The other day I heard an old song by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, titled “Teach Your Child.” By pure serendipity that same morning I had read an article on Townhall, titled, “Liberal Parenting Contributes to Mental Illness in Kids.”
It appears to me that there are ongoing societal mental health problems, and these issues seem to be worsening. The causes for this are multifactorial, but could one reason be the increasing number of liberal parents?
From Townhall:
“A widely ignored study from Gallup and the Institute for Family Studies shows that children who are raised in politically liberal households are more likely to suffer mental health problems than kids from conservative homes.
In the study synopsis Parenting is the Key to Adolescent Mental Health, author Jonathan Rothwell focuses on different parenting styles and how they affect child development. The study then correlates these styles with political ideology and mental illness among children.
The parenting style spread between liberal and conservative parents is not small. “Just 40% of liberal parents scored above average on the index, whereas 71% of very conservative parents and 56% of conservative parents did,” notes the report. Researchers also found that, “Very conservative parents are also somewhat more likely to report giving their child hugs and kisses every day. Generally speaking, political conservatism is associated with more responsive and discipline-oriented parenting.”
Could this outcome difference as far as the mental health of adolescents be related to religion?
Still from Townhall::
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, political conservatives are more likely than liberals to identify as religious. Gallup released a study on politics and religion on September 1, 2023, and found that 81% of Republicans are Protestant or Roman Catholic, while 61% of Democrats similarly identified. The study also revealed that 26% of Democrats reported no religious affiliation at all compared with just 11% of Republicans.”
The increasing secularity of liberal Democrats suggests to me that perhaps they should listen to Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and teach their children … religion!
12/11/23