Self-Reported and Observed Punitive Parenting Prospectively Predicts Increased Error-Related Brain Activity in Six-Year-Old Children

Abstract

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a negative deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) occurring approximately 50 ms after error commission at fronto-central electrode sites and is thought to reflect the activation of a generic error monitoring system. Several studies have reported an increased ERN in clinically anxious children, and suggest that anxious children are more sensitive to error commission—although the mechanisms underlying this association are not clear. We have previously found that punishing errors results in a larger ERN, an effect that persists after punishment ends. It is possible that learning-related experiences that impact sensitivity to errors may lead to an increased ERN. In particular, punitive parenting might sensitize children to errors and increase their ERN. We tested this possibility in the current study by prospectively examining the relationship between parenting style during early childhood and children’s ERN approximately three years later. Initially, 295 parents and children (approximately 3 years old) participated in a structured observational measure of parenting behavior, and parents completed a self-report measure of parenting style. At a follow-up assessment approximately three years later, the ERN was elicited during a Go/No-Go task, and diagnostic interviews were completed with parents to assess child psychopathology. Results suggested that both observational measures of hostile parenting and self-report measures of authoritarian parenting style uniquely predicted a larger ERN in children 3 years later. We previously reported that children in this sample with anxiety disorders were characterized by an increased ERN. A mediation analysis indicated that ERN magnitude mediated the relationship between harsh parenting and child anxiety disorder. Results suggest that parenting may shape children’s error processing through environmental conditioning and thereby risk for anxiety, although future work is needed to confirm this hypothesis.

A Neurobehavioral Mechanism Linking Behaviorally Inhibited Temperament and Later Adolescent Social Anxiety

“…Prevention of social anxiety for those at risk might be improved by targeting factors that influence the link between early BI and later hypersensitivity toward errors; parenting is one promising factor that may influence this relation. 43,44 Conversely, in adolescents already diagnosed with social anxiety or expressing symptoms, improved treatment might target error preoccupation, as opposed to hypersensitivity toward errors. Consistent with this notion, intervention studies have shown that treatment for anxiety disorders does not influence the ERN itself.…”

Neural Correlates of Error Processing in Young People With a History of Severe Childhood Abuse: An fMRI Study

“…Enhanced error-related negativity has been associated with high sensitivity to punishment and hypervigilance (15) and is typical for common comorbidities of childhood maltreatment, including depression and anxiety (16). It is further suggested that environmental adversity and punitive parental behavior, which are often considered etiological factors for various internalizing disorders, may be linked to increases in error-related negativity, which are associated with these disorders (17).…”

“…Maltreated individuals also tend to avoid threat (19) and exhibit heightened neural reactivity to threat-related faces (20)(21)(22); furthermore, their hypersensitivity to punishment is associated with increased risk taking to avoid potential punishments (23). Thus, given that punishment and punitive parenting lead to lasting enhanced error-related negativity (17,24), persistent harsh punishment experiences in childhood may sensitize the abused child to errors and lead to an overactive error-monitoring system.…”

Delta-beta coupling is associated with paternal caregiving behaviors during preschool

“…Studies using Event Related Potentials (ERPs), which measure electrical potentials to isolate quickly-occurring (i.e., on the order of milliseconds) neural processes in response to specific events (e.g., self-monitoring following a button-press response), and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( f MRI), a measure of the hemodynamic response that measures activation in specific neural structures, have shown that more harsh parenting is linked to hyperactivation of the amygdala (Taylor, Eisenberger, Saxbe, Lehman, & Lieberman, 2006), and increased sensitivity to errors, (Brooker & Buss, 2014; Meyer et al, 2015), both of which indicate dysregulation and enhanced risk for anxiety problems during childhood. High rates of sensitive parenting, on the other hand, are linked to the healthy development of the corpus callosum, a brain region associated with high order self-regulation (Ghassabian et al, 2013; Kok et al, 2013).…”