A new poll found that liberal parents put a much greater emphasis on teaching their children to be creative and tolerant towards others, while conservative ones focus on ensuring children are obedient and religious. And doesn’t that just sum up our nation’s ideological divide right there?
According
to a recently released survey done by Pew Research Center,
there is a lot of commonality between American parents.
In almost every category, there is little difference between conservative and liberal parents. This isn’t surprising, because there are some things that every parent agrees is important to a child’s well-being. Every parent wants, for example, to teach their child to be responsible and hard-working.
Consequently, most parents surveyed reported feeling very passionately about imparting a sense of responsibility and work ethic into their children.
In almost every category, there is little difference between conservative and liberal parents. This isn’t surprising, because there are some things that every parent agrees is important to a child’s well-being. Every parent wants, for example, to teach their child to be responsible and hard-working.
Consequently, most parents surveyed reported feeling very passionately about imparting a sense of responsibility and work ethic into their children.
In fact, lots of categories looked like that. Here is what
Pew found to be the most commonly shared priorities:
But there are differences. And while they may not be exactly revolutionary, they may help to explain why it sometimes feels like conservatives and liberals are talking passed each other.
When
it comes to certain life lessons, conservative parents and liberal parents are
completely different animals. Which are the biggest?
In
the case of liberals, one of the highest priorities is to teach their children
to be tolerant of other people and ideas. A full 88 percent of those who
identify as “consistently liberal” said they find tolerance to be of the utmost
importance. Conservatives, not so much. The same question, put to those
who are “consistently conservative,” found that just 41 percent felt
“tolerance” was important for kids to learn.
In
another example, liberals were adamant about teaching their children things
like creativity, curiosity and empathy. In all three categories, almost all of
the most consistently liberal parents felt strongly about these issues.
Conservatives couldn’t be more different. In “empathy,” for example, just 55
percent said they felt it was important their children learned to empathize
with others.
That
isn’t to suggest that conservative parents were just more apathetic to their
children’s learning in general. There were other things that conservatives felt
strongly about.
For
one, conservatives were much more committed to teaching their children about
religion . Over 80 percent of the conservative parents felt that this was
vitally important, but as parents moved from more conservative to less, the
“religious faith” priority fell off drastically. Just 26 percent of
consistently liberal parents felt the same way (cue the “godless liberals”
stereotype).
Pew
speculated that this has to do with how important religion is to the parent. If
they feel strongly about their own faith, then that passion is projected onto
their children.
The relationship between ideology and opinions about the importance of teaching religious faith is partly, but not wholly, explained by the strong association between religious affiliation and ideological consistency. About four-in-ten (42%) consistent liberals are religiously unaffiliated, compared with just 6% of consistent conservatives. However, differences among ideological groups in these opinions hold even after controlling for religious affiliation and demographic factors.
Another
area that liberals and conservatives disagreed was on teaching their children
to be obedient. Very conservative parents felt the strongest about this
compared to every other group. Very liberal parents placed the least importance
in it.
While
certainly not the only factor, there is research to suggest that these
differences in parenting account for who children grow up to be (and what they
grow up to believe). In a widely cited study published in
the journal Psychological Science in
2012, researchers found that parents who focused on discipline, punishment, and
obsessive adherence to rules raised kids who were much more likely to grow up
to become conservatives.
Pacific
Standard explains:
Those who strongly agreed with such statements as “the most important thing to teach children is absolute obedience to whoever is in authority” were categorized as holding authoritarian parenting attitudes. Those who robustly endorsed such sentiments as “children should be allowed to disagree with their parents” were categorized as holding egalitarian parenting attitudes.
“Parents who endorsed more authoritarian parenting attitudes when their children were one month old were more likely to have children who were conservative in their ideologies at age 18,” the researchers report. “Parents who endorsed more egalitarian parenting attitudes were more likely to have children who were liberal.”
It’s
important to note that being a conservative doesn’t necessarily mean you are,
by default, an authoritarian parent. The study merely shows that those who
emphasize that belief system often wind up making mini-Mitt Romneys.
So
next time you see a Fox News pundit lament the fact that political correctness is taking
away his right to discipline his child, just remember that ensuring
that his children are obedient is extremely important to him. It is no wonder
that he feels such anger over it. You might as well be telling him he can’t
teach his children about Jesus.
Author Jameson Parker covers US politics, social justice issues, and
other current events which aren't getting the attention they deserve. Feel free
to follow or drop him a line on twitter.
