaint that hints at depression and anxiety later on.

Stomach aches, nausea and other gut problems in childhood could indicate mental health problems later on.

The study of children who were separated from their biological parents at a young age found they experienced more gut problems.

Brain scans revealed that gut problems were also linked to abnormal activity in parts of the brain that process emotions.

The finding raises the prospect that probiotics may help treat some people.

The gut-brain link is underlined by the fact that over half of adults with irritable bowel syndrome have a history of trauma or abuse.

This is twice the rate of those without childhood traumas.

Professor Nim Tottenham, study co-author, said:

“One common reason children show up at doctors’ offices is intestinal complaints.

Our findings indicate that gastrointestinal symptoms in young children could be a red flag to primary care physicians for future emotional health problems.”

The study included 115 adopted children and 229 children raised by their biological parents.

The results showed that children with disrupted childhoods were more likely to suffer from constipation, stomach aches, nausea and vomiting.

Dr Bridget Callaghan, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study is among the first to link disruption of a child’s gastrointestinal microbiome triggered by early-life adversity with brain activity in regions associated with emotional health.”

The researchers took a closer look at 8 children from each group, carrying out brain scans and gene sequencing.

These demonstrated that those with disrupted childhoods had less diversity of bacteria in their gut.

Brain scans showed that patterns of activity were also linked to the types of bacteria in their gut.

Professor Tottenham explained:

“It is too early to say anything conclusive, but our study indicates that adversity-associated changes in the gut microbiome are related to brain function, including differences in the regions of the brain associated with emotional processing.”

The research suggests probiotics may help some people, said Dr Callaghan:

“Animal studies tell us that dietary interventions and probiotics can manipulate the gut microbiome and ameliorate the effects of adversity on the central nervous system, especially during the first years of life when the developing brain and microbiome are more plastic.

It is possible that this type of research will help us to know if and how to best intervene in humans, and when.”

The study was published in the journal Development and Psychopathology (Callaghan et al., 2019).

These Childhood Memories Are Signs Of Good Adult Mental Health

These memories are linked to good mental health.

These memories are linked to good mental health.

Fond memories of childhood are a sign of good mental health in adulthood.

In particular, memories of warm parental relationships are linked to lower depression and fewer chronic illnesses in adulthood.

Dr William J. Chopik, the study’s first author, said:

“We know that memory plays a huge part in how we make sense of the world—how we organize our past experiences and how we judge how we should act in the future.

As a result, there are a lot of different ways that our memories of the past can guide us.

We found that good memories seem to have a positive effect on health and well-being, possibly through the ways that they reduce stress or help us maintain healthy choices in life.”

Affection and support

For the study, data was taken from two large samples, including over 22,000 people.

The results showed that people who remembered more affection from their mothers experienced less depression in later life, along with fewer physical problems.

Those that remembered more support from their fathers had lower depressive symptoms in adulthood.

Dr Chopik said:

“The most surprising finding was that we thought the effects would fade over time because participants were trying to recall things that happened sometimes over 50 years ago.

One might expect childhood memories to matter less and less over time, but these memories still predicted better physical and mental health when people were in middle age and older adulthood.”

A loving relationship with your mother was especially important, said Dr Chopik:

“These results may reflect the broader cultural circumstances of the time when the participants were raised because mothers were most likely the primary caregivers.

With shifting cultural norms about the role of fathers in caregiving, it is possible that results from future studies of people born in more recent years will focus more on relationships with their fathers.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Health Psychology (Chopik & Edelstein, 2018).

The Brains Of Psychopathic Children Are Smaller

Cold and unemotional children tend to have smaller brains along with differences in functional connectivity.

Cold and unemotional children tend to have smaller brains along with differences in functional connectivity.

Children with psychopathic tendencies have widespread differences in the structure of their brain.

Fledgling psychopaths have smaller brains and unusual functional connectivity.

The findings could help explain why some children seem to lack empathy and show little remorse — too key components of psychopathy.

It suggest some children are born with psychopathic tendencies.

Dr John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry, said:

“How is it that some children are born with an indifference to the suffering of others?

This is an important scientific question about the neural basis for empathy.

It is also an important humanistic question as the lack of a capacity for empathy presents a fundamental challenge to living collaboratively within a community.

This study highlights important deficits affecting higher brain centers that may contribute to callousness.”

The study involved over 2,000 10-year-old children whose brains were scanned to look for structural differences.

The results showed that cold and unemotional children tended to have smaller brains along with differences in how areas of their brain were connected.

Critical differences were seen in areas of the brain important for decision making, behavioural and emotional control.

Dr Koen Bolhuis, the study’s first author, said:

“In addition, our study was the first to examine neuroanatomical features of callous traits in a sample with an equal distribution of boys and girls, making it possible to test for sex differences.

This could mean that the brain development related to callous traits differs for girls and boys.”

The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry (Bolhuis et al., 2018).

This Parenting Style Increases Child’s Risk Of Mental Health Issues 150%

The research included over 7,000 children aged 3, 5 and 9 who were tracked as part of the ‘Growing Up In Ireland’ study.

The research included over 7,000 children aged 3, 5 and 9 who were tracked as part of the ‘Growing Up In Ireland‘ study.

Hostile parenting styles increase the chances of children developing mental health issues by 150 percent.

Hostile parenting can involve routine physical punishment, regularly shouting at children, breaking down their self-esteem and handing out random punishments on a whim.

In many ways psychological hostility can be as bad as, or worse, than physical hostility, studies have frequently found.

The research included over 7,000 children aged 3, 5 and 9 who were tracked as part of the ‘Growing Up In Ireland‘ study.

The results showed that 10 percent of children were at high risk for mental health issues.

The research covered all kinds of issues:

  • internalising symptoms: social withdrawal and anxiety.
  • externalising symptoms: aggression, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

Mr Ioannis Katsantonis, the study’s first author, said:

“The fact that one in 10 children were in the high-risk category for mental health problems is a concern and we ought to be aware of the part parenting may play in that.

We are not for a moment suggesting that parents should not set firm boundaries for their children’s behavior, but it is difficult to justify frequent harsh discipline, given the implications for mental health.”

The study assessed parents on how much they used these three parenting styles:

  • Warm parenting: supportive of the child’s needs.
  • Consistent: setting clear boundaries and expectations.
  • Hostile: psychologically and/or physically malevolent.

Hostile parenting, the researchers founds, increased the risk of children experiencing mental health issues at age 9 by 150 percent.

However, parenting style was not the only factor: those from less wealthy homes, single-parent families and female children were at a higher risk of mental health problems.

Dr Jennifer Symonds, study co-author, said:

“Our findings underline the importance of doing everything possible to ensure that parents are supported to give their children a warm and positive upbringing, especially if wider circumstances put those children at risk of poor mental health outcomes.

Avoiding a hostile emotional climate at home won’t necessarily prevent poor mental health outcomes from occurring, but it will probably help.”

Children at risk should be given appropriate support, said Mr Katsantonis:

“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.

There is clearly a danger that parenting style can exacerbate mental health risks.

This is something we can easily take steps to address.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences (Katsantonis & Symonds, 2023).

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