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STUDY OF AN "EXPERIMENT": OLD WESTBURY COLLEGEWhen I first decided to make Old Westbury the subject of my senior thesis, I was confronted with a wide variety of interesting events to study. Such crises as the 50/50 issue, the call for co‐ed dorms, required courses, and the call for student power, interest me very much, and beg for analysis. However, any thorough attempt at analyzing these specific issues always arrived at the same point eventually. They all had their roots in the high expectation level of the student body. That students at a bold new experimental college should have high expectations is not surprising; that these expectations, which were created by that college, are by and large unsatisfiable, is surprising. Given the mix of great expectations and unsuspected restraints on satisfying them, crisis was inevitable. I now feel that to study any of the crises as a separate entity would be a serious mistake. Medical doctors are told during their training to be cautious about treating symptoms, lest the relief brought about by such treatment cause the real problem to go unchecked. This paper is an attempt to see the separate crises in perspective, as symptoms of a fundamental flaw in the organism. Professor Larry Resnik, one of the College's earliest planners, presently a member of the faculty, urged me to state as a "given" that "Old Westbury was 'obviously' intended to be 'experimental' within the context of the state system". He suggested the appropriate question to research would be; "Given the limitations on experimentation inherent in being part of the state system, what could we have experimented with that we did not?" After considering this carefully, I am forced to conclude that this was not so "obvious" to many of the early planners, or the first students. His question is an interesting one, and at this point appropriate for investigation. But, it misses the fact that the full burden o restraint under which this college functions is still not accurately perceived by many students and faculty. The "given" still is not "taken". Until the magnitude of these restraints is fully understood, Old Westbury College will remain a flawed creature which cannot help but cause a form of violence on itself and its members, as it tragically stumbles on. I am grateful to all those who spent their time discussing aspects of this paper with: me. The, perspective I have gained on events is largely due to those people. In the same breath, I must thank those same people for providing me with the education I came here seeking. It is with an ironic smile that I concede that the flawed creature I am attempting to dissect gave me a' good, perhaps even experimental, education. It is partly because I believe the opportunity for such an education is vanishing, that I write this paper.
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The Women of Old First Presbyterian Church, Huntington, New YorkA sample of women congregation members from oldest church on Long Island, Old First Presbyterian of Huntington, New York compiled as a senior project through interviews, oral histories, and research. The stories presented here represent the denominational church in microcosm as being representative of the role of the women in the church. Oral History audio recordings can be accessed on New York Heritage Digital Collections for SUNY Old Westbury, Senior Projects and Research.
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An Assessment of Strain- And Visual Pigmentation-related Differences in Neurocognitive And Neurobehavioral Outcomes in the transgenic Cohen’s Alzheimer’s Disease Rat ModelThe global population is predicted to face a substantial rise in cases of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) by the year 2050. To this end, we are still far from developing clear and effective pre-clinical treatments for forestalling, recovering, and preventing AD symptoms and pathological traits associated with a positive diagnosis. Pre-clinical research is critical for early stage development of effective drugs for later clinical phase trials. However, effective drugs may be moved forward as false positives when proper behavioral experimental controls or comparisons are either overlooked or lacking in the pre-clinical stages. Thus, these missteps can often delay or inappropriately advance drug candidates lacking true efficacy at this pre-clinical stage. One such pre-clinical model uses the Cohen's Alzheimer's Disease (AD) rat model which has a genetic background in the Fischer 344 (F344) rat. Unfortunately, the F344 rat is an albino rat that is visually non-pigmented with rather poor visual acuity when compared to its visually pigmented counter-parts. This raises a critical issue, that when visually non-pigmented rat models are used for pre-clinical study, much caution should be exercised as they may have an artificially truncated or reduced cognitive capacity making them a less informative model for neurocognitive and neurobehavioral evaluations. In order to assess this issue we crossed the F344 AD rat model with a Long Evans (LE) visually pigmented rat model to produce a LE AD rat model. We then compared these rats’ behavioral performances on the Open Field to assess locomotor activity, the Elevated Plus Maze to assess anxiety-like behaviors, and the NeuwirthTM-Holeboard Test to assess fear/escape vs. cognitive/exploratory behaviors over 2 days. The data revealed that across all tests that the females for each strain had increase locomotor activity, anxiety-like behaviors, and fear/escape and cognitive/exploratory behaviors. When evaluating the strains, across all tests the F344 AD rats had a lower bandwidth/range for the capacity of their behavioral deficits to be observed when compared to the LE AD rats. Thus, our findings show that if a cognitive enhancing drug and/or anxiety-like drug were to be used to treat AD through these rats in the pre-clinical testing phase that the LE AD rats would prove to be a better model as they can show a greater range of deficits with a greater range for cognitive recovery.
