What Is Authoritarian Parenting?

In the Chinese society, harsh and stern parenting styles are commonplace. Parents believe that authoritarian parenting style is effective in boosting children’s academic performances. Parents who practise authoritarianism set higher standards and tend to control children through shaming and punishing (Dewar ¶33). When children receive poor grades, parents use blunt vocabulary in order to humiliate their children because they believe that children’s morale

Amy Chua’s book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” brings up much room for debate and controversy for arguments whether Chinese parents do a better job than their Western counterparts. Chua’s parenting methods are most commonly described as stereotypical way every Chinese child is raised. She explains in further detail how she raised her two daughters Sophia and Louisa and why she believed in the tiger mother way. Although Chua’s children became successful adults, she made both good and bad parenting decisions. She was unfairly harsh and critical; however, she is a successful parent in the aspect that she did teach her children many useful life skills such as not giving up easily and how to excel academically.

According to Amy Chua, a professor at Yale who has a reputation as a “Tiger Mom”, Chinese parents produce children who demonstrate superiority in academic, music, and profession over the children who experience Western parenting. Chua contends that this comes from the Chinese parenting style which utilizes tactics of coercion and threat. This Chinese-style upbringing helps children prepare for their future by having confidence that is built from an incomparable amount of practice. In her essay “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, Amy Chua illustrates that, a success of a child reflects a good parenting of parents, so it is a duty of parents to force their child to stand on the top of the field regardless of his or her interest or desire in

So if the strict Chinese parenting style hurts kid's mental health, what provides the best alternative? Many would argue that the authoritative parents style works the most effectively in almost every situation. Brenda Scottsdale stated that children reared under warm, nurturing parents have much higher self esteem, independence, and brain development than children brought up by authoritarian parents. (everydaylife.globalpost.com) Because authoritative parents give a perfect blend of standards and warmth, they provide their children with goals and encouragement, and the ability to learn on their own.

In American and Chinese culture self-conduct is used to teach children. In the Chinese culture they practice Guan, which is to educate, care, control, support and love. They follow Confucianism, which is criticism to encourage to push them to gain social values. Confucianism is a strict action that is practiced. China continues to make every effort to reach for success. China has high values for individualism and respect of adolescents to others. China always looks toward the future and never lets any short interests interfere with that which they praise and are valued ideas in which made China a secure society and held together for thousands of years. China’s stable society is payable to the way they obey to their future commitments established by discipline practices that were taught at childhood.

Chinese parents emphasize the importance of high academic performance and have high expectations on their children. According to Chinese Culture & Parenting by Alexis Jenkins, Chinese parent’s raise their children with the idea that a high academic performance and participation in other over achieving activities will give a positive image to their family. Thus, they raise their children to take an overwhelming amount of challenging courses and participate in extracurricular activities. The difference with American parents is that they encourage them instead of forcing and expecting to achieve a high academic performance (Choi “How Cultures around the World Think about Parenting”). As previously stated, American families will use encouraging words in order to motivate and show their children that they are doing great in their academic performance.

Gwen discussed the effects of authoritarian parenting on its benefits and drawbacks to children development with reference to research findings. This style affect children growth in behavioral, social, emotional, moral aspects and school performance. The behaviors of children are well-developed and advoid severial risky behavior such as drugs, alcohol taking, and anti-social behavior. Also, this style causes the embrrassment in social relationship because they will be less likely accepted by peers and receive less competence or sources. On emotional aspect, kids are easily report negatives including anxiety, depression and lower self esteem. Furthermore, research suggest that authoritarian caregiving associate with lower school performance

Amy Chua style is more of authoritarian. I understand that we all want what’s best for our children’s but for the Chinese parents it seems like they want to control their child life’s, there is a certain role parents have but being extremely controlling with the child life’s they are not giving them the opportunity to learn and explore for themselves. Chinses parents think they know best for their children but to having a saying in their life the children might always wonder what if or they might not even know what to do later on in life when the parents are not around they might let someone else control their life since they been so use to it. Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them. If their child doesn't get them, the Chinese parent assumes it's because the child didn't work hard enough. We all want our children to get good grades and sometimes push them so they can but there are times were the children just doesn’t understand but that does not mean they didn’t work hard enough; they are trying their best so all we should do is tell them they done the best they can

