According to a new report, children raised by conservative parents are significantly more likely to have a stronger relationship with their parents and are at much lower risk of developing mental health disorders than children raised by liberal parents. While the study does not make the case that political ideology itself leads to better outcomes for children, it does find a strong correlation between conservative political views and successful parenting strategies.
The nonpartisan report, which was released late last month, is a joint project of the Brookings Institution, Gallup, and the Institute for Family Studies. As Jonathan Rothwell, the study’s principal author, notes, prior research on what factors influence adolescent mental health outcomes has “almost completely ignored” parenting styles and the parent-child relationship, which Rothwell argues is the most important influence on whether a child will have mental health challenges.
“Very conservative parents, on average, enjoy the strongest relationships with their adolescent children, and liberals experience the worst,” Rothwell writes. “Conservative parents are 8 percentage points more likely to be in a good relationship with their adolescent child than liberal parents, and the gap is 14 percentage points between very conservative and liberal parents.”
As a result, “Adolescents with very conservative parents are 16 to 17 percentage points more likely to be in good or excellent mental health compared to their peers with very liberal parents.”
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Article URL : https://amac.us/newsline/society/report-children-of-conservative-parents-at-much-lower-risk-for-mental-health-issues/