Imagine a team project of any sort. Perhaps a morning roundtable session in a company, or a school science project. Now try thinking how you would try to lead that project as a leader.
For some readers, that very thought may stir dread and feel overwhelmed. Others may already be imagining the necessary steps that need to be taken to tackle the issue at hand.
Where did this divergence happen? For a long time, scientists believed that the answer was in our genes. Children of timid and shy parents were more likely to be similar, and vice versa.
However, researchers have recently started focusing on the effects that parenting may have on the children’s leadership. Some researches have been focusing on the effects that overprotection and pandering to the child’s demand have on the child.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Judith Locke is one expert whose study has focused on this issue. For example, her December 2012 submission to the Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools was an academic approach to excessive parenting.
The main goal of Dr. Locke’s study was to establish a clear definition of overparenting or ‘helicopter parenting’. Interestingly, experts concluded that helicopter parenting included both being too demanding and lax towards their children.
While these parents exerted their demands for the children to excel in their studies, they were too lax on them facing any real difficulties. According to experts who worked in schools, this often involved efforts to plead or order revisions to teachers and counselors.
Dr. Zhengguang Liu’s 2019 research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology built on Dr. Locke’s literature. Dr. Liu focused on the effects that overparenting has on adolescents’ leadership.
By surveying both the students themselves and their peers, Dr. Liu and his team found out that kids with overprotective parents were lacking in leadership skills. Both self-assessment and peer-evaluation showed the same results.
This confirmed what was already felt by many in China. Only abolished in 2015, China adopted a strong one-child policy to control its population growth.
Thus, a whole generation of children have been groomed as the only child, even being called ‘small emperors’ in the household. Dr. Liu’s study shows that this policy may have affected the future leaders of China in ways other than mere demographics.
What is your opinion on these two researches? Are ‘kids these days’ really a thing? Share your thoughts with us in the comments, and follow us on Facebook for more news like this one!
Replaced!