Positive Parenting Helps Protect Youth From Negative Impact of Stressful Experiences

Background: We hear a lot of research documenting the negative effects of trauma and adversity on later behavior and development, but are there things that can break this link and buffer these negative effects? Objective: To investigate whether positive parenting might moderate any association between early adversity and later behavior and neurodevelopment. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants/Methods: The sample for this study comes from the Healthy Brain Network initiative and included 482 children aged between 10 and 17 years. Childhood stress was assessed with the Negative Life Events Scale, whereas positive parenting was rated using the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, as rated by the youth. Positive parenting includes being warm and responsive to children as well as setting reasonable limits. Behavioral problems were measured using the Youth Self-Report Total Behavioral Problems Raw Score, and all children also underwent a structural MRI study. Results: The main finding more...