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High levels of family conflict can have a negative effect on children's development, but most people tend to think that this doesn't apply to babies. 

A new study, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, found that the level of partner aggression at the birth of a child and change over time predicts moms' harsh parenting at three years of age. 

"In fact, we are now finding the toxic stress in families applies to babies as well as children. People should mind their relationships with their spouses, not just with their babies," said Philip A. Fisher, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and scientist at the independent, non-profit Oregon Social Learning Center. 

At issue is whether psychological aggression - name-calling, arguing and slamming doors - and physical abuse between parents leads to harsh parenting in a high-risk sample across the early years of child rearing. 

The neuroimaging research will help us better understand the direct effects of aggression on children, said Fisher. 

"Early conflict may be interfering with the ability to be positive, nurturing parents," he said. "We need to be concerned about how this may affect the children."

This study is part of a longitudinal research effort involving more than 400 mothers in high-risk family environments, based mostly on risk for child-welfare involvement and socioeconomic status, who were initially recruited at a San Diego, Calif., hospital when their children were born in 1996-97.

The findings of the new paper are intriguing, said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation at the University of Oregon.

"They raise questions to whether these patterns of parenting are enduring and thus affect child development, or whether there is something unique about infancy that produces such longer term impacts," Espy said. 

"This work shows the power of translational clinical neuroscience, where cutting-edge science findings can be coupled with modern neuroimaging approaches to hopefully lead to new intervention approaches that help parents interact better and, in turn, reduce deleterious impacts on the developing child."