Small actions can be very helpful for children
Several new studies among Syrian refugee families in Turkey and families with infants in Sweden and Bhutan show that children of mothers with poor mental health are at risk of falling behind in their cognitive development. However, very small changes may be sufficient to break this correlation and enable the children to return to their normal level of development. Having plenty of people around you and an accessible community are two of the most important factors in helping children, in all three countries.
“If you improve the mother’s mental health by four percent, the child wins a whole year in its cognitive development, in statistical terms. In other words, small measures can make a big difference to support the next generation, ”says Gustaf Gredebäck, professor of developmental psychology at Uppsala University and head of Uppsala’s child and baby lab, who led the studies.
The research was done through interviews and experimental studies on site in Bhutan, Turkey and Sweden. In Sweden and Bhutan, 120 families with 9-10 month old infants participated. In Turkey, 100 families who had fled Aleppo in Syria participated in the study. They have children between 6 and 18 years old. In Sweden, families with young children were the primary participants in the research conducted by Uppsala Child and Baby Lab. In Bhutan, the material was collected in collaboration with the Faculty of Nursing and Public Health and Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences in Bhutan. In Turkey, the studies have been carried out with the help of researchers from the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University.
A common finding for families in all three countries was that several of the children’s cognitive abilities were affected by their mothers’ mental health, regardless of whether they were a refugee family in Syria or whether the family was in a safe environment in Sweden. The child’s intelligence did not appear to have been affected; rather, it was the child’s attention, social understanding and ability to make decisions that were negatively affected.
Individual conditions around the mother can aggravate the situation. The impact on the child is greater if the mother has a low level of education, has low social support, feels discriminated against and has fallen into social status. But there are also clear initiatives that society can take to improve the mother’s situation and well – being, and thus reduce the impact on the child: to receive support from her partner, to have a large family or a large social network, and for society to come together and support mamman.
“All cultures have aspects that are positive. In Sweden, we have our individualistic environments. We have more equality, for example being able to share parental leave can be a form of relief. At the same time, we have few natural meeting places for relatives and social situations, something that is much stronger in the groups in the other countries. In Bhutan, an active religious life helps a lot. There is a strong connection to religion and many attend religious gatherings several times a week. It gives them routines for regular meetings with others and broad social support. ”
It is important to note that all the correlations described are statistical, ie based on observations between different parts of the studies. Researchers have not yet studied the causality of relationships by improving mothers’ mental health in risk environments and measuring the effects on children’s development. This will be the next step after the current correlation studies.
“It gives hope that only small improvements are apparently needed for the child to be revived. In Sweden, we have to work hard to break the isolation, especially for single mothers. We have no social glue. Many lack strong ties to their relatives and have no extended family to share the burden. We lack continuity in religious rites and do not have many natural contexts to relate to. If we can create more of these opportunities, we can help reverse the development in many children’s cognitive development and offer them a better life, says Gustaf Gredebäck.
For more information:
Gustaf Gredebäck, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Head of Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology at Uppsala University, [email protected], mobile phone: +46 (0) 18-167 94 14
About Uppsala Child and Baby Lab: https://psyk.uu.se/uppsala-barn-och-babylab/
Scientific articles:
Joshua Juvrud, et al. (2021); High-quality social environment buffers infants’ cognitive development from poor maternal mental health: evidence from a study in Bhutan; Developmental Science, DOI: 10.1111 / desc.13203, https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13203
Gredebäck G, et al. (2021); Social cognition in refugee children: an experimental cross-sectional study of emotional processing with Syrian families in Turkish communities. R. Soc. Open Sci. 8: 210362. DOI 10.1098 / rsos.210362; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210362
Astor K, et al (2020) Social and emotional contexts predict the development of the gaze that follows in early infancy. R. Soc. Open Sci .; 7: 201178. DOI: 10.1098 / rsos.201178, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201178
Newspaper
Development science
Method of research
Case study
Topic for research
people
Article title
High-quality social environment buffers infants’ cognitive development from poor maternal mental health: evidence from a study in Bhutan
Date of publication of the article
December 13, 2021
Warning: AAAS and EurekAlert! is not responsible for the accuracy of news releases published on EurekAlert! through contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.