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The Effects of Neurodevelopmental Lead Exposure on The NeuwirthTM Hole Board TestRodent models are the primary species for pre-clinical study and experimentation for biomedical translational research. However, subsequent testing on a variety of behavioral tests as a "battery" can often result in an extraneous variable of confounding carryover effects if not carefully considered. For example, if a more stressful test is used prior to a less stressful test, inflated and artifactual increases in the latter test may be considered real. Thus, care behavioral test sequences are critical to avoid these pre-clinical testing errors that may forestall promising drug candidates for clinical phase trials. In the present study, we examined the NeuwirthTM Hole board test, which is designed to overcome these testing sequence confounds, by using the same testing apparatus over 2 days. In day 1, a 10 minute exploration trial is used to assess fear/escape behaviors. Then, 24 hrs later, 4 Petri Dishes with 4 different odors are placed below the apparatus to increase the rat's cognitive/exploratory behaviors and overcome both the prior day's anxiety-like behaviors and habituation over 2 days. We explored this testing procedure to evaluate the effects of neurodevelopmental lead exposure and how it may be a useful tool in parsing very subtle brain deficits through such a simple testing procedure. This is a pilot study that currently shows that the test can be used to determine both sex-dependent and developmental time-period differences in the rats behaviors. This testing procedure may have greater advantages for pre-clinical study that may further accelerate drug advancement to clinical phase trials.
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Increases In Attention Set Shift Performance in aged male rats: Taurine As A NootropicThe global population is continuing to age more than ever before, while at the same time increasing the rates of age-related cognitive dementias and associated neurodegenerative disorders. This situation has directed researchers to examine the potential for cognitive enhancing drugs to ameliorate or forestall the naturally occurring age-dependent decline in cognitive functions that accompanying aging. The present study examined in aged male rats (i.e., 1-year of age) that were randomly assigned to either a Control water of 0.05% Taurine water (i.e., for 1-month) prior to being subjected to the Neuwirth-BrownTM Attention Set-Shift Test (ASST; a very sensitive test for cognitive functions of the frontal lobes’ flexibility and evaluation of perseverative behaviors) and were compared to a group of young male rats (i.e., 3-4 months old). The Old Control rats unfortunately due to age-related cognitive impairments could either not complete simple discrimination training (66.67%) or the simple discrimination during test day 1 (33%). Interestingly, the age-matched Old Control+Taurine rats were able to complete the ASST training (i.e., faster latency) and testing (i.e., similar amount of trials to completion) at rates comparable to the Young Control rats. The data suggest that taurine (i.e., a GABA receptor agonist) serves as a nootropic (i.e., cognitive enhancing drug) in an aging rodent model through recovery of fronto-executive functional behaviors in the ASST with brain imaging evidence showing taurine-dependent increases in dopamine fluorescent tagged neurons in the olfactory bulbs and prefrontal cortical areas that regulate fronto-executive functions. It is thought that since aging reduces the level of GABA (i.e., the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain) and less inhibition can result in impulsive decision making, that taurine may serve to compensate and replenish GABA levels in the aging brain, which in part, could explain the cognitive improvements in this animal model of aging. This work shows that taurine may prove to be an effective nootropic to be prescribed in aging populations to forestall cognitive dysfunctions in the elderly by increasing GABAergic tone and Dopaminergic signals underlying more regulated inhibition and motivation.
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Quaker Women of Westbury and JerichoA list of Quaker women from the Jericho and Westbury communities compiled as a senior project through interviews, oral histories, and research. Oral History audio recordings can be accessed on New York Heritage Digital Collections for SUNY Old Westbury, Senior Projects and Research.
