Work

Early home environments and reward-processing in adolescence: The unique role of harsh parenting

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Reward-processing, i.e., how one evaluates potential reward and punishment and how one uses this information to make decisions, is strongly related to mental health and is especially useful for understanding motivation, in turn associated with many health, educational and socio-economic outcomes. Research has yet to explore the role of the home's emotional and physical environment early in life on reward-processing in adolescence, a period characterised by increased reward sensitivity. OBJECTIVE: We carried out this study to fill this gap. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a large, nationally-representative longitudinal birth cohort in the UK. METHODS: We explored reward-based decision-making (using the Cambridge Gambling Task [CGT]) at age 11 years as a function of three aspects of the home environment at age 3 years (assessed by the Short Form of the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment [HOME-SF]): physical organisation of the home, mother's emotional and verbal responsivity, and mother's use of harsh discipline (N = 10,202). RESULTS: Harsh discipline was significantly associated with risk-taking but no other measure on the CGT. Physical organisation and maternal responsivity were not related to any CGT measures. The association between harsh discipline and risk-taking was robust to adjustment for the other HOME-SF variables and confounders including sex, ethnicity, developmental milestones, family income, family structure, home overcrowding, maternal mental health and maternal education but also current (age 11) cognitive ability and pubertal status. CONCLUSIONS: Harsh parenting early in life increases reward sensitivity (or decreases punishment sensitivity) on the cusp of adolescence.

Source: Child Abuse & Neglect

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107699

Authors: Eirini Flouri, Efstathios Papachristou, Dimitris I. Tsomokos

Institution: University College London

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,050