When Parents Disengage with Their Children, Gun Engagement in Adolescence is More Likely to Occur :

Despite all that we try to do to build strength and resiliency in caregivers and their children, disengagement, characterized by poor parental involvement, poor communication, or simply poor parent-child relationships, can happen. When this does, what happens to children when they get older?  To answer that question Beardslee et al. (10.1542/peds.2018-1552) looked at youth-reported gun carrying in a cohort of 5,023 boys studied from first grade to age 20 in Pittsburgh.  The authors asked parents to report disengagement between ages 7.5 to 10 years, and then the children in were asked to report their involvement with peer delinquency and teachers were asked to report their observation of externalizing behaviors such as bullying and anger outbursts between 10 .5 and 13 years.  The authors found that 20% of the teens in the sample were carrying guns and also found a significant association between parental disengagement and gun carrying that was only made worse if the child was involved with peer delinquency or externalizing behaviors early in adolescence.  If ever there was a call for us to put more time into strengthening parental engagement in early childhood, this study provides that call.  We can never stress enough the importance of teaching parents to focus on the positive to build strength and resiliency in themselves as parents and in their children.  Yet this study may help us do even more to encourage parents to focus on strength building when interacting with their children.  Set your sights on this study and use it to strengthen the positive parenting discussions you are have with your patients and their families.