Yes, there’s international variation on these themes, which I’ve written about, and the authors of the commentary cite Finland, in particular, as a place where children still have a lot of autonomy.
They theorize that a lack of independent activities negatively affects a child’s internal locus of control.
When children aren’t allowed to do things on their own, they may have a weaker internal LOC, and that is “highly predictive” of certain levels of anxiety and depression.
Which is that you’re taking away the opportunity for kids to have control over what they’re doing, “Because you are always controlling them.
But one reason parents are overcontrolling is that they are worried about things like crime, bullying, inappropriate internet content and so on, and these things have their own negative effect on kids.
Persons:
—, aren’t, ”, Peter Gray, They’re, ” Laurence Steinberg, “
Organizations:
Boston College, Temple University
Locations:
Finland, United States