Conger and colleagues observed that children in families whose parents put family first and continued to communicate despite the hardship fared much better in the short and long term than those who allowed the crisis to fracture them.
Youngsters "weren't terribly bothered by not having a lot of stuff," Conger says. "What bothered them was when their parents became angry and irritable and withdrawn."
Similarly, children whose parents maintained strong community ties did much better over time than those who were not as embedded in their communities, says Elder, Conger's research colleague.
"Kids whose parents were connected to church, school and civic organizations lived their lives the same way," he says. "Those involvements really predicted what they were going to do in their lives and how successful they would be."
Sometimes psychological research yields "well duh!" results. But it's nice that science matches up in this case with common sense. Go read the whole thing here.
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