Category: Child Psychology

This parenting style raises delinquent children.

Authoritarian parents are more likely to raise children who are disrespectful and delinquent, research finds.

Parents who are authoritarian tend to have very high standards for their children, punish them severely and are also cold and non-nurturing.

They have no patience with bad behaviour, they don’t trust their children and they do not negotiate.

The problem is that children do not see them as legitimate authority figures — which is what creates problems.

Dr Rick Trinkner, the study’s first author, said:

“When children consider their parents to be legitimate authority figures, they trust the parent and feel they have an obligation to do what their parents tell them to do.

This is an important attribute for any authority figure to possess, as the parent does not have to rely on a system of rewards and punishments to control behavior, and the child is more likely to follow the rules when the parent is not physically present.”

The authoritative parenting style, in comparison to the authoritarian style, is an effective way to raise children.

An authoritative parent can be both controlling and demanding, but is also warm and receptive to children.

Authoritative parents gain their children’s trust by explaining the reasons for the rules and listening to their child’s input.

Dr Trinkner said:

“Our results showed that parental legitimacy was an important mechanism by which parenting styles affected adolescent behavior.”

Adolescents who perceived parents as legitimate were then less likely to engage in delinquent behavior.

Thus, authoritative parenting may be more effective than the other styles because this style makes adolescents more willing to accept their parents’ attempts to socialize them and subsequently follow their rules.”

The conclusions come from data collected through the New Hampshire Youth Study, which looked at the factors affecting adolescent delinquency.

Authoritarian parents were not seen positively by their children, said Dr Trinkner:

“Conversely, authoritarian parents have the opposite effect in that they actually reduce the likelihood of their children perceiving their authority as legitimate.

Adolescents from authoritarian parents are more likely to resist their parents’ attempts at socialization.”

The study was published in the Journal of Adolescence (Trinkner et al., 2012).

How parents quadruple the risk of their children having mental health problems.

Childhood traumas are ‘passed on’ from one generation to the next, new research shows.

Mothers are more likely to ‘pass on’ their trauma to their children than fathers, the study found.

People whose parents suffered four childhood traumas, such as separation of their parents or abuse, were four times more likely to have mental health problems.

Children of parents who had suffered childhood traumas were also at double the risk of developing ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Dr Adam Schickedanz, the study’s first author, said:

“Previous research has looked at childhood trauma as a risk factor for later physical and mental health problems in adulthood, but this is the first research to show that the long-term behavioral health harms of childhood adversity extend across generations from parent to child.”

The results come from a US national survey of four generations of American families.

Details of any childhood abuse, maltreatment or family stressors were collected.

The results revealed a strong link between parents who had experienced abuse as children and behavioural problems in their children.

Dr Schickedanz said:

“If we can identify these children who are at a higher risk, we can connect them to services that might reduce their risk or prevent behavioral health problems.”

The study was published in the journal Pediatrics (Schickedanz et al., 2018).

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 young people do not marry until their early 30s

A few decades ago many would be married in their early 20s.

Young people 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.

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.

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

Up to 1 in 3 people in the US report having been bullied during childhood — most often at middle school.

Bullying is linked to mental health problems in later years, new research finds.

However, these tend to fade over the years, showing the remarkable resilience of many children.

The study followed 11,108 twins who were followed until they were 16-years-old.

Dr Jean-Baptiste Pingault, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Previous studies have shown that bullied children are more likely to suffer mental health issues, but give little evidence of a causal link, as pre-existing vulnerabilities can make children both more likely to be bullied and experience worse mental health outcomes.

We used a robust study design to identify causation.”

Bullying was linked to later conduct problems, depression, anxiety and other psychological problems.

However, five years later, most of these issues had faded away.

Dr Pingault said:

“While our findings show that being bullied leads to detrimental mental health outcomes, they also offer a message of hope by highlighting the potential for resilience.

Bullying certainly causes suffering, but the impact on mental health decreases over time, so children are able to recover in the medium term.

The detrimental effects of bullying show that more needs to be done to help children who are bullied.

In addition to interventions aimed at stopping bullying from happening, we should also support children who have been bullied by supporting resilience processes on their path to recovery.

Our findings highlight the importance of continuous support to mental health care for children and adolescents.”

Dr Sophie Dix, Director of Research at MQ: Transforming Mental Health said:

“This important research is further strong evidence of the need to take the mental health impacts of bullying seriously.

We hope this study provides fresh impetus to make sure young people at risk — and those currently being bullied — get effective help as soon as possible.

More than one in five UK young people say they’ve recently been bullied.

And now this unprecedented study gives the strongest evidence to date that bullying can directly cause many common mental health conditions — and have a serious effect on mental health in the long-term.

But the good news is that it shows that people can and do get better — demonstrating the importance of resilience.

Now we need to understand why this is and develop new ways, through research, to intervene and change lives.”

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (Singham et al., 2017).

The study is one of the few to follow children over a decade.

Spanking can have negative consequences up to 10 years later, new research finds.

The study found that children spanked in infancy had worse behaviour and personalities in their teens.

The study is one of the few to follow children over a decade.

Professor Gustavo Carlo, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Long-term studies on the links among parenting, temperament and children’s social behaviors have been limited, especially among racially diverse, low-income populations.”

The data come from 1,840 mothers and children living below the poverty level.

African-American children were at particular risk.

Those physically disciplined at 15 months were more likely to be delinquent and aggressive in fifth grade.

In European-American children, early spanking was linked to greater negative emotions, such as irritability.

Professor Carlo said:

“Our findings show how parents treat their children at a young age, particularly African-American children significantly impacts their behavior.

It is very important that parents refrain from physical punishment as it can have long-lasting impacts.

If we want to nurture positive behaviors, all parents should teach a child how to regulate their behaviors early.”

The study was published in the journal Developmental Psychology (Streit et al., 2017).

The effect of pressure to be on social media 24/7 on young people’s mental state.

Pressure to be available 24/7 on social media is linked to depression, anxiety and poor sleep amongst teenagers.

Adolescents who are emotionally invested in social media have worse psychological well-being, a new study has found.

They typically felt under pressure to react and respond to texts and posts immediately.

Dr Cleland Woods, the study’s lead author, said:

“Adolescence can be a period of increased vulnerability for the onset of depression and anxiety, and poor sleep quality may contribute to this.

It is important that we understand how social media use relates to these.

Evidence is increasingly supporting a link between social media use and wellbeing, particularly during adolescence, but the causes of this are unclear.”

The study included 467 teenagers who were asked about their social media use and levels of anxiety and depression.

Dr Woods said:

“While overall social media use impacts on sleep quality, those who log on at night appear to be particularly affected.

This may be mostly true of individuals who are highly emotionally invested.

This means we have to think about how our kids use social media, in relation to time for switching off.”

The study was presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference 2015 in Manchester, UK.

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