Moms love for her teen influences what sort of parent they may become [Video]

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

A mother’s love for her teenage child determines what sort of parent they grow up to be, according to new research.

Mom’s empathy for teens may predict teenagers’ empathy for their own friends, according to the 25-year American study.

The findings, published in the journal Child Development, provide the first long-term evidence for the transmission of “empathic care” across three generations: from mother to teen to child.

The researchers believe that interactions with close friends in adolescence may provide a “training ground” in which teens can practice providing care in their peer relationships and pay forward the empathy they experience from their mothers – which in turn may help strengthen their future parenting skills.

They say that supporting one generation of parents to model empathy toward their children may have long-term “ripple effects” on relationships across adolescence and into adulthood.

The University of Virginiaresearch, which began in 1998, tracked 184 teens for more than …