Is it the parents’ fault?

We know how impairing BFRBs can be but know little about risk factors that lead to them. Some research points to genetics, others to neurological malfunctions, while still others to psychological causes with little to no research about the family environment and its role in the development of BFRBs like skin picking disorder.

There is already evidence showing that children of anxious or depressed parents tend to experience anxiety and depression because of genetic and environmental factors. Often, people with skin-picking disorder also have anxiety or depression but the evidence is less clear when trying to figure out of the anxiety causes the skin-picking or vice versa. While genetics play a large role in the mental health disorders people develop, the environment is also a strong factor in that it not only has an epigenetic effect but also a cognitive and behavioral effect. Epigenetics is the influence of the environment on gene activation and explains why twins raised apart have different diseases and mental health disorders despite having the same genes.

A recent study looked at other disorders and sought to determine if anxiogenic parenting contributes to the development of BFRBs. Anxiogenic is a term that describes something as provoking or causing anxiety. Anxiogenic parenting refers to a style that induces and promotes anxiety in children. Families with parents who use this style of parenting may have high levels of conflict, inconsistent boundaries, and rules, overly-control of a child’s behavior, unclear emotional boundaries, or manipulation. Overall, it is not a very effective parenting style.

The assumption for the study is that BFRBs and anxiety are closely related and children with higher levels of anxiety tend to have more severe behaviors. Additionally, dysfunctional parent-child relationships often lead to children developing maladaptive coping methods which may not always be healthy. Since BFRBs tend to start between the ages of 9 and 13, not only is the family environment influential in the onset of the disorder, but also for the early recognition and treatment.

Results suggest that anxiogenic parenting did not predict whether a child would develop BFRBs in general, but when the considered specific BFRBs, the data changed. Parents who scored high on the assessment for anxiogenic parenting were more likely to report their child engaged in skin picking. Further, the higher the angiogenic parenting score, the more severe the skin picking behaviors. In contrast, anxiogenic parenting scores did not correlate with hair pulling or lip/cheek biting.