Associations between Child Maltreatment, Harsh Parenting, and Sleep with Adolescent Mental Health

Abstract

Youth who suffer from psychiatric disorders are at high risk for negative outcomes, including aggression and substance abuse. Although many youth with psychiatric disorders have endured harsh parenting and/or child maltreatment (CM), differential associations between these experiential factors have yet to be fully explored. Sleep problems have also been implicated in psychiatric disorders and are consistently associated with CM. The overlap and unique contributions of CM and sleep problems to the mental health of youth remains unclear; longitudinal studies from late childhood into adolescence, when psychiatric illnesses frequently onset, are rare. The current longitudinal study examined associations of CM, harsh parenting, and sleep problems with symptoms of four psychiatric disorders: Conduct Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Anxiety, and Depression. Early adolescent youth with no history of substance use (N = 529) were sampled from a working class, medium-sized city in northern Kentucky, and an extensive battery of tests were administered to youth and a parent. CM was more strongly and consistently related to psychiatric disorder symptoms at baseline than was harsh parenting. Reports of harsh parenting were more strongly associated with externalizing symptoms than internalizing symptoms. Sleep problems were also positively associated with psychiatric disorder symptoms at baseline, but did not exacerbate the effects of CM or harsh parenting on symptom counts. Longitudinally, harsh parenting was more predictive of change in psychiatric symptoms two to three years later than was CM. The potential significance of childhood adversity and sleep problems for prevention of later mental health problems are discussed.

Marital relationships spillover and parental differential treatment of siblings: A multilevel meta‐analysis

“…Third, our findings may contribute to the broader literature on the importance of spillover of marital relationships. For decades, scholars have noted that problematic parenting is linked to poorer development for children (Calhoun et al, 2019;Stroud et al, 2015;Warmuth et al, 2020). A growing body of work documents that spillover may be part of the reason for this association (Chung et al, 2009;Kaczynski et al, 2006;Warmuth et al, 2020).…”

Longitudinal association between parental-to-child-Maltreatment and self-reported Generalized Anxiety Disorder symptoms in Pakistani Adolescents

“…The development of anxiety disorders due to parent-child maltreatment can be understood from previous research detailing how continuous and frequent exposure to child maltreatment interrupts hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning and leads to neurobiochemical changes in the brain [25]. These changes include, an increase in thalamic grey matter volumes of the subcortical region of the brain which can result in the development of GAD symptoms [26,27]. Moreover, parents' constant maltreatment can disrupt an adolescent's sense of safety resulting in various fears, apprehensions, cognitive deficits, and emotional vulnerability, leading to anxiety disorders [28].…”

Longitudinal Association Between Parental-to-child-maltreatment and Self-reported Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symtoms in Pakistani Adolescents

“…Another study indicated a 25.5% of physical abuse and a 17.9% of emotional abuse by parents among Pakistani Children (Ali & Khuwaja, 2014). Literature indicated that continuous and frequent exposure to child maltreatment interrupts hypothalamic pituitary adrenxal axis functioning and leads to neurobiochemical changes in brain including an increase in thalamic grey matter volumes of subcortical region of the brain which can result in development of GAD symptoms (Calhoun, Ridenour, & Fishbein, 2019;Liao et al, 2013). Moreover, constant maltreatment by parents can disrupt the safety blanket of an adolescent resulting in various fears, apprehensions, cognitive de cit and emotional vulnerability which could lead to anxiety disorders (Berzenski, Madden, & Yates, 2019).…”