How parents make the terrible teens even worse

It’s a conundrum: teens that misbehave may actually lash out even more if adults are too hard on them.

That’s the conclusion of a new study

from the University of California, Riverside.

Analyzing data from 220 families, psychology professor Misaki Natsuak found that when teens viewed parenting more negatively than parents did, the kids’ aggression levels increased.

Cue slammed doors. Screamouts. You know the drill.

“In some cases, teens perceive parenting to be harsher than how their parents intend to — in other cases, teens perceive parenting to be more lenient than how parents intend to,” Natsuaki said.

One implication of the study, called “Parenting Effects are in the Eye of the Beholder: Parent-Adolescent Differences in Perceptions Affects Adolescent Problem Behaviors,” is that it may help when all the members of a family perceive the parenting the same way.

“The implication of our findings for parents is that it is important to tune in to how their children are feeling and thinking about the parenting practiced at home,” Natsuaki told the Daily News.

“Everyone, including both parents and children, sees the world from their own perspective, but with the busy life we have, it is easy to forget to think about how others may see the same world differently. The importance and benefits of perspective taking has been discussed in many areas of psychology, but this is true for parenting, too.”