Positive Parenting Helps Keep Children Safe from Stress

The biological and behavioral effects of early chronic stress shape early brain development, create a barrier to a child’s success and happiness, and affect the way that he or she will deal with stress throughout life. Here in Memphis, where poverty-related stress is high, it is important to implement practices that enhance the early brain development of our yougest citizens. High levels of early stress can create a cycle of stress by programming a child’s stress response system to perform ineffectively throughout life. In adulthood, this condition is likely to be passed on to the next generation through the effects of prenatal stress and less-than-optimal parenting.

Positive parenting can help break this cycle. A healthy and secure relationship with parents and caregivers makes an infant feel protected and helps her feel safe in situations that would otherwise seem threatening. Sensitive caregiving allows infants and young children—even those exposed to prenatal stress—to develop healthy psychological and physical reactions to stress.^1,2

By contrast, children whose parents who show little affection and sensitivity are at risk for cognitive and behavioral problems. Infants of insensitive or intrusive mothers, for instance, are typically more fearful and less engaged. They have also been found to show measurable differences in cortisol levels and brain function.³

Promoting high-quality caregiving, especially during the first years of life, can break this cycle by buffering children from the harmful effects of toxic stress. Responsive and consistent parenting counteracts early adversity and protects children’s emotional, behavioral, and social development.⁴

References

 1. Bergman K, Sarkar P, Glover V, O'Connor TG. Maternal prenatal cortisol and infant cognitive development: moderation by infant-mother attachment. Biological Psychiatry. 2010; 67(11):1026-32

2. Gunnar M. Social regulation of stress in early child development. In  McCartney K, Phillips D, Eds. Blackwell handbook of early childhood development. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 2006; 106–125.  

3. Hane AA, Fox NA. Ordinary variations in maternal caregiving influence human infants’ stress reactivity. Psychological Science. 2006; 17(6): 550-556.

4. Lorber MF, Egeland B. Infancy parenting and externalizing psychopathology from childhood through adulthood: developmental trends. Developmental Psychology. 2009; 45(4): 909-912.