I CAN’T GET THAT WITCH VOICE
out of my head!

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SITE: COMICS (variety)

♥️ Parenting styles & SUCESS : The promise of upward mobility is a central tenet of the American Dream, one of our core civic values.

The SOCIAL GENOME Model (SGM), from the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. ASKs :
Is the USA still an opportunity society? Can people achieve the American Dream? How can we help more people reach the middle class?
The SGM tracks the academic, social & economic experiences of individuals from birth through middle age —> in order to identify the most important paths to upward mobility.
(“The achievement gap…..” // “Social Genomics”)

Achieving the ‘dream’ depends on being born to adults who are ready to be parents, PLUS being able to succeed at each subsequent stage in life.  5 benchmarks have been identified as good predictors of eventual economic success:
• born to a non-poor, 2-parent family
• being ready for school at age 5
• mastering core academic & social skills by age 11
• graduating from HS with decent grades & avoiding risky behaviors during adolescence
• getting a post-secondary degree (PhD), or the equivalent income before age 30.

This CHART ↗️ clearly shows by % what we know intuitively & from experience:  (see also “Parenting Gap”)
• children of strong parents are the clear winners, and
• children of weak parents are consistently the least successful thru life
• children of average parents fall in between, but are closer to the ‘lucky’ ones in performance.
AND – If weak parents improve themselves to become average, their children will have an almost 10% improvement in their success rate.

Composite RESULTS of Parenting Styles (cont)

Parenting styles & TEEN DRINKING
Many factors contribute to teenagers’ experimentation with alcohol & drugs. Genes play a significant role, as do peer relationships. And since teens can be adversarial – it’s better to start talking to them about ‘using’ while they’re still young, as early as 4th grade.

Researchers at Brigham Young University have found that teens who grow up with parents who are either too strict or too indulgent tend to binge drink more than their peers. Stephen Bahr,  sociologist at BYU. observed  that “While parents didn’t have much of an effect on whether their teens tried alcohol or not, they can definitely have a significant impact on the more dangerous type of drinking,” 

• Teens raised by indulgent parents – who tend to give their children lots of praise & warmth but do not teach them to monitor bad behavior nor about its consequences – were among the biggest abusers of alcohol (about 3x more likely than peers)

• The same was true if parents were so strict that the teens don’t learn to use their own judgment. In fact – “Kids in that environment tend not to internalize parental values nor understand why they shouldn’t drink,” says Bahr. They’re 2-3x more likely to binge drink.

• The parenting style that led to the lowest levels of problem drinking borrowed something from each of the 2 extremes:
— from the indulgent end: warmth & support, AND
— from the strict end: accountability & consequences for bad behavior
CHART from “Successful Parenting”

NEXT: Parenting styles (Part 5)