A study by researchers at Arizona State University in the US found that children brought up by tiger moms are more likely to have problems with alcohol abuse later in life.
The research surveyed 419 university students and found students with stricter and authoritarian mothers are more likely to misuse alcohol as a coping mechanism to handle feelings of imperfection.
Among the students, the researchers gauged students’ display of a negative facet of perfectionism known as “discrepancy”.
It found students with higher levels of discrepancy were more likely to experience symptoms of depression and have increased alcohol use. Furthermore, it adds that increased depressive symptoms were closely linked to self-medicated drinking.
Interestingly the research also found that stricter father on the other hand encouraged children to have high standards but didn’t cause them to have depressive symptoms.
“We can only speculate that demanded obedience by fathers operates differently than demanded obedience by mothers. It may be perceived as a form of caring by fathers to have rules for offspring even when those rules are unyielding,” the researchers explained in their analysis of the results.
Authoritarian moms especially from Asia received a coined term known as ‘tiger mom’ for parenting their children in a strict and disciplined manner.
The parenting style popularized by Amy Chu after she published her polarizing book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is still much of a debate today. Many Asian parents lauded its merit for producing high-performing, Ivy League worthy children, while others criticized it for extreme parenting style linking it to “child abuse.”
Not surprising