Exposure to overprotective parenting and psychopathology in extremely low birth weight survivors.
K L Day, K G Dobson, L A Schmidt and 4 others
PMID 28776722WHAT IT FOUND
Adults born extremely low birth weight who reported at least one overprotective parent had higher rates of anxiety and substance use disorders than those who did not.
Overprotective parenting explained a portion of the link between early birth weight and later mental health problems.
Key findings
01Being born extremely low birth weight was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting at least one overprotective parent.
02Reporting at least one overprotective parent was significantly associated with having an anxiety disorder and an alcohol or substance use disorder in adulthood.
03Overprotective parenting mediated the association between ELBW birth status and both anxiety and substance use disorders, explaining 53% of the direct effect for anxiety and 26% for substance use.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample size at the final assessment was relatively small (81 ELBW, 87 NBW) due to longitudinal attrition. Parenting behavior was reported retrospectively by adult participants, not by the parents themselves, which may introduce bias. The same respondent provided data on both parenting and psychiatric outcomes, though assessments were separated by nearly 10 years. Results may not generalize to single-parent families or families with two parental figures of the same sex, as participants had to report on both a mother-figure and a father-figure to be included. Attrition analysis showed participants who remained in the study were more likely to be female and have higher socioeconomic status, which may affect generalizability.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret overprotective parenting as the sole cause of psychiatric disorders in ELBW survivors. The mediation was partial, meaning other factors explain the majority of the association between birth status and adult mental health. Additionally, the direction of causality cannot be definitively established from this observational data; children with difficult temperaments may elicit more overprotective parenting, rather than the parenting causing the disorders.