Harsh Parenting and Child Brain Morphology: A Population-Based Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 107755952098685
Author(s):  
Andrea P. Cortes Hidalgo ◽  
Sandra Thijssen ◽  
Scott W. Delaney ◽  
Meike W. Vernooij ◽  
Pauline W. Jansen ◽  
...  

Evidence suggests that maltreatment shapes the child’s brain. Little is known, however, about how normal variation in parenting influences the child neurodevelopment. We examined whether harsh parenting is associated with the brain morphology in 2,410 children from a population-based cohort. Mothers and fathers independently reported harsh parenting at child age 3 years. Structural and diffusion-weighted brain morphological measures were acquired with MRI scans at age 10 years. We explored whether associations between parenting and brain morphology were explained by co-occurring adversities, and whether there was a joint effect of both parents’ harsh parenting. Maternal harsh parenting was associated with smaller total gray (β = −0.05 (95%CI = −0.08; −0.01)), cerebral white matter and amygdala volumes (β = −0.04 (95%CI = −0.07; 0)). These associations were also observed with the combined harsh parenting measure and were robust to the adjustment for multiple confounding factors. Similar associations, although non-significant, were found between paternal parenting and these brain outcomes. Maternal and paternal harsh parenting were not associated with the hippocampus or the white matter microstructural metrics. We found a long-term association between harsh parenting and the global brain and amygdala volumes in preadolescents, suggesting that adverse rearing environments common in the general population are related to child brain morphology.

Author(s):  
Andrea P. Cortes Hidalgo ◽  
Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg ◽  
Marinus H. van IJzendoorn ◽  
Tonya J.H. White ◽  
Henning Tiemeier

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 247
Author(s):  
Carole Dufouil ◽  
Christophe Tzourio ◽  
Veronique Besancon ◽  
Claude Levy ◽  
Axel de Kersaint Gilly ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea P. Cortes Hidalgo ◽  
Scott W. Delaney ◽  
Stavroula A. Kourtalidi ◽  
Alexander Neumann ◽  
Runyu Zou ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundPrenatal and childhood adverse events have been shown to be related to children’s cognitive and psychological development. However, the influence of early-life adversities on child brain morphology is not well understood and most studies are based on small samples and often examine only one adversity. Thus, the goal of our study is to examine the relationship between cumulative exposures to prenatal and childhood adversities and brain morphology in a large population-based study.MethodsParticipants included 2,993 children in whom prenatal adversities were reported by mothers at 20-25 weeks of pregnancy and the child’s lifetime exposure to adversities was reported by mothers when the children were 10 years-of-age. The total brain, grey and white matter volumes and the volume of the cerebellum, amygdala and hippocampus were assessed with magnetic resonance imaging when children were 10 years old.ResultsIn total, 36% of children had mothers who were exposed to at least one adversity during pregnancy and 35% of children were exposed to adversities in childhood. In our study sample, the cumulative number of prenatal adversities was not related to any brain outcome. In contrast, per each additional childhood adverse event, the total brain volume was 0.07 standard deviations smaller (SE = 0.02, p = 0.001), with differences in both grey and white matter volumes. Childhood adversities were not related to the amygdala or hippocampal volumes. Additionally, the link between childhood events and the preadolescent brain was not modified by prenatal events and was not explained by maternal psychopathology.ConclusionsOur results suggest that childhood adversities, but not prenatal adverse events, are associated with smaller global brain volumes in preadolescence. Notably, this is the first large population-based study to prospectively assess the association between the cumulative number of prenatal adversities and the preadolescent brain morphology. The study findings extend the evidence from high-risk samples, providing support for a link between cumulative childhood adverse events and brain morphology in children from the general population.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 2069-2077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangha Kim ◽  
Seong Hye Choi ◽  
Young Min Lee ◽  
Min Ji Kim ◽  
Young Don Kim ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground:Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are prevalent incident findings on brain MRI scans among elderly people and have been consistently implicated in cognitive dysfunction. However, differential roles of WMH by region in cognitive function are still unclear. The aim of this study was to ascertain the differential role of regional WMH in predicting progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to different subtypes of dementia.Methods:Participants were recruited from the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS) study. A total of 622 participants with MCI diagnoses at baseline and follow-up evaluations were included for the analysis. Initial MRI scans were rated for WMH on a visual rating scale developed for the CREDOS. Differential effects of regional WMH in predicting incident dementia were evaluated using the Cox proportional hazards model.Results:Of the 622 participants with MCI at baseline, 139 patients (22.3%) converted to all-cause dementia over a median of 14.3 (range 6.0–36.5) months. Severe periventricular WMH (PWMH) predicted incident all-cause dementia (Hazard ratio (HR) 2.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43–3.43) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) (HR 1.86; 95% CI 1.12–3.07). Subcortical vascular dementia (SVD) was predicted by both PWMH (HR 16.14; 95% CI 1.97–132.06) and DWMH (HR 8.77; 95% CI 1.77–43.49) in more severe form (≥ 10 mm).Conclusions:WMH differentially predict dementia by region and severity. Our findings suggest that PWMH may play an independent role in the pathogenesis of dementia, especially in AD.


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