Dr Harvey Armstrong Analysis

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Many people argue whether society’s lack of parenting classes and programs are to blame for teen crime or if a child is born with the nature to be bad. Evidence from the article Invest in Parents to Help Fight Crime specifies that the societal lack of parenting classes and programs are to blame for teen crime. Dr. Harvey Armstrong is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Based on the Nature vs Nurture debate, Dr. Armstrong’s position in this article plays on the Nurture side. Dr. Armstrong believes that parents do not discipline their children correctly. This includes parents not using punishment to correct their child’s disobedience. He also believes that effective parenting is the most important factor in raising …show more content…

Harvey Armstrong believes that parents do not correctly discipline their child. They do not practice or train their children to obey rules or a code of behavior, not either use punishment to correct their disobedience. The reason of this may incudes numerous possibilities. One of the reasons to why parents do not properly discipline is because many parents have experienced emotional, physical, or sexual abuse as children and are afraid to set limits (Armstrong, 2006). Since they are afraid to set limits, it is causing their children to be disobedient. Another reason can also be because parents fail to maintain intergenerational boundaries. For instance, they are unable to set boundaries by responding “No” and incapable to endure their children responses to know (Armstrong, 2006 p1). When parents are incapable of setting certain boundaries for their children, it leads to the parent lacking discipline. Consequently, parents should correctly express discipline to their child by using punishment to correct their behavior as well as setting reasonable boundaries. This will result in the child learning and will be less likely to repeat the action. Furthermore, this argument also supports the Nurture side on the Nature vs Nurture debate. Nurture also refers to your childhood. In this case, the parents childhood is effected by the child’s because some parents have been abused when they were young, and are afraid to set effective limits, which results in …show more content…

Armstrong explains in the article that effective parenting is the most important factor in rising socialized children into adulthood. As mentioned earlier, parents do not discipline their children correctly. Children who do not receive effective limits from parents exhibit more violence in adolescence. This may include children to be out-of-control, unresponsive to their therapeutic interventions and severe school problems (Armstrong, 2006 p1). Children can be out-of -controlled by the use guns and knife to intimidate their parents, siblings, and others (Armstong, 2006). Also, if parents are not effect it could lead to school problems. Statistics in the article showed “35% dropped out of school, 10% have assaulted their parents and peers, 12% live away from home and 2 out of 5 demonstrate behavioral problems at school” (Armstrong, 2006, p.1). Moreover, this argument of Dr. Armstrong also supports the Nurture side on the Nature vs Nurture debate. Nurture refers to the behavior and development connected to environmental experiences. A child will grow up from the environmental experiences he or she had gone through. Since children grow and develop from what they learn from there parents, there parents should set an robust example. Thus, effective parenting is the most important factor in raising socialized children into adulthood. If the parent is not being effective, it may exhibit more violence in

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