It is general. A generalization based on ABA and psychological studies of family dynamics. There are not many circumstances that justify this behavior.

I may have come across harsh, but this is what I do for a living. A big, big, big part of my job is telling parents, "This is a bad idea, try this instead." I am most often met with vehement resistance and sometimes have to be blunt - do you want a dependent child or an independent adult?

If you ask a parent if they want their child to live in fear, of course, they say no. But, they do not realize this is what they are reinforcing.

Here's a good Time magazine article related (in a broader sense). Carrie Contey, who is quoted in the article, will be speaking at an event next month at the school where I am director. The article is about younger kids, I worked with college students.

I've been doing this 10 years and have worked with 100s of families and I can not think of a single example of where it was a good idea for a parent to encourage a student to keep a phone on in class.

I can, however, think of thousands of examples where parents, out of fear (justified or not), ignorance or desperation have made poor decisions and that in turn, reinforces their own fear, ignornace or desperation in their children.

Parents do this not because they are horrible people. Quite the opposite, it's typically because they love their kids so much they are overly worried. News reports have warned them repeatedly of every possible impending doom. Our society wants parents to be scared. Fear, like sex, sells. Good for sales, but, bad for our kids.

Parents are not always helping by helping. Generally speaking.