New research on World Mental Health Day: parents play a smaller role in the emotional development of teenagers than previously believed. Caspar van Lissa (Tilburg University) developed an innovative machine learning technique to discover patterns in and predictors of youth behavior.
During adolescence, young people learn to manage their emotions. It is an important yet challenging phase for many. Nearly 30% of Dutch youth experience emotional problems during this period. "That is a significant increase compared to ten years ago, when about 20% of young people reported experiencing issues in their emotional development," says researcher Caspar van Lissa.
New insights thanks to Machine Learning: parents’ role smaller than assumed
Thanks to the use of innovative machine learning techniques and smart algorithms, the research offers new insights into emotional development during adolescence. It turns out that the role of parents in their teenagers’ emotional development is smaller and different than previously thought. Van Lissa states, "The behavior of parents is less important for the emotional development of teenagers than other factors, such as personality and how-and how often-young people argue."
"Our data shows that parents don’t have to do everything perfectly in their parenting, as long as they display ’good enough’ behavior: providing sufficient support and enough emotional and physical space for the independent development of teenagers. Negative behaviors from parents, such as exercising too much control, deciding who your child can associate with, making your child feel guilty, or withholding love, prove to be more decisive for the development of emotional problems in teenagers than positive behaviors from parents."
App helps predict emotional problems teens
Based on his research, the researcher developed an app that predicts which young people are at risk for emotional problems. "I developed this app to demonstrate that we can utilize research outcomes much more directly in the future. This way, targeted support can be provided to vulnerable groups, such as children at risk of developing emotional problems during adolescence. This can help to deploy the limited resources in (youth) care more effectively."
With his research, Van Lissa proves that innovative machine learning techniques, such as the technique he developed and used for this study, can help fill in blind spots in existing scientific knowledge.
