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Do Children Just Take Their Parents' Political Beliefs? It's Not That Simple
The Atlantic ^ | 05/02/2014 | TE-ERIKA PATTERSON

Posted on 05/02/2014 7:29:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

A recent study shows that children who are raised to have strong beliefs are also more likely to rebel against those views as they age.

It is widely believed that children will imitate their parents’ behaviors and attitudes—whether parents want them to or not. The 1961 Bobo Doll experiment, conducted by Stanford professor Albert Bandura, demonstrated that children will interact with others in the precise manner that was modeled for them by adults.

Given this responsibility, many parents try to instruct their children and impart their views, perhaps hoping their kids become carbon copies of themselves, or become the people they wish they were themselves.

For some parents, this quest takes on a missionary zeal: They work to indoctrinate their children with a designated political viewpoint from an early age, raising them to be young ideologues. But new research suggests trying to plant those seeds during potty training might actually be the fastest way to guarantee political rebellion later on.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservative; liberal; politics; republican; upbringing
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1 posted on 05/02/2014 7:29:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I think I raised my kids to think for themselves. They are both conservative. I have also encouraged my grandchildren to do the same. The largest part of that is giving them the information and teaching to be able to make decisions.


2 posted on 05/02/2014 7:34:36 AM PDT by tiki
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To: SeekAndFind

Parents raise conservative, government schools convert to liberalism, later on reality may bring them back.


3 posted on 05/02/2014 7:35:29 AM PDT by MNDude
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To: SeekAndFind

If I took on my parents’ political beliefs I would be a progressive moron

as it is,everybody hates me

don’t know which is worse


4 posted on 05/02/2014 7:36:47 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: SeekAndFind

My parents were liberal but became conservative. Of my 4 sisters and myself I’m the one who has always been conservative. 3 of my sisters have drifted conservative and one went full full moonbat.


5 posted on 05/02/2014 7:37:29 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
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To: tiki

I went through a period in my 20’s of HEAVILY rebelling against the Conservative political and religious opinions of my mom. Would probably get banned from FR if I told you some of the people and things I voted for during that time.

After I started having kids of my own life whacked me upside the head and convinced me how much damned sense she made.

Fortunately I became a dad at 26. So my adolescence did not extend into my 40’s as it seems to with a lot of guys these days.


6 posted on 05/02/2014 7:37:49 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

Interesting to look and northern mid-west families with a Scandinavian background (I’m from one).

There ain’t telling which way the coin will flip.

Hard core lib parents might get 50% libs and 50% conservatives for kids while hard core conservatives might get the same.


7 posted on 05/02/2014 7:41:54 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Though never nurtured in the lap
Of luxury, yet I admonish you,
I am an intellectual chap,
And think of things that would astonish you.
I often think it’s comical—Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive—Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That’s born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!”

It is true, so some extent. You may be raised one way or another, but eventually your true character and nature will come to the fore.

My niece was raised as a liberal, but after graduating from college and going out into the real world, her views changed.


8 posted on 05/02/2014 7:45:29 AM PDT by proxy_user
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Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6


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9 posted on 05/02/2014 7:48:43 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: SeekAndFind

Inadvertently, the article explains that despite the best efforts of the left to indoctrinate the children the real world interferes.

Perhaps if they read history and quotes from dreaded people like Winston Churchill, they would better understand that political views are neither fixed nor constant, but are shaped by our exposure to the real world. It’s pretty clear that the Won in the White House has never had that exposure.


10 posted on 05/02/2014 7:52:34 AM PDT by Steamburg (Other people's money is the only language a politician respects)
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To: SeekAndFind

What about children whose parents give them names like “Te-Erika”?


11 posted on 05/02/2014 7:52:45 AM PDT by Tax-chick (I'd forgotten how much fun it is having a dog.)
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To: SeekAndFind
A re-hash of the Nature vs nurture argument. Political beliefs may originally be based on what is learned in the home, but later is changed by what an individual learns for themselves.

This learning takes time, so that's why, IMO, older people tend to lean conservative.

------

That isn't to say some people can't start out conservative. I have a conservative daughter, and I also have a more liberal one...... but their political views have nothing to do with age, because they're twins.

12 posted on 05/02/2014 7:53:49 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am a Person as created by the Laws of Nature, not a person as created by the laws of Man)
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To: SeekAndFind

From what I can see, most kids grow up determined to avoid the mistakes they saw in their parents - which is why they usually end up repeating the errors of their grandparents.


13 posted on 05/02/2014 8:10:32 AM PDT by jdege
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ve notice how often we hear of “Republican” children turning left and how rarely we hear of “Democrat” children turning constitutionalist.


14 posted on 05/02/2014 8:11:39 AM PDT by Theodore R. (It was inevitable: Texans will always be for Cornball and George P.!)
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To: Tax-chick
I noticed that myself. I'm wondering if it's a variation on "Ti" as in "Ti-Grace Atkinson", (pronounced TEE-Grace) which is a legitimate shortening of "petite", amongst the Cajun and Haitian French-speakers.

"Little Erika," like "Little Grace".

Or maybe not.

15 posted on 05/02/2014 8:40:17 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Sanity is the adequate response of the mind to the real thing: adaequatio mentis ad rem.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Two of mine are very conservative. The other, a journalism major is a liberal. Two out of three ain’t bad but we are working on it....


16 posted on 05/02/2014 8:44:17 AM PDT by jch10 (The Democrat mascot shouldnÂ’t be the donkey; it should be the tick.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I find that sending my child to a liberal/commie school is helping to make my child a hardcore conservative.

First, most of what my daughter learns in school, I can prove those teachings false with news articles off the internet. Even using liberal news sites to do it.

Second, the teachers and other students who are liberal are smug and intolerant. Anytime my child offers another point of view, she learns the hard way how “nice” liberals can be.


17 posted on 05/02/2014 8:50:52 AM PDT by dragonblustar ( Psalm 103, Psalm 37:7, Ephesians 6:12)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Maybe her parents named her Erika, and she added “Te-” to be unique-y.


18 posted on 05/02/2014 9:05:34 AM PDT by Tax-chick (I'd forgotten how much fun it is having a dog.)
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To: SeekAndFind
My parents we "Democrat" through habit. They grew up in a blue-collar, factory town. They voted "Democrat" because they assumed that "Republicans" were the party of the rich.

At heart though, my parents were conservative in their beliefs. Although they always worked at more blue-collar jobs, they wanted their kids to work hard, get an education, and hopefully leave the lower middle-economic class.

As an older teen, I wasn't rooted in any particular political philosophy, though I was "liberal-minded." I had an idyllic approach to the world, and was more anti-establishment. I'd have likely been a hippie, if it were still the 1960's.

Fortunately, I joined the military when Reagan was President, and after six years, discovered that I too, pro-military, pro-America, and very conservative. I went back to school, got my degree, and challenged as much liberal PC-think as I could.

My parents saw my transformation, and came to the realization that whatever Democrat Party they knew as young adults, the whacko left-wing had taken over. They aligned much more with me, and because of this, we enjoy growing older together. They will likely never vote for a Democrat as long as they live. If given the choice, they will support a Tea Party candidate.

19 posted on 05/02/2014 9:13:00 AM PDT by Lou L (Health "insurance" is NOT the same as health "care")
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To: SeekAndFind

My Dad was a European socialist.
I have 2 girls, 1 is pretty conservative, while the other is fiscally conservative but more socially liberal.
and she’s my veteran! So ya never can tell.


20 posted on 05/02/2014 9:14:52 AM PDT by ronniesgal (where is Tattoo when we need him?)
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