One can agree that family relationships are vital for the proper development of kids and the establishment of adequate morals and values. Unfortunately, not all adults are able to fulfill their parenting roles effectively. In many cases, parents fail to maintain positive and nurturing connections with their offspring, which has numerous short- and long-term consequences. Thus, research and social examples prove that complicated or negative relationships between parents and their kids can result in the latter being involved in bullying, crimes, and other unethical behaviors, which partly have rebellious nature.
Parental Moral Disengagement
The issue of bullying and cyberbullying is becoming more acute nowadays, and it is essential to explore one aspect that contributes to its increase. Researchers note that parents with little or no involvement, warmth, and emotional attachment make their kids more likely to demonstrate the mentioned aggressive behaviors (Zych, Gómez-Ortiz, Fernández Touceda, Nasaescu, & Llorent, 2020). According to the authors, “parenting is crucial in children’s social, emotional, and moral development” (Zych et al., 2020, p. 3). If mothers and fathers are not engaged enough to instill the right values in their children, the latter will compensate for this lack by bullying others to feel better.
Children’s Morals and Lifestyles
Further, it is essential to review an example of how a failure to fulfill one’s parenting obligations can ruin teenagers’ lives. ABS News issued an article that discusses how adults who had bad relationships with their parents and failed to maintain a good connection with their own kids contribute to the growth of youth crime (Perpitch, 2023). In Indigenous families, this issue is extremely acute because of the trauma they carry through generations – many Aboriginal parents do not know how to love because they have never been loved themselves (Perpitch, 2023). Their uncared kids do not learn about good and moral behaviors, and this ruined connection between children and parents makes the former engaged in early smoking, drug abuse, and youth crimes.
Another story that illustrates this alarming trend is about parents and relatives teaching their young son to steal from others. The boy learned about this behavior from his family and was constantly stealing his classmates’ belongings, while his parents lied to the teacher that those were actually their son’s things (Seif, 2020). In this story, it is shown that antisocial actions demonstrated by family members instill wrong values in kids.
Children’s Rebellious Behavior
My personal story can demonstrate how an unfavorable connection with parents can cause a child to behave unethically by rebelling against this undeveloped relationship. There was a period in our family when, due to some adverse circumstances, a contact we had with my mother almost got ruined. We did not understand each other and blamed one another for this lost connection. My parent decided to correct my behavior by forbidding me to meet with my friends and have entertaining activities. Thus, I violated all the prohibitions and behaved unethically just to show how much it hurt me and rebel against my mother (Miralles, Godoy, & Hidalgo, 2021). At the same time, when our relationship improved, I understood that I wanted to be guided by the morals and values she instilled in me.
Conclusion
To conclude, the effects of the relationship between parents and children cannot be overestimated. It is essential for family members to be aware of the short- and long-term impact that their actions and behaviors may have on teenagers while they are young and when they become adults. Many examples prove that parental moral disengagement and acceptance of unethical values lead to kids engaging in bullying, youth crimes, smoking, and other antisocial activities.
References
Miralles, P., Godoy, C., & Hidalgo, M. D. (2021). Long-term emotional consequences of parental alienation exposure in children of divorced parents: A systematic review. Current Psychology.
Perpitch, N. (2023). Mark McGowan’s ‘parents need to parent’ remark sparks debate about Indigenous disadvantage. Web.
Seif, M. (2020). Parenting fails: Real-life stories of moms and dads behaving badly. Humaverse. Web.
Zych, I., Gómez-Ortiz, O., Fernández Touceda, L., Nasaescu, E., & Llorent, V. J. (2020). Parental moral disengagement induction as a predictor of bullying and cyberbullying: Mediation by children’s moral disengagement, moral emotions, and validation of a questionnaire. Child Indicators Research, 13, 1065–1083.