"Because I said so" is probably one of the most frequently heard lines in a strict household. For some parents, discipline means setting rules and expecting their children to follow them blindly, without questioning or challenging their decisions. Many parents believe they have unquestionable authority over their children, almost a sense of ownership, simply because they brought them into the world. "I kept you, I carried you for nine months" is something many children might have heard while growing up. But how often do parents stop to consider whether their children ever asked to be born? They did not ask their parents to bring them into the world. Having children was the parents' decision, and that decision came with the responsibility of raising another individual, not owning one. Children do not owe their parents their individuality or unquestioning obedience. If anything, parents owe their children the freedom to grow into individuals of their own. The times become especially tough when the child matures a little and develops a sense of individuality, a personality of their own. For the first time in their lives, they begin to think of themselves as separate from their parents, and probably that is why adolescence is the hardest time for parents. This is the time when the real test of a parent-child relationship happens. Either, after adolescence, the child comes out as their parents' best friend or becomes a stranger connected by the surname. People who are strict as parents think they are doing their child a favour, keeping them safe and disciplined or getting them ready for the real world. But do you know this might be affecting the psyche of their children more than they even realise? A new US study suggests that teenagers raised by authoritarian parents, who place a strong emphasis on obedience and unquestioning compliance, tend to hold more antisocial beliefs. A study titled "Longitudinal associations between authoritarian parenting and adolescent antisocial thinking, depression, and anxiety: Between- and within-person effects", led by researchers Wusirige and Bo Jian, along with Gabriel J. Merrin, examined how authoritarian parenting practices are associated with teenagers' antisocial thinking and mental health. Published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, the study followed 491 US adolescents, with an average age of 15.28 years, across four waves of data collection between November 2021 and summer 2023. The researchers examined whether parenting practices characterised by strict control, hostility and punishment were associated with changes in adolescents' antisocial beliefs, anxiety and depressive symptoms over time.
Teenagers with authoritarian parents showed more antisocial thinking
According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), antisocial behaviour involves a persistent disregard for other people's rights and social norms. It can include behaviours such as deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggression, irritability and a lack of remorse for actions that cause harm. Sounds horrible, doesn't it? But antisocial tendencies do not always begin with such extreme behaviour. They can also take shape through the attitudes and beliefs a person develops towards others, including a tendency to justify aggression, disregard rules or show little concern for how their actions affect other people. During adolescence, these beliefs are still developing and can influence how young people understand and respond to the world around them. The researchers examined how authoritarian parenting was associated with teenagers' attitudes towards antisocial behaviour. They found that adolescents who experienced higher levels of authoritarian parenting tended to show more persistent antisocial thinking over time. This included beliefs that could justify behaviours such as bullying others or breaking rules. In other words, teenagers who experienced stricter, more controlling parenting were also more likely to hold attitudes that normalised harmful or disruptive behaviour.
Authoritarian parenting was also linked to anxiety and depression in teenagers
Apart from antisocial thinking, the researchers also examined whether authoritarian parenting had any association with anxiety and depression among teenagers. They found that the relationship was not as straightforward. While higher levels of authoritarian parenting were not significantly associated with higher anxiety and depression across the group as a whole, the researchers did observe an increase in these symptoms among individual teenagers over time.
This association became apparent at the final stage of the study, around 18 months after the initial assessment. The researchers, however, caution against considering authoritarian parenting the sole cause of antisocial behaviour among teenagers. The study does establish an association between the two, which cannot be ignored. Parenting is not simply about teaching children what to do and what not to do. It is also about helping them understand why certain choices matter and allowing them the space to make decisions, question ideas and develop their own judgement. Rules and discipline have their place, but when obedience becomes more important than understanding, the relationship between parents and children can suffer. After all, the purpose of raising a child should not be to create someone who follows every instruction without question, but an individual who can think independently, respect others and make sense of the world on their own.
