How parenting affects antisocial behavior in children

Less parental warmth and more hardness at home affect how children become aggressive and the lack of empathy and moral compass, a set of features known as ruthless traits, according to the conclusions of the University of Pennsylvania. from Michigan and Michigan State University. The work was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry of the Child and Adolescent.

As part of a study conducted by Penn's psychologist Rebecca Waller on 227 pairs of identical twins, the research team analyzed the slight parental differences experienced by each twin to determine whether these differences predicted the probability of occurrence of antisocial behavior. They learned that the twin who had undergone a harsher or harsher treatment and less emotional heat from the parents was more likely to show aggression and traits of UC.

"Some of the early work on insensitive and non-emotional traits focused on their biological bases, such as genetics and the brain, arguing that these traits thrive regardless of what is happening in the environment of the body. 39, child, that parenting does not matter, "Waller says. , Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Penn. "We felt that the environment could prevent something from changing an environment that would prevent a child from engaging in the path of more severe antisocial behavior."

This work is the latest in a series of studies by Waller and his colleagues using observation to evaluate various aspects of parenting. The initial research, which considered an organic parent and child, confirmed that parental warmth plays an important role in the materialization of UC traits.

A subsequent adoption study of parents and unbound children biologically yielded consistent results. "We could not blame this for genetics because these kids do not share the genes with their parents," Waller said. "But that still did not rule out the possibility that something about the child's genetic characteristics elicits some reaction from the adoptive parent." In other words, a warm and positive parent may struggle to maintain these behaviors if the child never returns the favor.

Knowing this, Luke Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, decided to team up with S. Alexandra Burt, co-director of the double register at Michigan State University. Supporting participants aged 6 to 11 from a large ongoing twin study led by Burt, the team turned to identical twins.

For 454 children (227 pairs of identical twins), the parents 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 Hyde, an associate professor in the Michigan Department of Psychology. "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."

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

"From a real world perspective, creating interventions that work in a practical way and are actually able to change behaviors in different types of families is complicated," Waller said. "But these results show that small differences in the way parents take care of their children are important.We are now focusing on adapting already successful parenting programs to include specific interventions focused on hard and non-emotional traits. "

While an intervention with parents may succeed, Hyde and his colleagues point out that work does not blame parents for their child's UC or aggressive behavior. "Our earlier work on adopted children has also shown that genes really matter and that there is therefore a back and forth," he says. "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."

Researchers recognize some limitations of the study, for example the fact that it is strongly oriented towards two-parent families, which means that the conclusions may not be as generalizable as for single-parent families. It also assesses parenting measures and matchmaking behaviors based solely on parenting relationships.

Yet, despite these drawbacks, the researchers explain that this work helps to better understand how different forms of antisocial behavior, such as aggression and hard, emotionless traits, appear. "This clearly shows that parenting also plays an important role in the development of hard, sensual traits," Hyde said. "The good news is that we know that the treatments can help parents who might need extra support for children struggling with these dangerous behaviors."

Explore further:
Adopted preschoolers show more empathy when parents are loving

More information:
Rebecca Waller et al., Parenthood is an environmental predictor of disfiguring traits and callous-nonaffective aggression: a study of monozygotic differences between twins, Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry of the Child and Adolescent (2018). DOI: 10.1016 / j.jaac.2018.07.882