who's more likely to see a shrink?

Headline:

An interesting look at who raises more well-adjusted kids

For a long time, it’s seemed that the “touchy-feely” aspects of progressivism have dominated just about everything to do with child-rearing. Almost everything we see in the media appears to at least line up with what the left seems to favor.

It would be easy to look at this and assume, if these experts actually know anything, that non-liberal parents would raise kids who were less well-adjusted.

Obviously, that depends on how you define “well-adjusted,” of course, but one might be forgiven if you made that assumption.

You’d be forgiven, but you’d also apparently be wrong.

Children who grow up in politically liberal households are more likely to suffer mental health problems than their conservative peers, according to a new study.

An Institute for Family Studies-Gallup report found that "political ideology is one of the strongest predictors" of which caregiving styles a parent adopts, and conservative parents are associated with the best mental health outcomes for their children.

"Conservative and very conservative parents are the most likely to adopt the parenting practices associated with adolescent mental health," study author Jonathan Rothwell, who is also the principal economist at Gallup and nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote. "Liberal parents score the lowest, even worse than very liberal parents, largely because they are the least likely to successfully discipline their children."

Conservative parents have several key distinctions in their relationships with their children that inform mental health outcomes, Rothwell explained, including being able to "effectively discipline their children, while also displaying affection and responding to their needs." The right-leaning parents also have better quality relationships with their children, "characterized by fewer arguments, more warmth, and a stronger bond."

Most of the liberals I know have gone through or are going through therapy. But: (1) one guy I know here in Korea started conservative, went at least partially liberal, and has never seen a shrink, so maybe he counts as an exception. (2) Another liberal I know also has no history of therapy that I know of. (3) Conversely, I know one or two conservatives in the States who are undergoing therapy. That said, and exceptions aside, I think it's generally true that the leftie way of thinking and acting leads more quickly and easily to neurosis and other types of social maladjustment. So many lefties are chronically unhappy people.* Aside: while I don't automatically think of trans people as mentally ill (something many on the right reflexively do), there's no denying that big, fat 45% attempted-suicide rate (sometimes cited by pro-trans activists who may not realize the stat doesn't help their case) that has dogged trans people for years—a big indicator of some level of emotional anguish.

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*Yes, I'm making this claim, but I acknowledge there's plenty of room for discussion and debate here. You don't have to think back far: just think back to the Dubya years when a lot of conservatives were the unpleasant prudes and moral scolds, i.e., the meddling, misguided Karens, to use current language. Even then, though, the issue was complicated because those seemingly fun-loving Democrats included purse-lipped über-prudes like Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore, who wanted to slap labels on rap CDs because of their lyrics. (Nowadays, of course, it's somehow life-affirming to sing "Wet-ass Pussy" at the Grammys.)