Parents Do These Things Raise Happier Children

Posted on September 11, 2017

Parents who show more warmth and affection and are less controlling have children who are happier in adulthood, a new study has found. Children of parents who over-control tend to have worse mental well-being.

According to Dr. Mai Stafford, one of the study’s authors, children with warm and less controlling parents had greater life satisfaction and mental well-being from early through late adulthood. The study had a longitudinal design and followed 5,362 people from birth in 1946. 2000 of the participants completed follow-up surveys over sixty years later.

The results found that children with controlling parents were not allowed to make their own decisions, have their own opinions and did not respect their children’s privacy. The effects of this over-control were felt by participants in their 60s.

The lack of parental warmth also made it hard to foster a strong attachment with parents. A stronger emotional attachment between parent and child provides a better foundation for children to learn about the world.


Category(s):Parenting

Source material from PSYBLOG