Less affectionate and harsh behavior towards children can make them aggressive and anti-social

Parents, take note. A new study has revealed that your less affectionate and harder behavior towards your children can make them aggressive and antisocial. The findings suggest that less parental warmth and more harshness at home affect the aggressive behavior of children and their lack of empathy and moral compass – a set of features known as ruthless traits.

"The study convincingly shows that parenting – not just genes – contributes to the development of insensitive and insensitive risk traits," said co-author Luke Hyde, associate professor at the University of Toronto. Michigan, United States.

"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," Hyde added.

For the study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the research team included 227 pairs of identical twins.

The team analyzed the slight parental differences that each twin experienced to determine whether these differences predicted the probability of emergence of antisocial behavior. They also assessed the children's behavior by asking the mother to report on 35 traits related to aggression and UC traits.

The researchers found that twins subjected to stricter or harsher treatment and less emotional heat from parents were more likely to show aggressiveness and traits of UC.

A subsequent adoption study of parents and unbound children biologically yielded consistent results.

"We can not go after that genetics because these kids do not share the genes with their parents," said lead author Rebecca Waller, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

"But it still did not exclude the possibility that the child's genetic characteristics elicit certain reactions from the adoptive parent," Waller added.

In other words, a warm and positive parent may have a hard time maintaining these behaviors if the child never reciprocates, noted the researchers.

Source: IANS

Posted: 15 October 2018 07:26 | Updated: October 15, 2018 at 7:27 am