Teens who have “very conservative” parents are 22% more likely to have good or excellent mental health compared to teenagers with liberal parents, according to recent polling by Gallup.
The findings are described in a detailed report released in November by the non-partisan Institute for Family Studies (IFS).
“Only 55% of adolescents of liberal parents reported good or excellent mental health compared to 77% of those with conservative or very conservative parents,” notes the IFS report.
The report, written by Gallup economist and Brookings Institution senior fellow Jonathan Rothwell, found that conservative and very conservative parents were the “most likely to adopt the parenting practices associated with adolescent mental health.”Rothwell observed that “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.”
“This relationship between conservativism and parenting remains significant even after controlling for an extensive list of parental demographic and socio-economic measures,” he noted, and the study’s results applied regardless of race, ethnicity, household income, education level, or the parent’s sex.
The recent Gallup poll results are also reported by Fox News. They are consistent with longstanding research showing that people who identify as progressive report lower levels of happiness and psychological well-being than conservatives. This is known as the“well-being gap.”
Intellectual Takeout says:
Intended or not, the IFS report effectively flips sweeping secular narratives about politics and parenting on their head.
While popular culture commonly portrays the discipline of conservative parents as repressive and even harmful, the data shows it is in fact a strong predictive factor of excellent mental health for teenagers.
But it goes deeper.
In the face of a secular paradigm that decries any boundary as depriving young people of freedom, the data show that discipline in fact results in youth who are much freer and significantly less encumbered by the high rates of depression and anxiety weighing down their peers.
Challenging the notion that conservative parents are strict but unloving, the IFS report uncovered discipline and affectionate warmth as two sides of the same conservative-parenting coin.
In the report, Rothwell also noted the important role that parents’ attitudes towards marriage and their spouses played in an adolescent’s mental health.
Best parenting practices were most commonly found among parents who reported having a strong relationship with their spouse. And adults who have a high view of the institution of marriage, a positive view of their own marriage, and optimism about their child’s future marriage prospects were “significantly more likely to employ responsive, disciplined parenting practices compared to parents who do not hold these views.”…
Rothwell explains that while one of the tasks of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is to document adolescent mental health problems and identify the most effective ways to prevent them, the agency’s “summary pages and recommendations on youth mental health … almost completely ignore the most important known determinant of youth mental health: parent-child relationships.” Instead, the CDC urges parents to seek out mental health experts for assistance in dealing with teen depression and related problems.
Speaking with Fox News, Rothwell called this situation “very disappointing” and lacking a scientific foundation.
“It’s kind of easier to tell parents that if your teen is struggling, it’s not your fault, it’s not anything that you’re doing, it’s probably just something in their genes,” he said.
In reality, notes Rothwell, “Teenage biology hasn’t changed but depressive symptoms have.”
