Although Highly Unlikely in Western Society, Where Most Parenting is Done Either by “Day Care Centres” or by School Teachers; New Study Seems to Indicate That Overly Protective PARENTS Adversely Affect Children’s Lives

Raising a child is one of the most important parents live stages. A child has to be prepared for his future life as an individual in the society and must be able to adapt in the complex world. In that case, parents should care about their offspring nurture. Unfortunately, some parents take it too seriously or have fears of their children being unsafe. In my opinion, over-protectiveness poses considerable negative response from a child.

Due to Nature’-The Creator’s supreme wisdom, all good parents protect their children from harm. Unfortunately, possibly because in truth they seldom ever really see their offspring; some parents overestimate the dangers in a normal world and deprive children of coping skills and fun.

The perceived threats of seldom seen but when seen; overprotective parents are often emotional, academic, or social. To differentiate between what is right and what is wrong when it comes to parenting is not easy. There are social, psychological, an environmental factors that can moderate the effects of overprotection, but children can be placed at risk by well-meaning parents.

Examples of Behaviour and Fears of Such Seldom Seen but Then Overprotective Parents:

Overprotective parents often seem constantly watchful, almost as if they expect something to go wrong. This vigilance may be more intense away from home when the child is able to walk about and communicate verbally. Overprotection can develop early and become a lasting part of the relationship between parent and child.

Some early signs of overprotective parenting during preschool and elementary years might include:

·         Protection from all harm whether physical or emotional.

·         Immediately running to examine a child when they have a simple fall that produces no distress; if a whimper is the worst result, the parent may have candy or a toy ready for comfort.

·         Having unnecessarily strict rules for children such as remaining in the same room with the parent at all times even at age five or six years.

·         Having strict rules of neatness which do not allow a child to get dirt on clothes or on the child.

·         Expectations that children understand adult rules of deference and demeanour and being quick to punish transgressions.

·         Discipline may be overly harsh for minor offenses.

·         Highly structured rules that try to cover every phase of a child's life.

·         Over-emphasis of academic success.

·         Over-dependence on a system of rewards and punishments.

Parents exhibiting most of these behaviours should not to be labelled as "bad" parents. They may love their children, but do not have a clear understanding of how their actions shape child development. They may be intensely fearful that something terrible will happen or that their children will grow up to be uncontrollable or self-destructive.

Though parents may be trying to protect their children, a new study that has been done in Gunma University, Japan, shows that overprotective parents may actually cause harm.

The study suggests that Children who have parents that are overprotective or neglectful are more susceptible to psychiatric disorders. Lead researcher Kosuke Narita, scanned the brains of 50 people in their 20s and asked them to fill out a survey about their relationship with their parents during their first 16 years. Narita and the team of researchers discovered that children with overprotective parents had less grey matter in a particular area of the prefrontal cortex than those who had had healthy relationships. Neglect from fathers, though not mothers, also correlated with less grey matter. This part of the prefrontal cortex develops during childhood, and abnormalities there are common in people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Narita and his team propose that the excessive release of the stress hormone cortisol – due either to neglect, or to too much attention – and reduced production of dopamine as a result of poor parenting leads to stunted grey matter growth.

Anthony Harris, director of the Clinical Disorders Unit at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, says the study is important for highlighting to the wider community that parenting styles can have long-term effects on children.

Stephen Wood, who studies adolescent development at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre in Australia, believes the brain abnormalities cannot always be blamed on children's relationship with their parents. He points out that the subjects studied may have been born with the abnormalities and as a result didn't bond well with their parents, rather than vice versa.

More research will have to be done before researches can conclude that overprotective parents inhibit brain growth that effects mental illness but this is clearly a step in the right direction.

To start with, strict parents may limit child’s activity. The negative side is that a child may become very passive and frustrated. Child’s self-esteem is about to be at high risk and might be undermined. The main reason for this is that prohibition of various activities may result in keeping the child indoor and will be considered as blighting his life. This has a great possibility to become a main factor of grown persons despair and unhappiness because of rough childhood and may have miserable of fatal effect in future.

Secondly, over-protectiveness makes children overly shy. The main reason is that children of over-protective parents usually lack of self-confidence as they were never given a chance to cope with the world on their own or to interact or develop their communication skills. While some of the children are born shy, others may become shy because of permanent parents over-caring.

Thirdly, over-defensive parents instil the fear of failure to their descendants. As these kinds of children are always being supervised, they do not have enough experience to persevere while standing on their own two feet. When they face with difficulties or new environment, they are more likely to fail because of their fears. For instance, when children of over-protective parents leave for college, they usually go astray and abuse alcohol or drugs.