Parents should feed children a healthy diet, have them immunized, and make sure they exercise to keep them physically healthy. And parents should establish warm and supportive relationships with their children to keep them emotionally healthy.

Right?

Well, yes, but emerging research suggests that aspects of parent-child relationships also affect children’s physical health. In other words, hostility and abuse can put a child at risk for not only emotional but also physical problems.

One such study examined information collected from mothers of over 8,000 children born near Bristol and Bath in the UK from the time of their birth to the age of seven. The University of Warwick research team, which included Andrea Waylen, Nigel Stallard and Sarah Stewart-Brown, were particularly interested in whether common parenting “don’ts” impair children’s health down the road. Such mistakes include being hostile, showing resentment, or hitting and shouting.

The researchers found that the more resentment and hostility parents showed their children early on, the more likely it was that they would have health problems later. And the apparent effect of poor parenting was not confined to young mothers or those living in poverty.

However, it is important to note that mothers’ resentment or hostility did not appear to have a particularly strong impact on children. Other factors not included in this study might be more important determinants of children’s health.

The researchers conclude that if further studies produce were to produce similar findings, then policies to improve parenting could be expected to have a beneficial, although modest, impact on children’s physical health as well on as their emotional and social development. The findings also suggest that parenting programs be made available to all parents, not just those from poor backgrounds.

• Summary of “Parenting and health in mid-childhood: a longitudinal study” by Andrea Waylen, Nigel Stallard and Sarah Stewart-Brown in The European Journal of Public Health, June 2008, Volume 18, Issue 3, pp 300-305.