Do_Parents_Matter_

Do Parents Matter' Do Parents Matter' The article, “The Parent Trap” found in Newsweek, Judith Rich Harris argues that nurture does not play a key role in the personalities and attitudes of children while growing up. Harris claims that genes are the deciding factors in the child’s future, and that children raised by “nice” parents in a “nice” way do not turn out to be “nice” because of how they were brought up, but because of the “nice” genes their parents passed on to them. The same goes for children who are raised in a disturbing or turbulent environment. Children of divorced parents are handed down the impulsive and aggressive genes, and therefore become impulsive and aggressive adults. She says that children do not learn long-term behaviors from parents, and that, if anything, peers play a major role in influencing the children. According to Harris, a teenager is better predicted by watching his or her peers, rather than by watching his or her parents, especially when the situation involves smoking. In other words, a teenager will more likely be a smoker if his or her peers smoke, and that observing the peers of this teenager is a better child, parents, children, peers, life, harris, third, studies, raised, nice, impulsive, first, aggressive, way, turn, teenager, second, says, same, role, one, nurture, memories, learn, genes, environment, child’s, brought, better, watching, upbringing, two, throughout, suppressed, stressful