Research Surprises Scientists With Bible's Answer

Ephesians 6:1
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”

Parents today are under a lot of pressure to be more “permissive” and less “authoritative” in raising their children. Research has now shown the results of this progressive thinking.

In a study of 124 youngsters conducted over a twelve-year period, researchers studied parenting styles and the effect of each style on the development of young people. Researchers divided the parenting styles they saw into categories ranging from parents who didn’t seem to care to those who were extremely demanding and restrictive while offering their children little emotional support. They found that parents who consistently set down clear standards of conduct and clearly defined limits, while offering close emotional support, produce teenagers who fared better in academic tests, are emotionally more stable, and are much less likely to be involved with alcohol or drugs than any other group. The so-called “democratic” parenting style, they noted, produced far more heavy drug users than parents who set limits. They also noted that restrictive parents who offer little emotional support for their children tend to produce teens who, while not heavily involved with drugs, are less happy with life and fall below average on academic tests.

Researchers concluded that the limit-setting, rule-enforcing parents who offer strong emotional support to their children are the most successful parents. And this is exactly the style of parenting Scripture teaches us.

Prayer:
Dear Father, I ask that You would provide good support and instructions through fellow believers for Christian parents so that fathers would seek to be toward their children as You are toward us. Amen.

Notes:
Photo: Teenagers in Oslo, Norway. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.