BOOM JANUARY 2016 | Page 38

PA R E N T I N G Want your child to be successful? Don’t forget these 11 tips T here isn’t any magical formula that guarantees your child’s success, but science says there are some things that parents of successful children have in common. A psychological research has pointed to a few parenting methods that can help predict success, Parents you may want to take note of these: Parents make their kids do chores: “If kids aren’t doing the dishes, it means someone else is doing that for them. And so they’re absolved of not only the work, but of learning that work has to be done and that each one of us must contribute for the betterment of the whole,” Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of freshmen at Stanford University and author of How to Raise an Adult said during a TED Talks Live event. Lythcott-Haims believes kids raised on chores go on to become employees who collaborate well with their co-workers, are more empathetic because they know firsthand what struggling looks like, and are able to take on tasks independently. Parents teach their kids social skills: A 20-year study of the researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Duke University showed that socially competent children who could cooperate with their peers without prompting, be helpful to others, understand their feelings and resolve problems on their own, were far more likely to earn a college degree and have a full-time job by age 25 than those with limited social skills. Those with limited social skills also had a higher chance of getting arrested, binge drinking, and applying for public housing. Parents have high expectations: Using data from a national survey of 6,600 children born in 2001, University of California at Los Angeles professor Neal Halfon and his colleagues discovered that the expectations parents hold for their kids have a huge effect on attainment. Parents have healthy relationships with each other: Children in high-conflict families, whether intact or divorced, tend to fare worse than children of parents that get along, according to a University of Illinois study review. Parents have attained higher educational levels: A 2014 study lead by University of Michigan psychologist Sandra Tang found that mothers who finished high school or college were more likely to raise kids that did the same. Parents teach Z\