A new study has found that children with strict parents are more likely to develop depression. There are a million ways to be a good parent, and everyone just does what they think is right for them, their family, and their environment. There is no guidebook on how to do motherhood “right.”
With all the parenting styles out there, it can be hard to know which one is right. Some moms stick to one parenting style, while others choose pieces from different ones to make their own that works best for them. Studies are always being done to see what the impacts of specific parenting styles can be, and this may be mom’s only guide.
According to Study Finds, a new study has found that children with parents who are strict may be more likely to develop depression. This study was done by researchers from the University of Leuven, and it can be read in full here.
The researchers state that parents who take a more authoritarian style can change the wiring of their child’s brain, and it may make them more prone to develop mental health challenges. This specifically applied to parents who used physical punishment and psychological manipulation.
They stated that this changes the brain, and the way it works, and these changes are not seen in children who have a more supportive upbringing, like with gentle parenting. They stated that this could lead to a screening program to help identify individuals who are more at risk of developing depression, or other challenges.
They also state that this goes against a very “old-time” way of parenting, where being strict was the only way to teach a child to be obedient and have good manners. Parents may want to look at other methods of parenting.
To complete this study, the team looked at 23 children between the ages of 12 and 16 who grew up with strict parenting. They compared them with another group of children who said their parents were more supportive and gave them autonomy. When they did genome mapping, they found that the children who grew up with strict parenting had a change in their brain wiring, and this is what made them more vulnerable to depression. These changes were not seen in the other group. The world may be getting close to figuring out which parenting style actually is best when it comes to child development.
Sources: Study Finds, Eureka Alert