Your presence is a powerful tool in helping your child navigate the world and overcome their fears. Studies showed how your children are braver when their parents or an older person is around. Here are the new findings of the study.
Parents with children (Credit-Freepik)
Many parents struggle with how to comfort and encourage their children when they’re scared or nervous. A new study offers some interesting insights: a parent’s presence alone can significantly impact how a child‘s brain responds to fear. There have been many studies done related to the human brain and how it reacts when it is in a compromising situation. While flight or fight is the response, which one our brain picks depends on the surroundings. When a child is in a fearful situation, they mostly choose flight or according to the situation choosing not to fight back, for example, when a teacher is scolding them or they are facing older
Learning Fear from Parents
Children are constantly learning from their parents, including what to be afraid of. They often associate something neutral with a fear response based on their parents’ reactions. For example, a child might learn to fear a hot stove after witnessing a parent’s strong reaction when they reach for it. This is called “fear conditioning.”
Learning Safety from Parents
Conversely, children also learn to feel safe by observing their parents’ behaviour. If a parent stays calm during a potentially scary situation, like encountering a new person or place, the child associates the event with safety. Previous research has shown that children are more likely to exhibit bravery when their parents are present.
The Science Behind Your Presence
This new study delves deeper into this process by examining brain activity. Researchers studied children aged 6-17 who were placed in a brain scanner and taught to associate shapes with a loud noise. They compared the children’s brain responses with and without a parent present.
The results were encouraging, children showed a weaker fear response in the amygdala (the brain’s fear centre) when their parent was present, even before learning the fear association. This suggests parents can “buffer” their children’s fear response, meaning they might still experience fear, but with less intensity.
The study also observed a slightly weaker activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) while learning new fears with a parent present. This hints that a parent’s presence might influence how children learn about new fears altogether.
The Power of Presence in Everyday Life
The key takeaway here is that our presence is crucial in how your child responds to fear and learns about new fears. Simply being there, and offering physical comfort (holding hands, touching shoulders), can significantly reduce their anxiety. Additionally, your presence might make them less likely to develop new fears altogether.
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