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Parenting Styles and Child Rearing

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Parenting style is very important in child rearing and can have consequences in the way that a child develops and can have long term effects on children and their personality later in life. Diana Baumrind developed her ideas of parenting styles and their effects by studying 100 preschool children and their parents. Although most of the subjects of her study were Californian middle class European Americans, thus not offering much diversity in her study, the results were very persuasive and interesting. Baumrind found that parents varied on four dimensions: expression of warmth, strength of discipline, communication, and expectation of maturity. Using these dimensions as the basis Baumrind developed three main classifications of parenting …show more content…

Finally there is a fourth parenting style which isn’t grouped with the other three this is the neglectful/uninvolved parenting style which is described as an indifferent approach towards parenting where the parent isn’t aware of the child’s life, the parent is just uninvolved and doesn’t care to punish or praise the child. There are implications depending on the type of parenting style that was used on the child. If a child grew up with authoritarian parents for example would grow up to be well-behaved, obedient but unhappy, likely depressed, and would also likely leave home before the age of 20. Children that grow up with permissive parents would grow up to be dependent on parents living at home into adulthood, would lack emotional control, self-control and would be unhappy as adults. Finally the child that grows up with authoritative parents, it seems would grow up to be the best adjusted out of the three styles. A child with authoritative parents would be well adjusted, happy, generous, and successful. They are also well regarded by others especially in western individualistic societies. Now the text does warn that the parenting style which ends up working the best for each child should be dependent on various factors such as the child’s temperament, these are after all generalizations. Parenting styles and the consequences of parenting styles is very interesting because it can help parents ensure that their child grows up to be well adjusted. If parents

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