Overprotective parents have more successful kids, study finds
You may roll your eyes at the helicopter, tiger or lawnmower moms in the playground, but it seems that their over-parenting ways are paying off!
A new study has found that overprotective parents are more likely to have successful kids in life.
If you’re unaware of the terms for different types of parenting, a helicopter mom is a protective mom who hovers over her children, a tiger mom is a strict parent who uses tough love and discipline to help their child succeed and a lawnmower parent intervenes or ‘mows down’ any person or obstacle that stands in their child’s way.
Study finds helicopter moms have more successful kids
A study from the University of Essex in the UK found that kids, especially girls, who have moms that set very high standards for them are more likely to be more successful in life.
15,500 students were analyzed and researchers found that parents who have higher expectations of their children ended up with kids who made good choices, ultimately leading to a high-earning career.
“In many cases, we succeeded in doing what we believed was more convenient for us, even when this was against our parents’ will,” says Ericka Rascon-Ramirez, who led the study.
“But no matter how hard we tried to avoid our parents’ recommendations, it is likely that they ended up influencing…choices.”
Parents with a more intensive style of parenting have more accomplished kids
Meanwhile, new research by two U.S. economists found that parents who have a more ‘intensive’ style of parenting often have more accomplished children.
Matthias Doepke of Northwest University and Fabrizio Zilibotti of Yale University analyzed several different data sets and studies. They published their findings in their book, Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids.
Matthias and Fabrizio found there was a correlation between children that score high in their tests at secondary school and having intensive parents, no matter how well educated their parents were.
What’s more, kids who had a parent with an “authoritative style” were more likely to graduate from university.
However, they stress there’s a difference between an authoritative parent and authoritarian parent, the latter being someone who expects their children to obey them and can often be aggressive.
Pamela Druckerman, an opinion writer commenting on these findings, tells The New York Times that authoritative parents are said to use “reasoning to persuade kids to do things that are good for them.”
“Instead of strict obedience, they emphasize adaptability, problem-solving and independence—skills that will help their offspring in future workplaces that we can’t even imagine yet.”
Pamela added: “Working-class and poor parents might not have the leisure time to hover or the budget to pay for activities and expensive schools.
“And they may rightly feel that they need to prepare their children for jobs in which rule-following matters more than debating skills.”
What do you think? What is your parenting type or style?
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