According to research, harsh discipline can increase the risk of children developing long-term mental health problems. Numerous studies have discovered a link between harsh or punitive parenting styles and negative psychological outcomes in children.
According to new research, harsh parental discipline puts young children at a higher risk of developing long-term mental health problems. A study of over 7,500 children in Ireland discovered that children exposed to ‘hostile’ parenting at the age of three were 1.5 times more likely to have ‘high risk’ mental health symptoms at the age of nine. Hostile parenting involves harsh treatment on a regular basis, such as shouting at children or isolating them as a punishment, or unpredictable treatment based on the parent’s mood. While parenting is only one factor that influences mental health, the study suggests that mental health professionals and educators be aware of its potential impact.
New research indicates that parents who frequently use harsh discipline on their young children put them at a significantly higher risk of developing long-term mental health problems. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and University College Dublin discovered that children exposed to ‘hostile’ parenting at the age of three were 1.5 times more likely than their peers to have mental health symptoms classified as ‘high risk’ by the age of nine.
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.
Ioannis Katsantonis
Hostile parenting involves harsh treatment and discipline on a regular basis, which can be physical or psychological. It could include, for example, shouting at children on a regular basis, routine physical punishment, isolating children when they misbehave, damaging their self-esteem, or punishing children in an unpredictable manner based on the parent’s mood.
The researchers tracked children’s mental health symptoms at three, five, and nine years old. They looked at both internalizing (such as anxiety and social withdrawal) and externalizing (such as impulsive and aggressive behavior and hyperactivity).
Approximately 10% of the children were found to be at high risk for poor mental health. Children who had experienced hostile parenting were significantly more likely to fall into this category. The study also shows that parenting style does not completely determine mental health outcomes. Multiple risk factors influence children’s mental health, including gender, physical health, and socioeconomic status.
However, the researchers argue that mental health professionals, teachers, and other practitioners should be aware of the potential impact of parenting on a child who exhibits signs of poor mental health. They add that providing additional support to parents of children who are already considered at risk may help to prevent these issues from developing.
Ioannis Katsantonis, a doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, and Jennifer Symonds, an Associate Professor in the UCD School of Education, conducted the research. The findings were published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences.
“The fact that one in ten children is at high risk for mental health problems is concerning, and we should be aware of the role parenting may play in that,” Katsantonis said. “We are not suggesting that parents should not set firm boundaries for their children’s behavior, but frequent harsh discipline is difficult to justify given the implications for mental health.”
Symonds 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.”
While parenting is widely acknowledged as a factor influencing children’s mental health, few studies have looked at how it affects their mental health over time or how it relates to both internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
The researchers used data from 7,507 children and young people in the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ longitudinal study. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a standard assessment tool, was used to collect mental health data. At the ages of three, five, and nine, each child was assigned a composite score of ten for externalizing and internalizing symptoms.
A second standard assessment was used to assess the parenting style that children experienced at three years old. Parents were profiled based on how much they leaned toward one of three parenting styles: warm parenting (supportive and attentive to their child’s needs), consistent parenting (establishing clear expectations and rules), and hostile parenting.
The researchers discovered that the children fell into three broad categories based on the trajectories along which their mental health symptoms developed between the ages of three and nine. The majority (83.5%) were low risk, with low internalizing and externalizing symptom scores at three that fell or remained stable. A small percentage (6.43%) were at low risk, with high initial scores that fell over time but remained higher than the first group. The remaining 10.07% were high-risk, with high initial scores that increased by age nine.
By age nine, hostile parenting increased a child’s chances of being in the high-risk category by 1.5 times and the chances of being in the mild-risk category by 1.6 times. Consistent parenting was found to have a limited protective role, but only against ‘mild-risk’ children. Warm parenting, however, did not increase the likelihood of children being in the low-risk group, which surprised the researchers, possibly due to the influence of other factors on mental health outcomes.
