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Changing attitudes to parenting mean the UK public now rank among the lowest internationally for the importance they place on obedience or responsibility in children, and among the highest for how much they value unselfishness, good manners and imagination, a new study shows.

The research, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, finds the share of Britons who think obedience is an especially important quality for children to learn at home has decreased dramatically since the late 1990s.

And while the vast majority of Britons have consistently said it is especially important for children to have good manners, they have declined in importance elsewhere, particularly in the US, where good manners are now valued the least out of 24 countries included in the research.

Project status: Completed