The way you choose to parent your children may literally shape their brains, a new study by scientists in the U.S. and England has found.
Neuroscientists tested the effect of warm parenting, compared to harsher styles—defined as responsive versus psychologically or physically aggressive—on 173 young people’s brains and mental health, from the ages of 3 to 21 years old.
They found that the “architecture” of the brains was different, depending on how that young person had been parented, affecting the connectivity and specialization of different regions of the brain, and how the children processed emotions.
Harsh parenting in early childhood was associated with widespread differences in brain development, and harsh parenting in later childhood was associated with differences in more specific parts of the brain related to emotional regulation, the neuroscientists found.
Those who received warmer parenting in middle childhood tended to have differences in specific parts of the brain related to emotions—and they reported lower levels of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scientists used data from the Future of Families and Child Well-being Study, collected between February 1998 and June 2021, and involving low-income families from Detroit; Toledo, Ohio; and Chicago.