FIGHTING PARENTS AFFECT ON CHILD

‘Not in front of the children, darling – it’ll harm their brains’: Bickering parents impair kids’ development, claims study

• Scientists scanned the brains of 58 teenagers between 17 and 19
• Their parents were also asked to list negative events the family experienced before the age of 11
• A total of 27 teenagers were found to have a history of childhood adversity
• Those who faced ‘mild to moderate’ problems had smaller cerebellar
• This can increase the risk of psychiatric problems later in life
• However, a negative event at the age of 14 could in fact benefit the brain
• This is because adversity later in childhood ‘inoculates’ them from problems as adults

The odd argument in front of your
children may not seem like a big deal, but research suggests it could
have an effect in later life. 
Brain
scans have revealed children who experience ‘mild to moderate’ family
problems up to the age of 11 suffer impaired brain development and could
be at risk of psychiatric illness.
These
problems include arguments or tension between parents, physical or
emotional abuse, lack of affection or communication between family
members.
Previous studies
have focused on the impact of severe neglect, abuse and maltreatment on
young children, yet these new findings show even relatively normal
difficulties were enough to have a noticeable effect.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia used imaging technology to scan the brains of 58 teenagers aged 17 to 19.
They
were part of a larger group of 1,200 young people whose parents were
addtionally asked to recall any negative life events their children had
experienced between birth and 11 years of age.
In total, 27 teenagers were found to have had a history of childhood adversity.
Those
who encountered ‘mild to moderate’ family problems when they were
younger than 11 had a smaller cerebellum – a part of the brain linked to
skill learning, stress regulation and sensory motor control.

A small cerebellum may indicate an increased risk of psychiatric problems later in life, said the researchers.

Lead scientist Dr Nicholas Walsh, from
the UEA’s School of Psychology, said: ‘These findings are important
because exposure to adversities in childhood and adolescence is the
biggest risk factor for later psychiatric disease.
‘We
show that exposure in childhood and early adolescence to even mild to
moderate family difficulties – not just severe forms of abuse, neglect
and maltreatment – may affect the developing adolescent brain.’
Teenagers
who had experienced family problems were more likely to have a
diagnosed psychiatric illness, or a parent with a mental health
disorder, or to have a negative view of how their family functioned.
‘It not only
advances our understanding of how the general psychosocial environment
affects brain development, but also suggests links between specific
regions of the brain and individual psychosocial factors,’ continued Dr Walsh.
‘We
know that psychiatric risk factors do not occur in isolation but rather
cluster together, and using a new technique we show how the general
clustering of adversities affects brain development.’
The
research was conducted in collaboration with scientists from Cambridge
University and the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain
Sciences Unit in Cambridge.