Warm vs Harsh Parenting Alters Shape of Children’s Brains

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.

At the ages of 3, 5 and 9, the parents and some outside observers reported on the families’ parenting styles, from harsh to warm.

When the children reached the age of 15, their brains were scanned with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to understand the shape and structure of their brains, and at the age of 21, the young people reported their own symptoms of anxiety and depression.

As this study used a significant amount of self-reported data, some inaccuracies or biases may have been in the results. However, when the team analyzed their data, they found significant differences in brain architecture associated with particular parenting styles.

Specifically, psychologically aggressive parenting during early childhood (age 3) was associated with brain-wide segregation—meaning areas of the brain were more specialized for specific functions—and small-worldness, where most brain regions were not directly connected but could be reached in a few steps, allowing for communication between different areas of the brain.

In later childhood (age 9), psychologically aggressive parenting was associated with less connectivity between the prefrontal cortex—involved in decision-making, reasoning, and controlling emotions—and the amygdala, which is key for processing emotions, especially fear and stress. Better connectivity between these areas is associated with better management of our emotions.

Warm parenting during middle childhood (age 5) was associated with more amygdala centrality—meaning the amygdala played a more important role in the processing of emotions—and less prefrontal cortex centrality, meaning this part of the brain played a less important role. This could lead to a child being more emotionally driven or reactive.

This study was conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan; the University of Maryland; Yale University, Connecticut; Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts; Purdue University, Indiana; University of the West of England, U.K.; and Columbia University, New York.

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Reference

Michael, C., Gard, A. M., Tillem, S., Hardi, F A., Dunn, E.C., Smith, A.D.C., McLoyd, V. C., Brooks-Gunn, J., Mitchell, C., Monk, C. S., Hyde, L. W. (2024). Developmental Timing of Associations Among Parenting, Brain Architecture, and Mental Health, JAMA Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.4376