Study: Controlling parents can be damaging

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. and Hong Kong researchers say controlling parents can cause children to suffer psychologically.

Their report, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, found longitudinal studies show the more parents make decisions for adolescents regarding personal issues, the more the child's emotional suffering will be affected two years later.

Study authors Eva Pomerantz of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and Qian Wang of The Chinese University of Hong Kong say the size of this effect was similar in the United States and China, but effects may not be uniform due to differing attitudes towards education.

The researchers say Western children expect a decrease in supervision and therefore, their psychological functioning may be dependent on the extent to which parents decrease their control over them. However, in East Asian countries, learning has a moral aspect and much greater financial impact and East Asian children may be more accepting of excessive parental involvement.

Nevertheless, Pomerantz and Wang conclude extreme parental meddling can negatively affect the children's psychological development in both of those regions.

"Recommendations that parents limit their intrusiveness in children's lives are likely to be useful both in the West and in East Asia," the study authors say in a statement.