Researchers at the University of California, Riverside found evidence that parenting tactics can influence “problem behaviors” in teenagers.
According to a new study published in Journal of Youth and Adolescence, teens viewed their parents’ discipline tactics more negatively than parents did, causing increased levels of aggression. Misaki Natsuaki, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, gave the following statement in regards to problem behavior in teens, according to PsyPost.
“In some cases, teens perceive parenting to be harsher than how their parents intend to – in other cases, teens perceive parenting to be more lenient than how parents intend to. With this study, it’s become clear that both the teens’ and parents’ views of how parents manage their teens’ difficult behaviors were uniquely important in predicting teenage problem behaviors.”
Natsuaki continued by saying, “with this study, it’s become clear that both the teens’ and parents’ views of how parents manage their teens’ difficult behaviors were uniquely important in predicting teenage problem behaviors.”
Furthermore, researchers carefully analyzed how parents disciplined their teenagers’ aggressive behavior.
Based on data from 220 families, it was concluded that teens viewed parenting more negatively than parents did. As a result, the teens showed higher levels of problem behaviors. Moreover, the study also showed the importance of adolescents’ evaluation of how fathers and mothers handled the aggressive behavior.
According to researchers, the mother’s perception of her response to her teenager’s aggression was synonymous with externalizing behavior, but not with the anger. The father’s perception, on the other hand, was correlated with externalizing behavior and anger.
“Fathers are relatively understudied compared to mothers, but our findings show that the father-teen relationship is a unique one, and has the potential to exacerbate or hinder the teens’ problem behavior, including aggressive behavior,” Natsuaki concluded.
