Reem Raouda studied more than 200 parent-child relationships and found 7 habits that keep kids confiding into adulthood

After examining more than 200 parent-child relationships, parenting expert Reem Raouda identified seven habits that determine whether children grow into adults who still confide in their parents. The research centers on what parents do early on, rather than on child temperament or circumstance. Raouda's conclusion: the conversational door in adulthood is largely set by parental behavior years before adulthood arrives.

What the study examined

Raouda's sample of more than 200 relationships provides ground beyond individual experience. Her research question targeted a specific outcome: whether children who speak openly with their parents carry that openness into adult life. Seven habits appear consistently in the relationships where that openness holds.

The word "habits" matters in how Raouda frames the findings. A habit implies repetition across years, not a single well-managed conversation. Parents who sustain these behaviors across childhood, her research suggests, are building something structural rather than responding to one moment at a time.

The timing argument

The practical implication of Raouda's work concerns when the influential period actually operates. Seven behaviors, established early, predicting adult outcomes across more than 200 cases places the mechanism in childhood. That shifts explanatory weight away from adolescence, the period most parents focus on when they think about staying connected.

It also reframes what the problem looks like for parents of teenagers. If the goal is to understand how a relationship became closed, Raouda's research points earlier. The seven habits she identified are ones children grow familiar with before they reach the years when parents most fear losing them.

Seven parental habits, established during childhood: that is what the relationships that remain open share across Raouda's full sample of more than 200 cases.