Parents, your teenagers hear your criticism more than your praise, a new study suggests – CTV
Sept. 12, 2023
Receiving tough love from parental figures can sometimes cause more harm than good, according to a new study published in Psychological Medicine, which found that adolescents with depression are more sensitive to criticism than praise.
The study suggests that negative interactions between parents and adolescents could be correlated with the development of depression, indicated by measurements of heightened brain activity and mood ratings.
Researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands recruited 20 Dutch teens between the ages of 13 and 18 who were all diagnosed with either mild or major depression, 59 adolescents aged 12 to 18 without any signs of depression, along with their parents, to learn about emotional responses to parental interactions.
The researchers assessed responses to what the study calls “feedback words,” or single descriptive words that evoke specific emotions. Participants and their parents were asked to categorize these words as either “negative” words such as untrustworthy, “neutral” words such as chaotic, or “positive” words such as funny.
