New research has found that children whose parents were moderately or very harsh tended to exhibit worse emotion regulation, lower self-esteem, and more peer relationship problems. They also scored lower on prosocial behavior scales. The paper was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Harsh parenting is a parenting style characterized by the frequent use of physical punishment, verbal aggression, criticism, and an overall lack of warmth or support from a parent toward a child. Harsh parents often yell at their children, spank them, shame them, and dismiss their emotional needs. Estimates suggest that around 50% of children worldwide are subjected to harsh parenting.
Harsh parenting can negatively affect a child’s emotional and psychological development, leading to issues such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. It may also impair the child’s ability to develop healthy relationships and self-regulation skills later in life. Long-term exposure to harsh parenting has been linked to increased stress levels, behavioral problems, and poorer academic performance in children.
Study author Mariana Otero Xavier and her colleagues sought to explore the influence of harsh parenting during childhood and adolescence on socioemotional competencies, including emotion regulation, self-esteem, prosocial behavior, and peer relationship problems at the age of 18. They analyzed data from the longitudinal 2004 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort study.
The 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort is a prospective, population-based study of all live births from January 1 to December 31, 2004, in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. The study included 4,231 newborns (99.2% of total births that year). The goal of the study was to explore how early-life exposures affect health outcomes and assess disparities in health conditions related to social inequalities. Mothers participating in the study first completed questionnaires after delivering their baby and then on nine other occasions until their child was 18 years old. At 18, children also completed a set of assessments.
From this dataset, the authors of this analysis used data on parenting harshness derived from responses to the Conflict Tactics Scale Parent-to-Child version, completed by parents or caregivers, mostly biological mothers. Data on children’s prosocial behavior and peer relationship problems were obtained from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, also completed by caregivers. Additionally, data were drawn from the participating children’s (now 18-year-old young adults) responses to assessments of emotion regulation (the Emotional Regulation Index for Children and Adolescents) and self-esteem (the self-report Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). All the necessary data were available from 3,489 participants.
The results showed that 50% of children had parents who were not harsh (“low harsh parenting”), 45% had parents who were moderately harsh, and 5% had parents who were very harsh (“high harsh parenting”). Children of moderately and very harsh parents tended to have lower scores in emotion regulation, self-esteem, and prosocial behavior scales. They also had higher scores on peer relationship problems.
“We identified a small but important group of children experiencing chronic high harsh parenting and, for this group, socioemotional competences were particularly compromised. Our study also showed that adolescents from not only high harsh parenting but also on moderate harsh parenting trajectories presented more socioemotional difficulties than those on a low harsh parenting trajectory,” the study authors concluded.
“Given the potential long-term impacts of harsh parenting on offspring’s competences, early identification, appropriate intervention, and follow-up must be a key priority.”
The study sheds light on the long-term effects of harsh parenting. However, it should be noted that all the study data came from self-reports, leaving room for reporting bias to have influenced the results. At least part of the results might be due to harsh parents giving harsher evaluations of their children due to their critical and punitive mindset. They may have focused on their child’s perceived shortcomings rather than strengths, exaggerating negative behaviors or underestimating positive traits. Children subjected to harsh parenting might have shown a similar tendency in their responses.
The paper, “Harsh parenting trajectories from childhood through adolescence and socioemotional competences at age 18: 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study,” was authored by Mariana Otero Xavier, Luciana Tovo-Rodrigues, Ina S. Santos, Joseph Murray, Jessica Mayumi Maruyama, and Alicia Matijasevich.