Although impacts of negative parenting on children's brain development are well‐documented, little is known about how these associations may differ for males and females in childhood. We examined interactions between child sex and early and concurrent parental hostility on children's cortical thickness and surface area. Participants included 63 children (50.8% female) assessed during early childhood (Wave 1: M age = 4.23 years, SD = 0.84) and again three years later (Wave 2: M age = 7.19 years, SD = 0.89) using an observational parent–child interaction task. At Wave 2, children completed a structural MRI scan. Analyses focused on regions of interest. After correcting for multiple comparisons, Wave 1 parental hostility predicted males' reduced thickness in middle frontal and fusiform cortices, and Wave 2 parental hostility was concurrently associated with males' reduced thickness in the middle frontal cortex. Interactions between sex and parenting on children's surface area did not survive corrections for multiple comparisons. Our findings provide support for a male‐specific neural vulnerability of hostile parenting across development. Results have important implications for uncovering neural pathways to sex‐differences in psychopathology, learning, and cognitive disabilities.

中文翻译：

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父母的敌意预示着男性皮层厚度的减少

尽管负父母育儿对儿童大脑发育的影响已得到充分证明，但人们对这些关联在童年时期对男性和女性的影响方面知之甚少。我们研究了儿童性别与早期和同时发生的父母敌对情绪在儿童皮层厚度和表面积上的相互作用。参与者包括63位儿童（儿童1：M年龄 = 4.23岁，SD  = 0.84），并在三年后（Wave 2：M年龄 = 7.19岁，SD）进行了评估（女性：50.8％）。 = 0.89），使用观察性的亲子互动任务。在Wave 2中，孩子们完成了结构性MRI扫描。分析集中在感兴趣的区域。在校正了多个比较后，第一波的父母敌对行为预测了雄性额叶和梭状皮质的厚度降低，第二波的父母敌对行为与男性额叶中部皮质的厚度降低同时存在。性别与育儿之间在儿童表面积上的相互作用无法幸免于多次比较的校正。我们的发现为整个发展过程中敌对育儿的男性特定的神经脆弱性提供了支持。结果对于揭示心理病理学，学习障碍和认知障碍中的性别差异的神经途径具有重要意义。