Want happier kids? Scientists find a link between early parenting and teen brain health

Additionally, half of all lifetime mental illnesses begin by age 14, while 75% emerge by age 24.

Psychologists have long emphasised the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping mental health and emotional well-being later in life.

Everyday parenting behaviours, including praise, encouragement and discipline, may influence how children develop emotionally and how they respond to positive experiences as they grow up.

Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame suggests that positive parenting during early childhood may be associated with stronger brain responses to rewards throughout adolescence, potentially offering insights into the development of depression and other mental health conditions.

The research was led by Kaylin Hill, an assistant professor in Notre Dame's Department of Psychology, who has spent 15 years studying emotions, depression and the factors that may contribute to intergenerational mental health challenges.

Published in Communications Psychology, part of the Nature portfolio, the study examined how parenting behaviours during the preschool years were associated with the development of reward responsiveness in children as they progressed through adolescence.

“In this project, we demonstrate that early parenting is associated with one of the largest neural indicators of risk for mental health concerns we know of to date,” Hill said as quoted by the university website

How Early Parenting May Influence Mental Health

As per the university's website, Hill's research focuses on understanding why some individuals become more vulnerable to depression and how early interventions could help reduce the burden of mental health conditions on individuals and families.

Through her Psychophysiology of Affect across the Lifespan (PAL) Lab at Notre Dame, she investigates emotional development and the factors that may influence mental health risks over time.

For the study, researchers observed interactions between parents and their three-year-old children, recording positive parenting behaviours such as warmth, support and encouragement, alongside negative behaviours such as harshness, excessive control and intrusiveness.

The team then examined how these early experiences were associated with the children's brain responses to rewards at ages 9, 12, 15 and 18.

The longitudinal study followed 465 children and their parents at Stony Brook University in New York over 15 years. It was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Previous research has established that reward processing plays an important role in the ability to experience pleasure, excitement and happiness. Differences in this process have also been linked to mental health risks, including depression.

To assess reward responsiveness, the researchers used electroencephalography (EEG), a technique that records electrical activity in the brain through electrodes attached to the scalp.

During the assessments, participants played a guessing game in which they could win or lose money. Researchers compared the brain's electrical responses to winning and losing to understand how participants processed rewarding experiences.

The findings revealed that children who experienced higher levels of positive parenting at age three tended to show stronger brain responses when receiving rewards throughout adolescence. In contrast, those exposed to more negative parenting behaviours generally showed weaker responses.

“What we saw is that the more positive, and less negative, parenting behaviors we observed at age 3, the larger the brain's reward response seemed to be for individuals across adolescence,” Hill said.

The findings suggest that early experiences of warmth, praise and encouragement may be associated with how children respond to positive experiences later in life, including friendships, achievements and enjoyable activities.

Conversely, harsh or overly intrusive parenting may be associated with weaker reward responsiveness, potentially affecting a child's ability to experience pleasure and increasing vulnerability to emotional difficulties.

“Experiencing positive parenting seems to help facilitate reward processing, which is important for promoting physical and mental health,” Hill added.

Study Highlights Potential for Early Intervention

The findings could help researchers develop new approaches to preventing depression and supporting children's emotional development.

Hill believes effective interventions may need to involve both parents and children, with support for parents potentially beginning before a child is born. Such approaches could help promote healthier parent-child interactions during the early years, when emotional and behavioural patterns are developing.

Importantly, the researchers noted that the study was observational. While it identified an association between early parenting behaviours and reward responsiveness during adolescence, it does not establish that parenting styles directly cause changes in brain function or prevent depression.

Nevertheless, the findings offer clues about how early childhood experiences may be connected to later mental health outcomes.

Family history and stressful life events are among the established factors associated with depression risk. Hill's research suggests that parenting behaviours could provide another avenue for understanding that risk and exploring potential interventions.

“There’s something very important about early parent-child interactions and parenting behaviors,” Hill said, adding that behaviours may be more open to intervention than genetic factors.

The research team hopes the findings will contribute to broader efforts to understand depression, one of the most prevalent and debilitating mental health conditions, and identify opportunities to intervene earlier in life.

“We are trying to pull together a single strand—one explanation of likely many that exists—of what puts someone at risk and how we can intervene,” Hill said.