Bryan Caplan on Parenting
EconTalk
00:00
Parenting: A Dual Edge Sword
The effectiveness of parental influence on children's behavior is uncertain and can swing both ways. Children might either adopt the behaviors modeled by their parents or reject them entirely, often opting for the opposite of what their parents do. This duality suggests that parents face a 50/50 chance of either instilling desired traits in their children or inadvertently prompting them to resist those traits. Research indicates that upbringing typically has little to no impact on how kids turn out, yet the data supports that parental efforts can either succeed in shaping behavior or backfire, leading to opposite outcomes.
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