Keeping Punishment in Check Helps Kids.

• Position: ADHD - Brief article

Cutting back on yelling, criticism, and other harsh parenting approaches, including physical punishment, has the power to calm children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Researchers evaluated physiological markers of emotional regulation in preschool children with ADHD before and after a parent and child intervention aimed at improving family relations. Changes in parenting--including less yelling and physical discipline--led to improvements in children's biological regulation.

"This is the first study to show that improved parenting changes kids biologically," says psychologist and senior author Theodore Beauchaine. "The idea is to change family dynamics so these highly vulnerable kids don't run into big problems down the road, including delinquency and criminal behavior."

Interestingly, increases in positive parenting had no effect. Positive...