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Parenting Styles Affect The Psychological Development Of Children And Adolescents?

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Do different parenting styles affect the psychological development of children and adolescents?

Parenting style has a significant impact on children and how they develop psychologically. There are many different styles of parenting that affect the psychological development of children and adolescents including the extreme authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting and the desirable authoritative parenting. Each style of parenting has varying effects on the development of the child, this will be referenced in relation to Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.
One type of parenting that has a profound impact on the psychological development of children is authoritarian parenting. Authoritarian parenting is a very restrictive style …show more content…

Permissive parents adopt a very relaxed attitude and uphold very few rules and guidelines for their children. They see themselves as being more of a friend to the child than a parental figure. This style of parenting is most relevant with Erikson’s fifth stage of psychosocial development, in that it has a significant influence over ‘identity vs role confusion’. In this stage during adolescence, the child begins to both develop a sense of identity and find their role in society. Failure to do so results in the child becoming confused about what to do with their life, and will experience role confusion. In permissive parenting, due to the lack of discipline and limited boundaries, during adolescence the child may not be properly equipped with the required skills necessary to adapt to a functional society. For example, the child may start consuming alcohol at a young age and suffer long term mental and physical problems. This results in role confusion as the child lacks the social skills and self-discipline to be able to form an identity. Permissive parenting is at one extreme and authoritarian parenting is at the opposite end of the spectrum, but the preferred parenting style lies in the middle, in the form of authoritative …show more content…

Authoritative Parenting is a parenting style that is child-centered, in that parents closely interact with their children (Alleydog.com, 2016). In addition to this, compliance to rules and schedules as well as high expectations for behaviour and performance are maintained. This style of parenting has the greatest correlation with the third stage in Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, of ‘initiative vs guilt’. This stage is generally relevant throughout the ages three to five years and is a crucial time in which children begin to interact with others and become more confident in initiating activities and conversation. Conversely, if this tendency is squelched, either through criticism or control, children develop a sense of guilt. (McLeod, 2016). Authoritative parenting finds a balance between initiative and guilt as both are healthy and necessary to some extent to keep the child both confident and maintaining humility. Authoritative parenting is considered to be the most successful style in developing healthy psychological development in

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