Harsh parenting can backfire in teens - Study

Most parents especially the African parents will roll their eyes on this report. A new study has suggested that "harsh" parenting that includes being too firm, frequent yelling, hitting and shoving, using verbal and physical threats as punishment could negatively impact children's behavior and their ability to succeed instead of getting them to on the right path.


The researchers studied 1,482 students from a wide range of racial, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds in a large county in Maryland over a nine-year period, found that teens whose parents were harsh on them from seventh grade until three years after they were expected to graduate from high school were more likely to turn to their peers in unhealthy ways, such as hanging out with friends instead of doing homework or engaging in early sexual behavior. 

The researchers also found that those who were harshly parented were more likely to drop out of school.

"We're primed as individuals to pay attention to our environmental cues. If we're in a situation where there's a lot of harshness, unpredictability or danger, we're more likely to try to capitalize on immediate and short-term rewards," said study co-author Rochelle Hentges, a postdoctoral psychology fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.

In contrast, she said;

"if you're in a really stable, secure environment, it makes sense to put resources toward a long-range goal, like education."

Students were given questionnaire and asked whether their parents yelled, hit and/or shoved them to get a sense of how much physical or verbal aggression they experienced. 

They were also asked about their own relationships with peers, sexual activity and delinquency such as shoplifting.

The children who said in the seventh grade that they experienced harsh parenting were more likely to say in the ninth grade that their peers were more important to them than following their parents' rules or doing homework.

By 11th grade, the kids were more likely to engage in risky behaviors, which included more sexual activity for girls than boys and hitting and stealing for boys.

The study found that children with harsh parenting were more likely to drop out of high school or college three years after high school.

Sarah Feuerbacher, the clinic director at the Southern Methodist University Center for Family Counseling in Dallas though she wasn't involved in the study, said, 

"Other studies have been around for a while showing pretty much the same thing, but I'm thankful research is [still] coming out because ... parents don't heed the research findings.

"The actual parenting piece is what's missing here," Feuerbacher added. "A drill sergeant or prison guard can do the same things the domineering parent is doing."

Seeking validation from peers instead of their harsh parents is the way these teens get the affirmation they crave, said Hentges.

According to Hentges and Feuerbacher, they both agreed that other adults could step in to help guide teens in these scenarios.

"Maybe we need to start focusing on what children can gain immediately from education," Hentges said. "For example, some classrooms are trying to incorporate more hands-on learning, which might help lessen the discouragement toward academics."

While Feuerbacher said effective parents should act like a tennis ball -- "still able to be bounced and squeezed a bit, but staying round and not breaking under pressure.

"This is an analogy I use when I work with parents," she explained. "Parents have to learn to adjust when a child needs them to adjust and stand firm when rules need to be in place. So often, parents really do control the outcome of their children to a large extent."

The study is published online Feb. 8 in the journal Child Development.

Source: HealthDay and CNN