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Parents who exert too much control over their children could be causing them lifelong psychological damage, according to a study which tracked a group of people born in the 1940s until the present day.

Researchers found that people who reported their parents had intruded on their privacy in childhood or encouraged dependence were more likely to have low scores in surveys of happiness and general wellbeing carried out in their teens, their 30s, their 40s and even their 60s.

The negative impact on wellbeing was comparable in scale to that observed in people who have suffered a bereavement, experts from University College London (UCL) said.

 

In contrast, people who said their parents were more caring, warm and responsive to their needs tended to be more content well into adulthood.

The findings are the culmination of a survey which has tracked more than 5,000 people since their birth in 1946. It is well-established that childhood influences can have profound effect on the developing brain, but this is one of the first studies that has attempted to measure their impact over such a long period of time.

Information on parenting styles was only available from the study participants themselves, who were asked to recall their childhoods when in their 40s, and may therefore suffer from a degree of so-called recall bias – unhappy people may be more likely to depict their parents as controlling.

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