Child Psychology - Page 5 of 19

How Family Problems In Childhood Affect Brain Development

Early life stress has this worrying effect on the brain.

Stress in childhood can put you at greater risk of depression later on, research finds.

Early life stress can affect how DNA is expressed and make an organism more susceptible to stress in adult life.

The conclusions come from an epigenetic study of mice.

The study looked at the effect of molecules that regulate our DNA.

Researchers found that mice exposed to stress early in life were more likely to show signs of depression when stressed as adults.

These changes were also linked to genetic differences.

Dr Catherine Peña, who led the study, said:

“Our work identifies a molecular basis for stress during a sensitive developmental window that programs a mouse’s response to stress in adulthood.
We discovered that disrupting maternal care of mice produces changes in levels of hundreds of genes in the VTA that primes this brain region to be in a depression-like state, even before we detect behavioral changes.
Essentially, this brain region encodes a lifelong, latent susceptibility to depression that is revealed only after encountering additional stress.”

The critical transcription factor is called orthodenticle homeobox 2 (Otx2).

A transcription factor helps to control the way our genes are expressed in our body.

This transcription factor did not just influence the mice in infancy, Dr Peña said:

“We anticipated that we would only be able to ameliorate or mimic the effects of early life stress by changing Otx2 levels during the early sensitive period.
This was true for long-lasting effects on depression-like behavior, but somewhat to our surprise we could also change stress sensitivity for short amounts of time by manipulating Otx2 in adulthood.”

Professor Eric J. Nestler, who led the study, explained the ultimate aim of the research:

“This mouse paradigm will be useful for understanding the molecular correlates of increased risk of depression resulting from early life stress and could pave the way to look for such sensitive windows in human studies.
The ultimate translational goal of this research is to aid treatment discoveries relevant to individuals who experienced childhood stress and trauma.”

The study was published in the journal Science (Peña et al., 2017).

This Common Parenting Mistake Could Raise Children Prone To Lying (M)

Grown-ups may have to think twice about what they say to children.

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This Parenting Method Is Linked To Higher IQ

This parenting strategy leads to children with IQs 6 points higher.

Children raised by nurturing parents develop higher IQs, research finds.

Many of the children in the study, who were raised in Brazil and South Africa, had faced considerable adversity, such as poverty and low birth weight.

But when they experienced responsive caregiving and the opportunity to learn, it was possible for them to reach their full potential.

Responsive caregiving involves being sensitive to the needs of the child and knowing how to respond to them.

Typical nurturing activities include reading to the child, playing games with letters and numbers as well as singing songs together.

Professor Maureen Black, study co-author, said:

“We found that adolescents who were raised in nurturing environments had IQ scores that were on average 6 points higher than those who were not.
This is a striking difference that has profound implications by increasing the intelligence of entire communities.
A nurturing environment also led to better growth and fewer psycho-social difficulties in adolescence, but it did not mitigate the effects of early adversities on growth and psycho-social difficulties.”

The research included over 1,600 children who were tracked from birth to their teenage years.

Both prenatal and early life adversity tends to lower IQ and is linked to problems adjusting psychologically.

However, a nurturing environment created by caregivers counteracts the disadvantages of early adversity.

Professor Black said:

“I think our findings could apply to communities here in the U.S. where children are hungry, living in poverty or lacking in access to medical care.”

Getting involved with children is the key, said Professor Black:

“Get children involved in friendly activities as much as possible rather than parking them in front of a screen.
Children love to learn and in a nurturing environment they can grow into adolescents and adults with the abilities to care for themselves, their families, and their communities.”

The study was published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health (Trude et al., 2020).

How Parents ‘Pass On’ Empathic Ability To Their Children & Grandchildren (M)

Learn the science-backed methods for nurturing empathy in your children.

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This Is How Long Childhood Bullying Echoes Through Adulthood (M)

The shocking truth about how childhood bullying affects adults four decades later.

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Why People Who Are Bullied Develop Relationship Problems (M)

How bullying in adolescence plants seeds of suspicion that lead to mental health struggles later in life.

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The Childhood Sign That Your Adult Relationships Will Last (M)

The one thing that predicts satisfying romantic relationships.

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Human Consciousness May Emerge At Birth — Or Perhaps Before (M)

Until the 1980s, doctors regularly performed operations on newborns without anaesthetics, because they were assumed to lack awareness.

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How Parents Raise Selfish, Uncaring, Unhelpful Children (M)

To what extent are prosociality and mental health fixed traits, or do they change with circumstances?

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Happier People Are Raised By Parents Who Do These 3 Things

The largest household panel survey reveals how parents raise happy children.

Children grow up happier when their mother is happy in her relationship.

Fully 73 percent of people whose mothers were ‘perfectly happy’ in their relationship say they are ‘completely happy’ with their family situation.

This is just one of the factors in a family that predicts which children grow up to be happier.

The others are: avoiding regular arguments and eating at least three evening meals together a week.

Arguing more than once a week with parents was linked to much lower levels of happiness among children.

The researchers also found that having no younger siblings was also beneficial for later happiness.

Older siblings, though, had no effect on happiness.

Dr Maria Iacovou, a study author, said:

“At a time when there is widespread political concern about ‘Broken Britain’, these findings show that family relationships and the happiness of parents are key to the happiness of young people.
Contrary to the popular belief that children only want to spend time playing videogames or watching TV we found that they were most happy when interacting with their parents or siblings.”

The conclusions come from a long-running UK study called ‘Understanding Society’.

It is the largest household panel survey in the world, which will follow over 40,000 households over a number of years.

These findings are based on a sample of over 10,000 men, women and children.

Dr Iacovou said:

“Together these findings reveal the complex influences of different family relationships on a child’s happiness.
Over the years, as Understanding Society follows the lives of families in the UK, we’ll build up an even better picture of how children’s lives are affected by all kinds of factors.
Understanding Society is really set to become a fantastic resource for anyone interested in the well-being of children.”

The study was published by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) (Ermisch et al., 2011).