Did Your Childhood Responsibilities Affect You as a Mother?

New study claims mothers who had more responsibility as kids may be significantly less warm towards their own children.

Did you have favorite chores as a kid? Were you expected to help out the family regularly? New research from Michigan State University shows that women who were more pressured into caretaking roles as kids, may grow up to have less successful relationships with their own children. Warm responsiveness was examined across the first 18 months of parenthood for 374 mothers, who also provided reports of their childhood experiences. The study found that the “Results indicated that maternal retrospective reports of higher engagement in parentified roles in family of origin were associated with poorer knowledge of infant development across the first 18 months of parenthood and, in turn, less warm responsiveness with 18-month-old children.”

baby1 — Many factors go into being a successful mother. Image from Wikipedia

What this may mean is that mothers who had more responsibility as kids were significantly less warm and responsive toward their own kids.

While the study does show some concerning statistics, it is widely agreed that the effects of “parentification” can be eased with counseling and education.

_{This study was originally brought to our attention by this article in Quartz: http://qz.com/516029/your-childhood-responsibilities-may-determine-what-kind-of-parent-you-become/}