Harsh Parenting in the 21st Century: Exploring Genetics, Cultural Factors, and the Mental Health Sequelae

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

There is strong evidence that harsh and inconsistent parenting, including child maltreatment, can place children at risk for negative developmental consequences, including internalizing and externalizing problems, mental health difficulties, and increased aggression. However, many children around the world continue to be subject to harsh and inconsistent parenting, necessitating further advances in research on factors that could contribute to parents’ reliance on such forms of parenting, and the nuanced implications of such parenting practices for child development.

Our symposium provides novel insights into the genetic and environmental contributions to, and the developmental sequelae of, harsh and inconsistent parenting through four papers. Three papers capitalize on large-scale cohort studies in The Netherlands, Singapore, and Norway, and one paper involves an umbrella review of existing meta-analyes comprising more than 11 million participants.

Paper 1 examines parental genetic factors predicting harsh discipline in the Generation R cohort study in The Netherlands and the Connect study in Canada. Paper 2 finds high prevalence of parental physical discipline in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes cohort study in Singapore, where strict discipline could be perceived as reflective of care due to cultural norms. Paper 3 finds moderate associations between child maltreatment and mental health difficulties and neurodevelopmental outcomes in a systematic umbrella review of 98 quantitative reviews. Finally, Paper 4 will estimate the direction of effects between inconsistent parenting and child externalizing behaviors, while accounting for genetic confounding through an extended family design, in the Norwegian Mother Father and Child Cohort Study in Norway.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chairs

• Henning Tiemeier

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University

Individual Presentations

• Genetics and Culture in Harsh Parenting - Presenting Author: Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, ISPA Lisbon; Irene Pappa, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Colin Ross, University of British Columbia; Jana Runze, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Katherine O'Donnell; Marlene M. Moretti, Simon Fraser University; Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, University College London (UCL)

• Parental Physical Discipline in Singapore - Presenting Author: Mioko Sudo, Nanyang Technological University; Ying Qing Won, Nanyang Technological University; Winnie W. Y. Chau, National University of Singapore; Helen Chen; Anne Elise Rifkin-Graboi, National Institute of Education; Henning Tiemeier; Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University

• Umbrella Review of the Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Sequelae of Child Maltreatment - Presenting Author: Barry Coughlan, University of Cambridge; Robbie Duschinsky, University of Cambridge; Lianne Bakkum, University of Cambridge; Guy Skinner, University of Cambridge; Alfred Markham, University of Southampton; Helen Beckwith, University of Oxford; Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, ISPA Lisbon; Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, University College London (UCL)

• A Genetically Informed Investigation into the Bidirectional Links Between Parenting Style and Child Externalizing Behaviours - Presenting Author: Joanna Bright, King’s College London; Yasmin Ahmadzadeh, King's College London; Olakunle A. Oginni, King’s College London/Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Essi Viding, University College London; Eivind Ystrøm, University of Oslo; Tom McAdams, King's College London