Parenting can affect the odds of antisocial behavior in children

The results of a new study revealed that the way parents manage their children at home can have a significant impact that can affect children's chances of empathy and lack of guilt.

In a new research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry of the Child and Adolescent, The researchers found that less parental warmth and harsher home environments can contribute to children's aggression.

Parenting also helps determine whether children lack empathy and moral compass, a group of characteristics that characterize ruthless traits.

Rebecca Waller, of the University of Pennsylvania, and her colleagues interviewed 227 pairs of identical twins to determine whether small differences in parenting experienced by each twin can predict the chances of anti-social behaviors emerge.

Waller and his colleagues learned that the twin who received harsher or harsher treatment and less emotional warmth from parents tended to be more likely to exhibit aggression traits and traits. 39; UC.

"Parenthood is related to the characteristics of the child's UC and to aggression, in addition to the genetic-mediated effects, a weak parental warmth being a unique environmental correlate of CU traits," Waller wrote. and his colleagues in their study published on October 9th.

The work is part of a series of studies conducted by researchers to evaluate different aspects of parenting.

Initial research involving parents and biological children revealed that parental warmth plays an important role in the development of CU traits. A subsequent study involving children and parents who were not biologically related to them showed similar results.

In the new study, researchers asked parents of 227 pairs of identical twins to complete a 50-question questionnaire about their home environment. The participants also established their level of warmth and hardness by noting the statements in the questionnaire.

The researchers then assessed the child's behavior by asking the mother to report 35 characters associated with the aggression and CU.

The findings revealed that parenthood, not just genes, plays a role in the development of UC risk traits.

"Because identical twins have the same DNA, we can be more confident that the differences in parenting received by twins affect the development of these traits," said Luke Hyde, of the University of Michigan, in a statement. release published by the University of Pennsylvania.

In a 2017 interview with The telegraphStephen Scott, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said that in extreme cases, children with UC traits could become a criminal psychopath later in life.