14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers writing in the June 19 issue of the scientific journal PLOS ONE say that most parents cannot help but expect that their children would redeem their own broken dreams.
Otherwise put, they tend to see them as extensions of themselves and push them into achieving goals that they themselves had wanted to achieve when young.
“Some parents see their children as extensions of themselves, rather than as separate people with their own hopes and dreams.”
“These parents may be most likely to want their children to achieve the dreams that they themselves have not achieved,” specialist Brad Bushman says.
Now, before anyone starts thinking about nicknaming Brad Bushman “Captain Obvious,” it must be said that, although psychologists have long theorized that parents behave towards their kids in this manner, empirical evidence in support of this theory was very much lacking.
What Brad Bushman and his fellow researchers did was take 73 volunteers, ask them to carry out several tests and find evidence that some parents do not really see their offspring as self-standing individuals.
The specialists hope that future investigations will help shed new light on how this affects the kids' mental health.