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The Impact Of Parenting Styles On A Child 's Development

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Diana Melanie Santos Final Reflection Research Paper PSYC 215 - Dr. Bagshaw The significant impact different parenting styles can have on a child’s development intrigued me and prompted my self reflection of how my immigrant parents parenting practices affected my development. From my experience, I believe immigrant parents are more likely to display authoritarian versus authoritative parenting styles. “Studies have shown that parents of individualistic cultures (i.e. western cultures) are more likely to be authoritative, whereas parents of collectivistic cultures (i.e. non-western cultures, including Asian, African, and Hispanic) that have immigrated to the United States tend to be more authoritarian “(Spera, 2005). While immigrant parents have their children’s best interest in mind, the parent’s expectations and fears of their children assimilating to a new culture and losing their original heritage and cultural identities, “may trigger negative consequences, that impact the development of the child as a result of this controlling parenting style” (Yaman et al, 2010). Immigrant parents from collectivistic cultures that practice authoritarian parenting methods are more likely to display traits such as: physical interference, a tendency to promote an overly controlling domestic environment, defined gender roles and limited communication regarding decisions and rules – either the child obeys without question or punishment is dealt out immediately (Varela et al, 2004).

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