Being a parent is one of the most meaningful things you can do with your life, and one of the easiest things to worry about getting wrong. Most of us ultimately want the same things for our children: for them to grow up to be good people and have a good life. But how much influence do parents actually have over those outcomes?
In this episode of Office Hours, I explore what the research can teach us about raising happy, well-adjusted kids, including how much of our children’s personalities are inherited, where we as parents really can make a difference, and why what we model often matters more than what we say.
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Where to find Arthur Brooks:
• In-person Retreats: https://retreats.arthurbrooks.com/
• Newsletter: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/newsletter
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(05:04) What most parents want for their kids
(09:29) What the research has revealed about nature vs. nurture
(17:00) How parenting impacts personality
(29:12) Parenting principle #1: Even a hot mess can be a great parent
(32:52) Parenting principle #2: Be warm and loving
(34:29) Parenting principle #3: Be an actor
(38:42) Q&A: Overcoming bad habits learned from your parents
(40:50) Q&A: How to support a child with a toxic partner
(42:49) Q&A: Teaching children the discipline of happiness
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Referenced:
• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/the-meaning-of-your-life
• Meaning Membership: https://hub.arthurbrooks.com/the-meaning-membership
• Arthur’s newsletter: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/newsletter
• The Happiness Scale: https://learn.arthurbrooks.com/the-happiness-scale
• The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks: https://www.thefp.com/s/the-pursuit-of-happiness-with-arthur
• Parenting in America Today: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today
• OCEAN: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1635039/
• Heritability of the big five personality dimensions and their facets: a twin study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8776880
• Longitudinal associations between parenting and child Big Five personality traits: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-24205-001
• ...References continued at: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/office-hours
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