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An Assessment of Taurine as a Nootropic in aged male rats in the attention set-shift testThe global population is continuing to age more than ever before, while at the same time increasing the rates of age-related cognitive dementias and associated neurodegenerative disorders. This situation has directed researchers to examine the potential for cognitive enhancing drugs to ameliorate or forestall the naturally occurring age-dependent decline in cognitive functions that accompanying aging. The present study examined in aged male rats (i.e., 1-year of age) that were randomly assigned to either a Control water of 0.05% Taurine water (i.e., for 1-month) prior to being subjected to the Attention Set-Shift Test (ASST; a very sensitive test for cognitive functions of the frontal lobes, flexibility, and evaluation of perseverative behaviors). The Control rats unfortunately with age could not form the necessary simple and complex discriminations to complete the ASST and failed the test. Interestingly, the age-matched Control+Taurine rats were able to complete the ASST and did so at rates comparable to younger (i.e., 60 day old) rats. Then as an additional proof of concept, the Control rats that failed the test, half remained on the same treatment, whereas the other half were then switched to 0.05% Taurine water for 1-month. Another month later, the rats were re-tested and again the Control+Taurine rats were able to complete the ASST, but the Control rats could not. This study offers a first report of Taurine clearly serving as a nootropic (i.e., cognitive enhancing drug) in an aging model. It is thought that since aging reduces the level of GABA (i.e., the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain), that taurine may serve to compensate and replenish levels of this neurotransmission which could explain the cognitive improvements in this animal model of aging. This work shows that taurine may prove to be an effective nootropic to be prescribed in aging populations to preserve cognitive functions in the elderly.
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Perinatal Lead Exposure Causes Increased Sensitivity to Aversive Conditioning in Rat’s: Implications for Lower Sensory Thresholds for Emotional Learning and Memory TasksLead is well-established neurotoxin that causes brain damage to the developing brain with persistent effects that remain across the lifespan. Dependent upon the developmental time-period of exposure (e.g., gestation, perinatal, or postnatal), lead may cause selective disruption of either the excitatory NMDAR-dependent or inhibitory GABAR-dependent neural circuitry. This suggests that lead exposure may cause very different developmental neuropathologies, that in turn, produce altered neuroadaptations to sensory and other contextual stimuli. In order to test this theory, rats that were treated with lead (150 ppm lead acetate perinatally) and compared to control rats (0 ppm) and subjected to an Open Field test (OF), an Elevated Plus Maze test (EPM), and an Active Avoidance Test (AAT). The OF data showed that lead treatment reduced locomotor activity and speed irrespective of sex when compared to control rats. The EPM data showed that selective anxiety-like behaviors induced by lead in female rats, but not male rats when compared to control rats. The AAT revealed that lead induced enhanced learning across both sexes, but the female rat’s avoidance and escape behaviors were greater than the lead male rats. The lead treated rats learned the AAT better than the control rats, not due to intellectual capacity but rather due to an altered and enhanced sensitivity to the aversive stimulus (i.e., foot shock). This suggests that perinatal lead exposure disrupts the early programming of the emotional regulatory neural systems within the limbic system (i.e., consistent with the GABA-shift), and as a result, causes sensory enhancement to aversive/noxious stimuli similar to a model of childhood post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with anxiety-like symptoms.
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Lead Poisoning Effects on Brain Excitability: Using Fourier Transforms to Parse Seizures Through Brain Waves and Slow and Fast RipplesNeurodevelopmental exposure to lead poisoning causes alterations in the GABA-shift from early excitation-to-inhibition balancing. The GABA-shift is a hallmark event that when disrupted is a well-known neurodevelopmental cause of seizure disorders and increased brain excitability that is subthreshold to seizure onset. Lead poisoning in high-exposures can cause both seizure and brain encephalopathy, but at low-exposures are not well studied. The present study investigated the effects of both low- and high-exposures (i.e., 150 ppm and 1,000 ppm lead acetate) to lead poisoning during perinatal development on later-life adult (postnatal day 55-70) rats pharmacologically induced with pilocarpine seizures as a form of status epilepticus. The raw seizure data that were recorded over 1-hr post pilocarpine (380 mg/kg i.p.) were mathematically deconstructed using a fourier transformation to isolate the alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and theta brain waves as well as slow and fast ripples. The topography of the brain waves and ripples show that lead treated rats causes sex-dependent effects on seizure generation as evidenced as increased brain excitability when compared to control rats. Further, lead male rats have elevated slow and fast ripples when compared to lead female rats. Interestingly, gamma, beta, alpha, theta, and delta brain waves were disrupted in both a sex- and lead dose-dependent manner. The most disruption was caused to the gamma (cognition and learning) and beta (attentional focus) with more subtle differences observed in alpha and delta (resting) and theta (limbic system) wave functions. Taken together, this topographical analysis of the seizures induced by developmental lead exposure revealed that dependent upon sex and lead exposure that different patterns of brain excitability occur as pathophysiological outcomes later in life. These data suggest that lead may cause subthreshold levels of brain excitability that may be vulnerable to other insults, drugs, or injuries making the lead exposed brain more susceptible for seizures later in life.
