(Press-News.org) Children who are exposed to negative parenting – including abuse, neglect but also overprotection – are more likely to experience childhood bullying by their peers, according to a meta-analysis of 70 studies of more than 200,000 children.
The research, led by the University of Warwick and published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, found the effects of poor parenting were stronger for children who are both a victim and perpetrator of bulling (bully-victims) than children who were solely victims.
It found that negative or harsh parenting was linked to a moderate increase in the risk of being a 'bully-victim' and a small increase in the risk of being a victim of bullying. In contrast, warm but firm parenting reduced the risk of being bullied by peers.
The study authors, Professor Dieter Wolke, Dr Suzet Lereya and Dr Muthanna Samara, called for anti-bullying intervention programmes to extend their focus beyond schools to focus on positive parenting within families and to start before children enter school.
Professor Wolke said: "The long shadow of bullying falls well beyond the school playground – it has lasting and profound effects into adulthood.
"We know that victims and bully-victims are more likely to develop physical health problems, suffer from anxiety and depression and are also at increased risk of self-harm and suicide.
"It is vital we understand more about the factors linked to bullying in order to reduce the burden it places on the affected children and society.
"People often assume bullying is a problem for schools alone but it's clear from this study that parents also have a very important role to play.
"We should therefore target intervention programmes not just in schools but also in families to encourage positive parenting practices such as warmth, affection, communication and support."
The study categorised behaviours such as abuse/neglect, maladaptive parenting and overprotection as negative parenting behaviour.
It categorised authoritative parenting, parent-child communication, parental involvement and support, supervision and warmth and affection as positive parenting behaviours.
Professor Wolke highlighted the finding that overprotection was linked to an increased risk of bullying.
"Although parental involvement, support and high supervision decrease the chances of children being involved in bullying, for victims overprotection increased this risk.
"Children need support but some parents try to buffer their children from all negative experiences.
"In the process, they prevent their children from learning ways of dealing with bullies and make them more vulnerable.
"It could be that children with overprotective parents may not develop qualities such as autonomy and assertion and therefore may be easy targets for bullies.
"But it could also be that parents of victims become overprotective of their children.
"In either case, parents cannot sit on the school bench with their children.
"Parenting that includes clear rules about behaviour while being supportive and emotionally warm is most likely to prevent victimisation.
"These parents allow children to have some conflicts with peers to learn how to solve them rather than intervene at the smallest argument."
###
Professor Dieter Wolke can be contacted on +44 (0) 2476 523537 or 44 (0) 7824 358737 or d.wolke@warwick.ac.uk
University of Warwick press officer Anna Blackaby is available on +44 (0)2476 575910 or +44 (0)7785 433155 or a.blackaby@warwick.ac.uk
Notes for Editors
The journal Child Abuse & Neglect is published by Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close
to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of
science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
Poor parenting -- including overprotection -- increases bullying risk
2013-04-26
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Breath study brings roadside drug testing closer
2013-04-26
A group of researchers from Sweden have provided further evidence that illegal drugs can be detected in the breath, opening up the possibility of a roadside breathalyzer test to detect substances such as cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis.
Using a simple, commercially available breath sampler, the researchers have successfully identified a range of 12 substances in the breath of 40 patients recruited from a drug emergency clinic in Stockholm.
Their findings have been published today, 26 April, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Breath Research.
Blood, urine and saliva ...
Study shows how Parkinson's disease protein acts like a virus
2013-04-26
MAYWOOD, Il. – A protein known to be a key player in the development of Parkinson's disease is able to enter and harm cells in the same way that viruses do, according to a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study.
The protein is called alpha-synuclein. The study shows how, once inside a neuron, alpha synuclein breaks out of lysosomes, the digestive compartments of the cell. This is similar to how a cold virus enters a cell during infection. The finding eventually could lead to the development of new therapies to delay the onset of Parkinson's disease ...
Bizarre binary star system pushes study of relativity to new limits
2013-04-26
TORONTO, ON – An international team of astronomers and an exotic pair of binary stars have proved that Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is still right, even in the most extreme conditions tested yet. The results of their research are described in the April 26 issue of Science.
"The unusual pair of stars is quite interesting in its own right but we've learned it is also a unique laboratory for testing the limits of one of our most fundamental physical theories, general relativity" says University of Toronto astronomy professor Marten van Kerkwijk, a member of the ...
NIH study offers clues to making vaccine for infant respiratory illness
2013-04-26
WHAT:
An atomic-level snapshot of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) protein bound to a human antibody represents a leap toward developing a vaccine for a common—and sometimes very serious—childhood disease. The findings, by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, define the vulnerable shape of a critical RSV component called the fusion glycoprotein.
The NIAID scientists determined the fusion glycoprotein's shape as it appears before its interaction with human cells. It is this ...
Virginia Tech Carilion scientists image nanoparticles in action
2013-04-26
The macroscopic effects of certain nanoparticles on human health have long been clear to the naked eye. What scientists have lacked is the ability to see the detailed movements of individual particles that give rise to those effects.
In a recently published study, scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute invented a technique for imaging nanoparticle dynamics with atomic resolution as these dynamics occur in a liquid environment. The results will allow, for the first time, the imaging of nanoscale processes, such as the engulfment of nanoparticles into ...
The sun sends 2 CMEs toward Mercury
2013-04-26
On the night of April 24 and the morning of April 25, 2013, the sun erupted with two coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar phenomena that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can affect electronic systems in satellites. Experimental NASA research models show that the first CME began at 9:30 p.m. EDT on April 24. The second CME began at 5:24 a.m. EDT on April 25. Both left the sun traveling at about 500 miles per second and they are headed in the direction of planet Mercury.
While they are not Earth-directed, the CMEs may pass by NASA's Messenger ...
Keeping beverages cool in summer: It's not just the heat, it's the humidity
2013-04-26
In spring a person's thoughts turn to important matters, like how best to keep your drink cold on a hot day. Though this quest is probably as old as civilization, University of Washington climate scientists have provided new insight.
It turns out that in sultry weather condensation on the outside of a canned beverage doesn't just make it slippery: those drops can provide more heat than the surrounding air, meaning your drink would warm more than twice as much in humid weather compared to in dry heat. In typical summer weather in New Orleans, heat released by condensation ...
New imaging technology could reveal cellular secrets
2013-04-26
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have married two biological imaging technologies, creating a new way to learn how good cells go bad.
"Let's say you have a large population of cells," said Corey Neu, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. "Just one of them might metastasize or proliferate, forming a cancerous tumor. We need to understand what it is that gives rise to that one bad cell."
Such an advance makes it possible to simultaneously study the mechanical and biochemical behavior of cells, which could provide new insights ...
Sunshine hormone, vitamin D, may offer hope for treating liver fibrosis
2013-04-26
LA JOLLA, CA----Liver fibrosis results from an excessive accumulation of tough, fibrous scar tissue and occurs in most types of chronic liver diseases. In industrialized countries, the main causes of liver injury leading to fibrosis include chronic hepatitis virus infection, excess alcohol consumption and, increasingly, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Now, in a new study published in the journal Cell, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered that a synthetic form of vitamin D, calcipotriol (a drug already approved by the FDA for the ...
Forced exercise may still protect against anxiety and stress, says CU-Boulder study
2013-04-26
Being forced to exercise may still help reduce anxiety and depression just as exercising voluntarily does, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Past studies have shown that people who exercise are more protected against stress-related disorders. And scientists know that the perception of control can benefit a person's mental health. But it has been an open question whether a person who feels forced to exercise, eliminating the perception of control, would still reap the anxiety-fighting benefits of the exercise.
People who may ...