If you are a mother and have a daughter, you will likely recognise something about the situation. It seems as if daughters have a need to prove mothers wrong on almost everything possible, but there is a new study out that shows something rather amazing. As it turns out, girls who have mothers who nagged them when they were younger were more likely to get better paying jobs, go to college and even avoid teen pregnancy compared with those daughters of mothers who were more relaxed.
Ericka Rascon-Ramirez led the study that involved over 15,000 girls between the ages of 13 and 14. The study lasted from 2004 until 2010. High parental expectations played a role in the life choices of those girls. It was the expectation of the main parent, in this case the mother, who was most influential.
Many of us can attest to the fact that mothers who are on us regularly certainly help us to stay in line. The fact that we didn’t flunk out of high school and ended up getting a nice paying job or going to college may just be proof enough that the nagging actually does have some benefits. Of course, we wouldn’t be willing to admit those things back then but now, we can certainly say thank you.
Something that is interesting is the fact that teens don’t have to appreciate the advice that their mothers are giving them. Regardless of whether they listen or not, nagging has that positive effect. According to the research, “In many cases, we succeeded in doing what we believed was more convenient for us, even when this was against our parents’ will. But no matter how hard we tried to avoid our parents’ recommendations, it is likely that they ended up influencing…choices.”
As it turns out, we live in their heads and there’s little they can do to keep us out of there.
Rascon-Ramirez also found something else interesting. She said, “What our parents expected about our school choices was, very likely, a major determinant of our decisions about conceiving a child or not during our teenage years.” Although it may be nice to provide a healthy sense of self-esteem, there is also something to be said for a teenager staying out of trouble because they don’t want to hear about it later.
So what does all of this say about mothers who never gave their daughters a hard time? Are the daughters of those mothers more likely to end up living under a bridge or pregnant? Probably not, but the study did conclude that “parents with high expectations can reduce a teenager’s chance of becoming pregnant by four per cent compared to parents with ‘middling aspirations’.” It may not be 0%, but it does show that there are some possibilities.
At this time, perhaps one of the more important things that you can do is to learn how to nag your daughter. If you are already a mother who nags regularly, you can be more confident in doing so. Give your daughter the regular routine, informing her not to get pregnant, don’t do drugs and do well in school. It’s good for them, and science has proven it.
H/T: Scary Mummy