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The Effects of Developmental Lead Poisoning on the Adult Rat's Freezing and Exploration Behaviors in a Hole Board TestLead poisoning is a well-established neurotoxicant that produces developmental neuropathologies that persist across the lifespan. However, how these early neurodeveloprnental insults impair sensorimotor, emotional, and cognitive behavioral systems later on in life remain to be elucidated. The present study examined Long Evans hooded rats that were exposed to 1,000 ppm lead acetate perinatally or Control rats that were not exposed to lead (i.e., 0 ppm). The male offspring from at least 5 different litters were randomly selected to form the treatment conditions. The perinatal group was exposed to lead 1-month prior to pairing, throughout gestation, birth, and ceased exposure at postnatal day (PND) 22. At PND 22 rats were subjected to a two-day hole board test whereby Day 1 served as an anxiogenic assessment and Day 2 served as a habituated and odor evoked novel exploration test within the identical apparatus. The only difference was that on Day 2 four novel odor extracts were positioned under the apparatus. The total time mobile, number of head pokes, and duration of head poking were recorded across both test days. The hole board test revealed that male Perinatal lead-exposed rats on Day I froze more and exhibited elevated emotional fear responses, when compared to the Control rats. Interestingly, on Day 2 Control rats engaged in significantly more head poking than they did on Day 1. Thus, evidencing the ability to emotionally habituate to t.he prior anxiogenic stimulus and engage in sensorimotor dependent exploratory behaviors. However, the Perinatal lead-exposed rats exhibited difficulty in shifting from their anxiogenic responses, showed little habituation, and a delayed on-set to sensorimotor dependent exploration of the novel odors. The data suggest that perinatal lead poisoning impairs sensory processes required for contextual adaptations, efficiency, and ongoing environmental changes directed by the prefrontal cortical through goal directed behaviors.
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The Effects of Developmental Lead Exposure in the Rat on Brain Excitability Through in-vivo Seizure SusceptibilityDevelopmental lead poisoning in the rat model has been shown to alter the influence that the GABAergic inhibitory system has in balancing brain excitability across the lifespan. The results of disrupted inhibitory systems in early development are associated with later life behavioral and cognitive impulsivity and poor decision making, increased agitation and emotional dysregulation, and learning and memory problems. The present study sought to investigate the effects of perinatal lead exposure at 150 ppm and 1,000 ppm (via drinking water), when i compared to Control {non-lead exposed rats), an adult (postnatal day 55-70) Long Evans Hood Rats seizure susceptibility when challenged by the Glutamatergic agonist Kainic Acid (5mg/kg s.c.). In-vivo neurosurgeries were conducted under Ketamine (91mg/kg) and Xylazine (9.1mg/kg) anesthesia cocktails (i.p.) for 90 minutes. During the first 15 minutes, baseline brain activity were recorded, followed by Kainic Acid induced seizures for the remainder of the experiment. The seizure latency, type, duration, and frequency as well as severity were recorded to assess differences in seizure susceptibility as a function of Sex and Lead Exposure. These results suggest that developmental lead poisoning may cause persistent deficits in GABAergic inhibitory processes that may underlying issues with sensory integration, coordinated activity/associativity, and the ability to regulate cognitive and behavioral neural networks due to elevated brain excitability. Further, the present work suggests that developmental lead poisoning, in theory. could be alleviated by psychotropic medications directed at increasing GABAergic tone to regain excitation:inhibition balancing to improve cognitive and behavioral function across the lifespan once detected.
