Observed Measures of Negative Parenting Predict Brain Development during Adolescence.

Sarah Whittle,Nandita Vijayakumar,Orli Schwartz,Meg Dennison,Julian G Simmons,Nicholas B Allen,Lisa Sheeber,Cheryl S Rosenfeld

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147774

Abstract

Limited attention has been directed toward the influence of non-abusive parenting behaviour on brain structure in adolescents. It has been suggested that environmental influences during this period are likely to impact the way that the brain develops over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between aggressive and positive parenting behaviors on brain development from early to late adolescence, and in turn, psychological and academic functioning during late adolescence, using a multi-wave longitudinal design. Three hundred and sixty seven magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained over three time points from 166 adolescents (11–20 years). At the first time point, observed measures of maternal aggressive and positive behaviors were obtained. At the final time point, measures of psychological and academic functioning were obtained. Results indicated that a higher frequency of maternal aggressive behavior was associated with alterations in the development of right superior frontal and lateral parietal cortical thickness, and of nucleus accumbens volume, in males. Development of the superior frontal cortex in males mediated the relationship between maternal aggressive behaviour and measures of late adolescent functioning. We suggest that our results support an association between negative parenting and adolescent functioning, which may be mediated by immature or delayed brain maturation.

Highlights

Adverse childhood environments represent an important risk factor for the development of psychopathology later in life [1], and there is accumulating evidence from human and animal research that neurobiological changes may partially mediate this relationship [2, 3]
See S1 Methods and Results for details about all associations between maternal behavior and late adolescent functioning variables. In this multi-wave within-subjects longitudinal investigation of the association between parenting and adolescent brain development, we found that a higher frequency of observed aggressive maternal behaviors predicted greater thickening of the right superior frontal gyrus and areas of the right lateral parietal lobe in males
Consistent with hypotheses, maternal aggressive behavior was associated with development in the prefrontal cortex, it was associated with development of thickness in non-hypothesized regions in the right lateral parietal cortex

Summary

Introduction

Adverse childhood environments represent an important risk factor for the development of psychopathology later in life [1], and there is accumulating evidence from human and animal research that neurobiological changes may partially mediate this relationship [2, 3]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion