‘Teens more likely to be mentally healthy if they have conservative parents, study says’
(UnSplash Photo)
Notice the following:
Teens more likely to be mentally healthy if they have conservative parents, study says
December 9, 2023
A new study reveals what would be a big ho-hum for conservatives, but might be revelatory for others: that teens with conservative parents are likely to be more health mentally.
My colleagues and I at Gallup launched a study this summer to understand the causes. We surveyed 6,643 parents, including 2,956 who live with an adolescent, and we surveyed an additional 1,580 of those adolescents. We asked about mental health, visits to doctors, parenting practices, family relationships, activities, personality traits, attitudes toward marriage, and other topics, including excessive social media use, as discussed in prior work. I present the results in a new Institute for Family Studies and Gallup research brief.
The findings are clear. The most important factor in the mental health of adolescent children is the quality of the relationship with their caregivers. This, in turn, is strongly related to parenting practices—with the best results coming from warm, responsive, and rule-bound, disciplined parenting. The data also reveal the characteristics of parents who engage in best-practices and enjoy the highest quality relationships.
Further, the report specified, “Conservative and very conservative parents are the most likely to adopt the parenting practices associated with adolescent mental health.” …
It documented that there’s “no variation” in different economic situations, either.
“The results may be shocking to many highly educated Americans who were taught to believe that socioeconomic status dictates everything good in life. Income doesn’t buy better parenting, and more highly educated parents do not score better, either. Parenting style and relationship quality also do not meaningfully vary by race and ethnicity within our U.S. sample,” the report said.
It noted, pointedly, that there are “some parental characteristics” that do have an impact. https://www.wnd.com/2023/12/teens-likely-mentally-health-conservative-parents-study-says/
Well, this is not a surprise as “conservative” parents are more likely to accept aspects of the Bible or at least biblical morality than more “liberal” parents.
The study comes from the Institute for Family Studies and Gallup, and a report authored by Jonathan Rothwell found, here is more from that directly:
Parenting Is the Key to Adolescent Mental Health
After a decade of surging adolescent mental health problems and suicide, the nation’s leading public health authorities have declared an emergency. Unfortunately, the solutions proposed by organizations like the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics—such as increased funding for diagnostic and psychiatric services—do not meet the challenge and ignore what are likely to be the most important causes. Adolescent biology hasn’t changed. …
When it comes to the quality of parenting practices and the quality of child-parent relationships, there is no variation by socioeconomic status. The results may be shocking to many highly educated Americans who were taught to believe that socioeconomic status dictates everything good in life. Income doesn’t buy better parenting, and more highly educated parents do not score better, either. Parenting style and relationship quality also do not meaningfully vary by race and ethnicity within our U.S. sample.
These results are not unique to the Gallup sample. In 1997 and 1998, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics collected summary data on adolescent parent-child relationships. My analysis of these data shows that parental income, wealth, and race/ethnicity don’t bear any relationship with the parenting measures predictive of the long-term well-being of children. Education explained less than 1% of the variation. …
Political ideology is one of the strongest predictors. Conservative and very conservative parents are the most likely to adopt the parenting practices associated with adolescent mental health. They are the most likely to effectively discipline their children, while also displaying affection and responding to their needs. Liberal parents score the lowest, even worse than very liberal parents, largely because they are the least likely to successfully discipline their children. By contrast, conservative parents enjoy higher quality relationships with their children, characterized by fewer arguments, more warmth, and a stronger bond, according to both parent and child reporting.
Aside from political ideology, parents who think highly of marriage—by disagreeing that it is an outdated institution and agreeing that it improves the quality of relationships by strengthening commitment—exhibit better parenting practices and have a higher quality relationship with their teens. Parents who wish for their own children to get married someday also tend to be more effective parents. Those who embrace a pro-marriage view on all three have the best outcomes. 11/30/23 https://ifstudies.org/blog/parenting-is-the-key-to-adolescent-mental-health
There were no significant differences between Black, Hispanic, and White parents. Married scored higher than other parents, but the differences are only significant in comparison to divorced parents and the gap is small. …
Parental political ideology is another strong predictor of parenting style. Liberal parents had the lowest scores, meaning they were the least likely to endorse items indicating warm, disciplined parenting. Just 40% of liberal parents scored above average on the index, whereas 71% of very conservative parents and 56% of conservative parents did. Very liberal parents score roughly the same as moderate parents (48% and 49%, respectively).
Disciplinary action shows the largest political divide. For example, 80% of very conservative parents disagreed with the statement “my child often gets their way when we have a conflict” compared to 66% of conservative parents, 64% of moderate parents, 53% of liberal parents, and 55% of very liberal parents. Very conservative parents are also somewhat more likely to report giving their child hugs and kisses every day. Generally speaking, political conservatism is associated with more responsive and discipline-oriented parenting, or what the child development literature would characterize as an “authoritative” style, in contrast to permissive or authoritarian styles. This relationship between conservativism and parenting remains significant even after controlling for an extensive list of parental demographic and socio-economic measures. https://ifstudies.org/ifs-admin/resources/briefs/ifs-gallup-parentingteenmentalhealthnov2023.pdf accessed 12/09/23
“Liberal” parents would be more supportive of more aspects of the LGBTQ+ agenda than conservative ones.
Last summer, I posted the following here:
The Conspiracy Against Normality
July 8, 2023
Do your country a favor and ask yourself why the US corporate and financial world have organized to force straight Americans to celebrate sexual perversity for ONE MONTH? Why do corporate executives and boards think we should be proud of sexual perversity? Who organized this campaign against normality? Why did corporate executives and boards put the self-serving interest of sexual perverts ahead of the interests of their stockholders and their own performance bonuses? Why aren’t we instead celebrating normality? …
Clearly there is a well-organized conspiracy in the Western world against normality, a conspiracy dedicated to constructing a Sodom & Gomorrah. Who is behind this? Why are leading corporations participating in this effort to overthrow the traditional family, parental authority, traditional morality, and traditional society? Who gains from this idiocy. Why are Western peoples tolerating this blatant conspiracy against them? Why do they drink Anheuser-Busch beer, shop at Target, bank with woke financial institutions? Are Western peoples so insouciant that they have no idea what is happening, or do they just not care? https://www.sgtreport.com/2023/07/the-conspiracy-against-normality/
Who gains?
Satan.
The American Thinker posted the following last year:
Normalizing Perversion
The reasons for the Left’s perverse sexualizing of very young children make sense only if you are sexually neurotic. None of it makes sense if you are a rational, healthy, sexually normal person. For example, what is to be gained by first graders learning about drag queens and transsexuality? How is a child’s life improved, how is the culture improved when children whose brains are not physically equipped to process such information get exposed to it? If it is the hope of sexualizers that children will be more accepting of perversity, to what end? …
When we ask “cui bono?” regarding this kind of sexual malfeasance, we discover that it is the libidinous wolves of both sexes that benefit, not the children. 05/04/22 https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/05/normalizing_perversion.html
Yes, schools should not be doing that. Nor should parents.
The Bible teaches that a perverse heart departs from God (Psalm 101:4).
The Bible warns:
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
Those who normalize perversion and murder of innocents are doing that.
As far as properly educating children, the Bible teaches:
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6).
Those who obey God’s commands teach and train their children.
They also spend time with their children as Deuteronomy 6 admonishes them to.
The Continuing Church of God also put together the following related video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:
Parents want their children to grow up to lead happy, healthy, and productive lives. Former US Congressman Ron Paul wrote that government schools have no business instructing young children in sexuality. The American Thinker asserted that schools are improperly trying to indoctrinate children in a way of ‘normalizing perversion.’ What does the Bible teach about instructing children? What does the Bible teach about having a perverse mouth or engaging in perversity? Does the Bible tie perversity in with abominations? What about things like cross-dressing? What are the results of teaching or engaging in perversity? What about those that only approve them? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more.
Here is a link to our video: Do not indoctrinate children in perversion.
As far as discipline goes, parents are to discipline their children.
The Bible teaches:
13 Don’t fail to discipline your children. They won’t die if you spank them. (Proverbs 23:13, New Living Translation, NLT)
10 Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, And he who hates correction will die. (Proverbs 15:10)
17 Correct your son, and he will give you rest; Yes, he will give delight to your soul. (Proverbs 29:17)
A decade ago, we put out the following video:
While a lot of child rearing is an on–the-job learning experience, this video provides five rules that Christian parents may find helpful in becoming more effective parents. This video urges truthfulness and elimination of hypocrisy, as well as providing practical ideas in areas such as discipline.
Here is a link to our video: Five Rules for Effective Parenting.
Those rules still are applicable now.
Some links to items of possibly related interest:
Five Rules for Effective Parenting Do you know that there are five simple rules that can make you a more effective parent? Here is a link to a version in Mandarin Chinese N”ga{€SUg eHv„[PYsQ{€²‰ÄR. There is also a 12 1/2 minute English language YouTube video on this, also titled Five Rules for Effective Parenting.
What Psychologists do not Know About Child Rearing This is an article by Herbert Armstrong that was used as the introduction to the pdf booklet The Plain Truth About Child Rearing.
Cross-dressing and other assaults against your children. What should you do? Is there an agenda to turn your children and/or grandchildren away from biblical morality and towards practices promoted by homosexuals? What does the Bible teach about cross-dressing? What should parents do? If there is an agenda, what has been going on? There are also three YouTube videos related to this, titled Transgender ‘Woe to those who call evil good’, Do not indoctrinate children in perversion, and Cross dressing and Other Assaults Against Your Children.
 |
Tweet |
|