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Flanker Task Visual Eye Tracking Performance Measures: Assessment of Individual Disability Classifications Sensitivity Detection in Cumulative Response Learning and RTIndividuals with disabilities often require accommodative technologies in order to help facilitate their leaning during their undergraduate college years. However, dependent upon the type of disability that an individual might experience, their accommodative needs may he rather unique. However, despite the individual differences that people exhibit, visual eye tracking has been shown to be rather sensitive in detecting similar eye movement behavioral signatures that can be used to group/categories people without knowing their underlying individual disability with fairly good accuracy. Our , neuropsychology research team has been evaluating over the last 4-years, how accurate and sensitive a Flanker eye tracking task is when combined with visual eye tracking technology (VETT) to characterize differences in a diverse subset of individuals with . disabilities, when compared to non-disabled individuals. The present study evaluates the eye movement behavioral differences in the participant's reaction time (RT) and their cumulative responses (CR) across the Flanker task as a function of gender and type of disability (i.e., 1) learning disabilities [LD], 2) emotional/psychiatric conditions [EPC], 3) orthopedic/mobility impairments [EMI], 4) attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders [AD/HD] and 5) health impairments [HI]. However, most national data lacks the inclusion of students with multiple disabilities [MD]). The study was conducted through our OSSD office and the researchers were triple blinded from the individuals ensuring anonymity and all participant data were coded. The preliminary results obtained suggest that the VETT can be used to characterize individual and group difference between gender and disability type reasonably well. This suggests that the Flanker task combined with VETT can be used to assess and perhaps effectively prescribe a match-to-sample set of accommodations for undergraduate college students that have disabilities. The VETT assessment can help to justify more accommodative technology needs within a given college and will directly benefit students with disabilities along their undergraduate education.
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Developmental lead exposure alters rodent maternal pup retrieval disrupting adolescent social playDevelopmental lead (Pb) exposure remains a valuable neurotoxicant rodent model of human environmentally induced cognitive disability, yet less is known about Pb-exposure on maternal pup care and its relationship to adolescent social-emotional behaviors such as social-play. Here we examined two developmental time-periods of Pb-exposure (i.e., Perinatal [PERI; pairing to day 22] and Postnatal [EPN; From Birth to day 22]), as well as the dose-response effects of Pb (i.e., 25 ppm, 150 ppm, and 1,000 ppm) administered through the drinking water. Maternal pup retrieval behaviors (i.e., latency across postnatal day (PND) 2-7) were correlated with adolescent social- play behaviors (i.e., attacks, pins, defenses, counters, and climbs) and compared against age- matched Control rats. The results showed that PERI and EPN maternal Pb-exposure increased pup * retrieval latencies from PND 5-7 when compared to Control rats. Additionally as a function of Pb- i dose, PERI maternal pup retrieval latencies increased from PNDs 5-7 with little within Pb dose- l effects. Adolescent social-play behaviors showed a sex-based increased difference in female rats engaging in more attacks, defenses, pins, counters, and climbs than males. PERI 150 ppm treated adolescent rats showed reduced female social-play behaviors, but were elevated in males. At PERI 1,000 ppm exposures, female social-play behaviors were similar to PBRI 150 ppm female rats, but interestingly males exhibited a 2- to 3-fold increase in social-play behaviors. These data suggest that environmental Pb-exposure may negatively influence maternal social care behaviors, thereby altering the natural trajectory of developmental social-emotional behaviors that emerge in adolescence with lifespan impacts. (SUNY-OW Faculty Development Grant).
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Characterizing visual eye tracking differences in students with and without disabilities: An assessment for predicting prescriptive visual accommodative technologiesThe National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 2011-2012, reported that 11% of undergraduate students are identified as having a disability. Nearly, 38% of students with disabilities are enrolled in 2-year institutions as compared to 9.8% at 4-year institutions. Students with disabilities require support services some of which are accommodative technologies. However, scant data exist on whether or not such technologies are sensitive to accommodating individual needs, that is tailored to support people with a specific or having multiple disabilities. There are five main categories describing students with disabilities: 1) learning disabilities (LD), 2) emotional/psychiatric conditions (EPC), 3) orthopedic/mobility impairments (EMI), 4) attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders (AD/HD) and 5) health impairments (HI). However, most national data lacks the inclusion of students with multiple disabilities (MD), which while being the most frequent category is by far the most underserved. The aim of the current project was to determine whether assessing student's visual attentional processing abilities (i.e., eye gaze) through a 10-minute Flanker Task could be used as a predictive and prescriptive diagnostic tool to screen students with disabilities that would benefit most from visual accommodative technologies. The research protocol employed a triple blind procedure. The results indicated that visual eye gaze technology is sensitive in detecting individuals with differing disabilities and therefore can be used to further characterize visual trial-by-trial learning differences to simple visual stimuli in populations with LD, EPC, EMI, AD/HD, HI, and MD. Thus, through such evidence based study a “true” prescriptive accommodative technology “match-to-sample” can be provided to students with disabilities to further support their undergraduate education based upon their unique individual needs (SUNY-OW Faculty Development Grant).
