What's a Parent's Role?

Take our Authoritative Parenting Test

Find a family therapist near me

Some parents hope to shield their children from politics and so avoid discussing elections with their kids.

Children are paying attention to politics, especially during election season.

Although children try to make sense of information they see and hear, their comprehension may be inaccurate.

Parents can help children understand politics and elections by opening up dialogues and providing resources.

Parents are often hesitant to discuss politics with their children. Past research studies have reported that parents avoid political topics because they think their children are uninterested in politics, will not understand political issues, or should be shielded from the divisiveness of political discourse. In a study colleagues and I did surrounding the 2020 presidential election, a father of a 6-year-old said that in their family “we do not discuss politics or religion because those subjects can become emotional and invite conflict” (Patterson & Pahlke, 2021). Parents like this father hope that by avoiding discussions of politics, their children will remain blissfully unaware of the partisan fights roiling our country.

The problem, though, is that research suggests that from an early age, children are being exposed to messages about politics and are trying to make sense of what they hear.

We know, for example, that particularly during election seasons, most children can........

© Psychology Today