Parental emotional support of children as young as 1 year of age is associated with lower incidence of externalizing problems later in childhood.
“Our results are suggestive of very early parenting potentially having a long-term impact on the behavioral development of the child,” Carolyn A. McCarty, Ph.D., and her colleagues reported. “Helping parents learn ways to provide emotional support to the child very early on may be a particularly important facet of efforts to promote positive behavior patterns among children” (J. Dev. Behav. Pediatr. 2005;26:267–75).
Dr. McCarty of the University of Washington, Seattle, and her coinvestigators examined the effect of supportive parenting on behavior in 2,940 children aged 7 and 8 years. Data were taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Children, and Young Adults (NLSY-Child, years 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000). About 60% of the children were white; 75% lived in two-parent households at the time of the survey.
Parental emotional support was measured by maternal self-report on the NLSY-Child and by interviewer observation. A supplement of the survey included the 28-item Behavioral Problems Index to characterize child behavior patterns.
While there was no significant association between internalizing problems and parental emotional support, the researchers found a significant negative association between externalizing problems and parent support.
The most significant association occurred between childhood behavior and parental support when the child was 1 to 2 years old. The association between externalizing problems and emotional support at ages 3–4 years and 5–6 years was nonsignificant.
“Children who do not receive warm, responsive, involved parenting in the early years are at risk of more behavioral problems, such as aggression, defiance, and delinquency in subsequent years,” the investigators concluded.