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The effects of team win:loss ratio on individual motivation and performanceAthletes experience performance pressures to win competitions regardless of their team's Win:Loss ratio (W:L). However, little is known regarding how such pressures influence athlete's motivation. Prior studies have attempted to determine which factors motivate athletic competition, yet factors that motivate team performance and its impact on the individual athlete require further investigation. To provide insight in addressing this problem, we conducted a case study using a novel Sport Psychology Assessment Scale (SP-MAS) and distributed it among SUNY Old Westbury basketball; lacrosse and soccer teams. The SP-MAS showed that an athlete's motivational performance can be impacted by their team's W:L as it relates to four functional relationships: 1) decreased team W:L & decreased athlete motivation [DD] 2) decreased team W:L & increased athlete motivation [DI] 3) increased team W:L & decreased athlete motivation [ID] 4) increased team W:L & increased athlete motivation [II] Data suggests that II athletes rate highest on the SP-MAS and further assessment of the shifts from DD-DI-ID-II can be tracked overtime to continually evaluate athlete's and team's motivational interactions and performance trajectories in predicting overall W:L. Thus, the SP-MAS may provide useful athlete feedback with consideration across various sport and divisional contexts.
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A Guide to teaching Statistics and Research Methods II: Helping students with perceptual and physical disabilitiesThe purpose of this handbook is to give faculty, students and staff some insight on how to best help a student with a physical and/or perceptual disability. It is informed by my experiences learning to overcome just those very challenges that I faced. While this handbook is focused on Statistics/Research Methods II, the teaching methodology which was used herein, can be further applied to various courses and be as equally useful to the students. It is hoped that this guide will be useful to the next generation of students, staff and faculty while motivating them to expand upon what is already written.Though two persons diagnoses may appear alike, their individualized needs both inside and outside of an academic setting may vary greatly.
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An Assessment of Low Level Lead Exposure on Encephalization and Cortical Quotients and its Relationships with Cortical Thinning & Neurodegeneration.Lead (Pb) is a neurotoxin that causes lifelong cognitive dysfunction. Depending upon 1) gender, 2) the developmental time-period, and 3) the duration of Pb exposure, different patterns of brain damage may emerge during neurodevelopment or following the majority of brain growth. We examined an environmentally relevant Pb exposure (25 ppm) given to rats during different stages of neurodevelopment (i.e., perinatal [Peri] vs. postnatal [PND]) would negatively affect their encephalization and the cortical quotients (EQ & CQ) when assessed at PND 55 (i.e., the time point of cortical maturation in rats). EQ and CQ data are used to assess brain mass: body weight ratios in the former and to assess cortical mass: brain weight ratios in the latter to predict intelligence. Our data revealed that female rats have significantly higher EQ and CQ values when compared to males. EQ data revealed in Peri-PND O, Peri-PND 22, and Birth-PND 55 males a 6%, 16%, and 12% reduction in brain mass and in females, an 11%, 3%, and 3% reduction in brain mass when compared to controls. CQ data revealed in Peri-PND 0, Peri-PND 22, and BirthPND 55 males a 7%, 18%, and 0% reduction in cortical mass and in females, a 16%, 2%, and 12% reduction in cortical mass when compared to controls. Pb exposure causes different patterns of brain volume loss that decreases both EQ and CQ intelligence outcomes. This model offers translation potential in using fMRl clinical screenings for Pb exposed children and later life outcomes (SUNY-OW Faculty Development Grant).
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Parental Influence: Potential long-term effects of strict parentingAlthough parental involvement in childhood can increase a child's academic success (Landers, Friedrick, Jawad & Miller, 2016), an authoritarian parenting style — characterized by strict enforcement of rules, a high degree of control, and an emphasis on obedience — can reduce a child's motivation and cause poor acceptance of responsibilities. The question remains, however, as to whether these effects persist into adulthood. A correlational design was used to determine whether the self-perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of adults who report being raised by strict parents are different from those of adults who say they were raised by permissive parents. Results showed that participants with strict parents were less likely than participants with permissive parents to describe themselves as "street-smart," but described themselves as being more responsible. They also were more likely to feel ready to move out and to say they would not be strict as parents. However, they also were more likely to say they would use a strict punishment if their child smoked marijuana, drank underage, or did not pursue an advanced degree. Although this is a correlational study and therefore does not permit cause-and-effect conclusions, these findings suggest that parents should be educated about the potential long-term effects of the parenting style they adopt on the well-being of their children in adulthood.
