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Poor parenting may create disruptive children

NEW YORK, Apr 06 (Reuters Health) -- Parents who attempt to exercise control over their children via yelling, insulting, or hitting may stimulate disruptive, defiant behaviors in their offspring, according to a study of children born to teen mothers.

This type of ``negative control'' behavior on the part of parents ``fuels the child's later problem behavior,'' suggest Dr. Susan Spieker and colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle. Their findings are published in the March/April issue of the journal Child Development.

The study authors sought to determine the possible causes of the unruly behaviors of 'problem' children. To do so, they compared rates of problem behaviors in 185 toddlers (ages 3 to 6 years) born to teen mothers.

Spieker and colleagues report that boys were more likely than girls to 'act up,' as were children born to mothers suffering from either depression or anxiety.

They also found that, in the case of most children, levels of disruptive behavior declined between 3.5 and 6 years of age.

However, mothers who ``reported frequent yelling, threatening, and spanking of their children during a conflict or disagreement had children whose disruptive behavior did not decrease over time,'' the authors note.

The investigators report that ``child disruptive behavior and maternal negative control (behaviors) are mutual influences on each other.'' In other words, the level of the parent's verbal and physical abuse appears to escalate in the face of mounting child defiance -- and vice-versa.

Spieker's team cannot confirm that negative parenting techniques are an actual cause of disruptive behavior in children. However, previous studies have suggested that this type of relationship is established early in the parent-child relationship, with ``maternal control at age 4 (predicting)... behavior problems at age 9.''

Based on their findings, the Seattle researchers believe parent counseling and other forms of intervention may help break this destructive cycle, especially ``if they are targeted (at parents) early in the preschool years.''

SOURCE: Child Development 1999;70:443-458.

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