The Chinese culture is known for its authoritarian parenting style. This style is characterized by attempts to shape and control the child according to absolute standards, with a high value of obedience to authoritative figures (Lieber, Fung, Wing-Leung Leung, 2006). Chinese culture also emphasizes in emotional restraint to promote harmony and healthy adjustments, which results in Chinese children being less emotionally expressive than American children. Self-control, or learning how to accept rules, control of emotions and impulses, and tolerance in frustrating social situations are a universal construct, and norms that all children across the world are thought in

Children need to be prepared for their future since their childhood. They need their loving and caring parents to guide them through their path of success in life. There are many types of people that have different parenting methods. Some believe they should let their kids decide what they want to be, or what they want to do in life, where others believe that parents know what’s best for their children, so they should determine the path of their children’s life. Amy’s Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, wrote a memoir on her life, in which she shared her parenting methods by comparing them to western parenting. Her book Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother received a lot of feedback from all over the country. In response to her book, Hannah Rosin, Davis Brooks, Meghan Daum, Patrick Goldstein, Elizabeth Kolbert, and James Murphy shared their opinion on her methods and their own parenting and life experiences. Amy Chua claims that Chinese kids are better in academics and more successful in life compare to western kids because their parents are strict and controlling; however, Kolbert, Murphy, Daum, Goldstein, Rosin, and Brooks believes that strict and controlling parent raise successful overachiever who is miserable, and they claim kids also need cognitive and social skills and not just academics alone.

According to Chua, Chinese parents are chiefly concerned with success in the classroom. If a child brings home a B (she brings attention to the fact this “would never happen” to a Chinese child) it results in a “screaming, hair-tearing explosion” and the parents spend hours rectifying the perceived failure with “dozens of practice tests.” The idea is that Chinese parents believe their children can, and should be, “the best” in what they do.

Our home consisted of 7 children (I am the 3rd child), we went to church every Sunday and were taught the importance of church and living good values. These values were taught for the most part in an authoritarian parenting style. Authoritarian parenting “does not encourage verbal give and take, believing that the child should accept her word for what is right” (Baumrind pg. 890). My mother, was for the most part a stay at home mom and was more of an uninvolved parent, “showing little to no affection or encouragement (Maccoby)” As children we did our own thing, but we understood what was expected. For example, every August, the task of replenishing our food storage was in full force (this was my mom’s responsibility), by canning, peaches,

Chua asserted that there are three big differences between the Chinese and Western parental mindsets, which allows Chinese parents to raise “stereotypically successful kids” – math whizzes and music prodigies. This essay examines one of the reasons given by Chua, the way Chinese parents prepare their children mentally for whatever tasks, this difference results in them holding their children to higher standards and demanding more of them, which in turn, causes them to achieve greater achievements.

What makes a child excel? Amy Chua, in her work “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”, writes to inform her readers that Chinese parents raise successful children because they are stricter than typical Western parents. She states that Asian parents hold higher standards, that Asian parents are more direct and even caustic in their reprimanding of their offspring, and that the Chinese believe children owe their parents everything is the cause of these differences. However, Chua greatly oversimplifies the issue of parenting, stereotyping both the Chinese and Western cultures, and she does not address the negative consequences of the Chinese parenting perspective.

Long before the birth of a child parents envision what kind of parenting style they want to use, and what kind of future that want their children to have. Soon-to-be parents are submerged into a land of questions and unknowns about everything from the nursery décor, safety products, old wives tales, and horror stories from the delivery room. There are guides, books, and blogs that can give you all sorts of information about those unknowns, but there really is no guide on how to raise a successful child, only strategies. Of course, children need discipline in their lives to prepare them for an independent future, but there is a line that can be crossed. When parenting a child the parent must be a good role model, listen to their child and discipline them accordingly. When looking at both the style of Chinese parents and western parents there are different techniques that can be combined to create the most effective parenting style.