On the heels of this month's discussion about whether Chinese mother's are superior, a new study suggests maybe there's a bit of truth to the controversial author's case against the permissive North American parenting style.
It suggests that children who display poor self-control as early as three could have a triple the chance of developing problems with the law and addiction.
I'm not terribly keen on research that sends parents into panic that behaviour in the preschool years spells certain juvenile delinquence. But the lead author, Duke University psychologist Terrie Moffitt, makes an interesting point.
“Self-control is a vital skill for scanning the horizon to be prepared for what might happen to you,” she says. In other words, if in an endless quest to cushion self-esteem from the slightest of blows, we don't let our kids learn to cope with small disappointments, we do them no favours for weathering the bigger more complex stuff they encounter down the road.
And it's not just pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps that enforces self-control. Moffitt suggests parents can help encourage that skill even just by giving their children some guidance on saving an allowance for a purchase down the road.
Self-control and resilience are closely related parenting topics and we plan to explore the latter further in an upcoming article, so please stay tuned!
Meanwhile, here are some other bits of news you won't want to miss:
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