Parenting and children’s mental health
Adapt the style of parenting to the child’s personality can greatly reduce the risk of depression and anxiety, researchers say.
The three-year study of 214 children and their mothers revealed that a good agreement between parenting styles and personality of the child it reduced the risk of symptoms of depression and anxiety But children in a mismatched relationship had twice the risk symptoms of depression and anxiety. The children had an average age of nine years at baseline from the University of Washington, appearing in the online edition of the August 1 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
“This study moves away from the approach that a parenting style fits all, and gives specific advice to parents on how to mitigate anxiety and depression in their children,” she said in a news release from the University of Washington, lead author Cara Kiff, a resident in psychology from the Faculty of Medicine of the University. “We took into account characteristics that make children vulnerable to anxiety and depression, and include how that shapes the way children react to different parenting methods.”
“We hear a lot of parents who engage in excess, such as ‘tiger mother’ and ‘helicopter parents’” he said in the press release co-author and psychology professor Liliana Lengua. “The instinct of parents is to help and support their children in some way, but not always clear how to do it the best. This research shows that parenting is a balance between intervening or not to guide, support and structured according to provide clues to children “
Children who were better able to control their emotions and behavior were more likely to be anxious or depressed if they had a very controlling father. These children did better emotionally when their mothers gave them some autonomy. But children who were less able to regulate their emotions and actions benefited from more structure and guidance, the researchers found.
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