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Early Maternal Love and Support Boosts Child's Brain Growth

Children whose mothers were nurturing in preschool have robust hippocampus size.

Posted May 2, 2016

Source: Alena Ozerova/Shutterstock

In a perfect world, every mother would have the time, financial resources, and innate maternal instincts to nurture and love her offspring consistently from the moment that child is born. Unfortunately, for a wide range of reasons, it appears that way too many kids grow up feeling unloved and neglected.

It’s common sense that a mother’s love and support is always going to be paramount to a child’s healthy development. Recently, however, researchers have identified that there are particular stages of a child’s brain development that are hypersensitive to a mother’s nurturing love and support, or lack thereof.

Maternal Nurturing During Preschool Age Stimulates Growth of Hippocampus

New cutting-edge research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that preschoolers (3-5 years old) who have supportive mothers display significant increases in hippocampus volume between the period of school age and adolescence. The hippocampus is central to learning, memory, and emotional regulation.

On the flip side, children whose mothers were less loving and supportive during the preschool years, showed less robust hippocampal growth. Interestingly, even if their mothers were able to be more supportive during elementary or middle school... It seems that after preschool, the hippocampus isn't as ripe for the same dramatic response to nurturing as it is earlier in life.

The April 2016 study, “Preschool Is a Sensitive Period for the Influence of Maternal Support on the Trajectory of Hippocampal Development,” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hippocampus in red.

Source: Life Science Databases/Wikimedia Commons

For this study, the researchers measured support and nurturing by monitoring and scoring videotaped interactions between mothers and their children. Then, they made a series of MRI brain scans of children from preschool through early adolescence. The brain imaging shows a much sharper rise in the volume of the hippocampus in the kids whose mothers supported and nurtured them during the preschool years.

In a statement, first author Joan L. Luby, MD, a Washington University child psychiatrist at St. Louis Children's Hospital, said,

"This study suggests there's a sensitive period when the brain responds more to maternal support . . . The parent-child relationship during the preschool period is vital, even more important than when the child gets older. We think that's due to greater plasticity in the brain when kids are younger, meaning that the brain is affected more by experiences very early in life. That suggests it's vital that kids receive support and nurturing during those early years."

In this study, the researchers observed steady growth in the hippocampus of children with supportive mothers across multiple brain scans taken at different time periods. They also found that the growth trajectory in the hippocampus was associated with healthier emotional functioning when the children became teenagers. But, again, they found that when maternal nurturing didn't begin until later in childhood, the love and support didn't seem to provide the same benefits in brain growth.

"This finding highlights the critical importance of caregiving in sculpting aspects of brain development that are important to how children function as they mature," Deanna M. Barch, PhD, a Washington University Psychologist and chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, said in a statement.

Small changes in support indicated big differences in outcomes, according to Luby. In examining the MRI brain scans, the researchers found that children whose mothers were more supportive than average had increases in growth of the hippocampus that were more than two times greater than in those whose mothers were slightly below average on the nurturing scale.

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Luby believes the findings suggest that nurturing has the power to help children do better in school, cope better in life, and develop emotionally. Therefore, it's really important for health providers to help mothers of all ages and walks of life learn how to provide more support and nurturing early in the lives of their children.

"Early maternal support affects the child's brain development," Luby said. "We also know that providing support to parents can have a positive impact on other behavioral and adaptive outcomes in children. So we have a very logical reason to encourage policies that help parents become more supportive."

Conclusion: Mothers Need Support and Nurturing, Too

Many mothers feel extremely guilty about having to send their newborn child off to daycare just three months after welcoming him or her into the world. Sadly, many mothers can't afford to spend as much time nurturing their kids before preschool as they want and need to.

Based on how difficult it is for most Americans to make ends meet, having enough money to provide for your child often requires working two jobs—just so your child can have the basics of food, shelter, and clothing. In our current socioeconomic climate, nurturing a child may seem like a luxury for many Americans. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Especially when people realize the importance of maternal love and support on a child’s developing brain and make it a top priority.

Hopefully, the latest findings on the importance of early maternal love and support will motivate both parents and policymakers to ensure that every mother has the support she needs to provide the nurturing her preschool child wants, needs, and deserves.

To read more on this topic, check out my Psychology Today blog posts,

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