Longitudinal links between parenting and children's psychological functioning: The role of parent–child interbrain synchrony

Parenting is known to shape child development, yet the neural processes through which parent-child interaction supports development remain unclear. This longitudinal study tested whether autonomy support and emotional warmth predicted parent-child interbrain synchrony and whether synchrony prospectively predicted children's psychological functioning 1 year later. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning with 105 families (Mchild age = 6.6 years old), with data collection began in May 2023, interbrain synchrony was computed as wavelet transform coherence across corresponding prefrontal and temporal channels during a dyadic block-building task. Paternal autonomy support predicted greater father-child synchrony (p < .001), and maternal emotional warmth predicted greater mother-child synchrony (p = .015). Father-child synchrony predicted fewer attention, internalizing, and externalizing problems (ps ≤ .01). Findings highlight parent-specific neural pathways linking parenting to child development across time.