Thaindian News

Washington, March 9 (IANS) The way you react to your two-year-old’s temper tantrums or clinginess may lead the child to anxiety, withdrawal and behaviour problems down the road.

The effect is more pronounced if the child is a boy, who often displays such negative emotions as anger and social fearfulness, says a new study reported in the journal Social Development.

“Young children, especially boys, may need their parents’ help working through angry or fearful emotions,” said Nancy McElwain, an associate professor for human development at the University of Illinois, who led the study.

“If you punish toddlers for their anger and frustration or act as if their fears are silly or shameful, they may internalise those negative emotions, and that may lead to behaviour problems as they get older,” added McElwain.

McElwain and lead author Jennifer Engle examined data gleaned from observations of 107 children who were part of a larger study of children’s social and emotional development and parent-child relationships.

When the children were 33 months old, mothers and fathers were asked how often their child had displayed anger or social fearfulness in the last month.

“We investigated two types of parental reactions to children’s negative emotions. One type of reaction was to minimise their child’s emotions; for example, a parent might say, ‘Stop behaving like a baby’.

“Another type of reaction was punishing the child for these emotions. A parent might send the child to his room for crying or being upset, or take away a toy or a privilege,” Engle said.

Parents who were apt to punish their children for their fears and frustrations were more likely to have them anxious and withdrawn at the time of the second assessment.