Share Photo: (Photo : Zachary Kadolph / Unsplash) A study on university students found that toxic behaviors of mothers had a powerful effect on how their children viewed themselves and the world — even more powerful than the effect of having a toxic father. Bad Mothers vs. Bad Fathers Macquarie University Department of Psychology associate professor Wayne Warburton presented a study on the effect of toxic behaviors of mothers on their children. The study had 441 university student participants. The study further determined that bad mothering had a worse impact on their children than bad fathering. Children spend more time with their mothers during the crucial years. David Anderson, a counselor, noted, "children feed off the energy of their mothers and become immersed in the same energy-destructive or not." Further, even in two-parent families, the number of toxic mothers has outnumbered toxic fathers, Jamaica Observer revealed.