Parenting styles as a predictor of long-term psychosocial outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in early childhood.
Emily Schorr, Shari L Wade, H Gerry Taylor and 2 others
PMID 31006276WHAT IT FOUND
Years after early severe brain injury, children had worse behaviour, social skills, and everyday planning and self-control than children with bone injuries.
Later parenting mattered: permissive parenting linked to worse outcomes, authoritative to better social and planning skills.
Key findings
01Severe TBI differed significantly from the orthopaedic comparison group on all three long-term psychosocial outcomes.
02Parenting measured shortly after injury did not add significantly to prediction of later outcomes, while parenting measured at follow-up did.
03At follow-up, higher permissive parenting predicted worse outcomes in all three domains; higher authoritative parenting predicted better executive functioning and social competence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 126 of 206 participants completed the final follow-up (61% of the total study sample), although completers and non-completers did not differ on measured baseline variables. The severe TBI group was small (15 children), which likely reduced the ability to detect differences or parenting effects. Parents rated both parenting style and children's outcomes, so the same reporter may have made the links look stronger than they are. The study is observational and the authors note the relationship between parenting and child functioning is likely bidirectional. Participants were hospitalized children from homes where English was the primary language and with no documented pre-injury neurological problems or developmental delays, so results may not apply to other groups.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not report author conflicts of interest. The publication metadata lists NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that changing parenting style will improve long-term outcomes after early TBI. The study reported associations between parent-reported parenting and child outcomes, not the effects of a parenting intervention, and it cannot show that any specific parenting change causes improvement.