Study finds link between anti-social behavior in children and parenthood – Xinhua

Children and parents make cosmic kaleidoscopes at the family's Mid-Autumn Festival at the Museum of Chinese America (MOCA) in New York, USA, on September 22, 2018. (Xinhua) / Wang Ying)

CHICAGO, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) – A study reveals that children are becoming less aggressive and that they lack empathy and moral compass, namely less parental warmth and more harshness at home.

Researchers from the University of Michigan (UM), the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University studied 227 pairs of identical twins.

They analyzed the slight parental differences experienced by each twin to determine whether these differences predict the likelihood of antisocial behavior.

They found that the twin who had undergone tighter or harder treatment and less emotive warmth from parents was more likely to show aggression and a lack of empathy and moral compass. , a set of features known as merciless traits.

The parents of the twins completed a questionnaire of 50 questions about the family environment. They also established their hardness and warmth levels by noting 24 statements such as "I often lose my temper with my child" and "My child knows I like him".

The researchers evaluated the children's behavior by asking the mother to report 35 characters related to the aggressiveness and traits of the CU.

"The study convincingly shows that parenting, not just genes, contributes to the development of insensitive and insensitive risk traits," said Luke Hyde, an associate professor of psychology at UM. "Since identical twins have the same DNA, we can be more certain that the differences in parenting received by twins affect the development of these traits."

A potential next step is to turn these findings into actionable interventions for families trying to prevent a child from developing such traits or to improve troubling behaviors that have already begun.

Although intervention with parents may be successful, the researchers point out that the work does not blame parents for their child's UC or aggressive behavior. "Our previous work on adopted children also showed that genes really matter and that there was therefore a back and forth," Hyde said. "Some children may be more difficult to raise.The most important message is that treatments that work with parents can probably help, even for the most at-risk kids."

The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.