What Kind Of Parenting Style Is The Best Overall Method For The Most Children? Essay

A parent’s parenting styles are as diverse as the world we live in today. Nowadays, parents only want what is best for their children and their parenting styles plays a crucial role in the development of children which will in the long run, not only effect the child’s childhood years, but later prolong into their adult life as well.

With over three hundred million Americans and over six billion people worldwide parenting skills are essential to maintain a healthy society. Parenting involves many aspects and requires many skills. It is a time to nurture, instruct, and correct to develop fundamental skills children will need to be mature, responsible, and contributing adults to a society. There are four commonly identified parenting styles; authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved parenting. Of the four parenting styles, two remain on opposite ends of the parenting spectrum. These two styles; authoritarian, and permissive both have deleterious results that are often visible throughout different developmental stages, such as rebellious behavior. As well

Permissive parents allow complete freedom to their children and there is very little discipline visible. Permissive parenting was “Popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s” because of all the troubles going on during WWII. (5) They like to tell their kids “One more time…” whenever the kids do something bad. An example can be if Timmy asks his parents if he can go to a party. They tell him he has to be home by 10pm. Then his parents tell him the limit is 10pm. Then he suggests 12pm and because they do not want Timmy to be angry with them they let him do whatever he wants. Permissive parents have a fear that their kids will not like them. Unlike authoritarian parents, permissive parents make rules but they never enforce the rules. The children in this parenting style are usually immature, dependant, aggressive, and unhappy. They do not do well academically because of their inability to regulate to the school rules.

Parenting styles were developed by Diana Baumrind in 1966 at the University of California at Berkeley (Diana Divecha Ph.D, 2015). Baumrind used a model of demands and responsiveness to determine three types of parenting styles. These styles were authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting. Because permissive parenting lacks in demand and discipline, it will not be discussed in this essay. In Baumrind’s model, demands refers to the amount of control parents exert onto and expect from their children. Responsiveness refers to how a parent nurtures and empathizes with their child. Parents with high demands and high responsiveness follow the authoritative parenting style. On

Parents play the largest role in the overall development of children. During the early 1960’s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted experiments that were designed to identify and understand the different types of parenting. As a result of these studies, Baumrind concluded that there are four main styles of parenting, one of them being the authoritarian parenting style. In the studies, Baumrind claims that an authoritarian parent is defined as a parent who, “attempts to shape, control, and evaluate the behavior and attitudes of their children in accordance with a set standard of conduct, usually an absolute standard, theologically motivated or formulated by a higher secular authority” (Baumrind 127). Authoritarian

The permissive parenting style is one in which the parents care for their child, yet they don’t set rules or discipline their child. This parenting style is high in nurturance and low in maturity demands, control, and communication. According to Joseph Sclafani, a child psychologist,:

Research indicates that about one-third of all parents use authoritative style of parenting. Regardless of the preferred style, varying factors such as culture, the temperament of the child and parent, and parental status will influence the interactive process of that style. Most parents could benefit from knowledge and information of these style to improve their parenting skills.Parenting style is a pattern of behavior that influences child-rearing practices. Approaches vary based on several factors, ranging from how parents themselves were raised to the goals parents have for their children.

Thesis: The authoritative parenting style is the most effective style for producing children that have desirable traits, such as good morals, obedience, compassion and responsibility.

The styles that Dr. Baumrind recognized were based on two aspects of parenting; parental responsiveness and parental expectation (demandingness). The aspects are determined by the parent’s characteristics on the actions towards the children. Too much or too little of either aspect of parenting can conflict with the child’s learning and behavior. A single selection of the four parenting styles is approached after determining the degree of each of the two aspects. Although there is not a perfect match for any parent, most will tend to push towards a

Parenting styles have been widely defined by Baumrind into three categories, authoritative, authoritarian and permissive. Parenting styles can be defined as a pattern of attitudes in how parents choose to express and communicate with their children. These styles are categorized based on the level of nurturance, parental control and level of responsiveness (Dwairy, 2004). Authoritative style exhibits high levels of demand, responsiveness and nurturance; authoritarian style exhibits high levels of demand but low levels of responsiveness, permissive style exhibits low levels of demand but high in responsiveness and nurturance (Dwairy, 2004). These parenting styles have been proposed to have a significant impact on a child’s

Although there are several styles of parenting, permissive parenting and authoritative parenting are the two that I identify with the most. Both of these styles of parenting understand the need for love and acceptance. Both styles of parenting are concerned with the well-being and safety of their children. However, the approaches and conditions governing them are much different. Although they share some important similarities the difference between permissive and authoritive parenting are quiet vast.

In the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrid conducted a research, analyzing child-parent behavior, seeking to identify parenting styles. The Baumrid study and other further studies identified four main styles of parenting (Miller, 2010): the authoritative parenting style was characterized by fair rules and consequences; The Authoritarian parenting style was characterized by strict rules and harsh punishment; the permissive parenting style was characterized by minimal rules with little or no consequences; the uninvolved parenting style was characterized by no rules, and parent presence was almost non-existent. In this paper, I’m going to look at the authoritarian style of parenting in an attempt to draw out its characteristics and its immediate and later impacts on children impact.

Children are the future of the world and need to be nurtured and educated in the best conditions. Thus, parenting is one of the most challenging and admirable responsibilities that people can experience. Parenting plays important roles in the development of children’s characteristics. Some people nurture children depending on their own ways. Others get advice from friends or books. Parenting can be divided into three groups: authoritative, permissive, and democratic parenting.

Research by Gwen Dewar (The four Styles, 2010) illustrates that these types of parents often do not have any disciplinary rules or demands of their children. They do not have many expectations of the children, thus they are more commutative with their children and are more responsive. Compared to other parenting styles, this one is more non-traditional and has little control of their children.

“Baumrind (1967, 1971) identified three main styles of parenting”, explains Swartz, de la Rey, Duncan and Townsend (2011:65). The three main styles of parenting are authoritarian parenting, authoritative parenting and permissive parenting. Furthermore, each one of these parenting styles is associated with certain outcomes based on the behaviour of the child, the type of relationship that the child has with the parent and even the child’s self-esteem. However, according to a psychological expert Cherry (2015) “developmental psychologists have long been interested in how parents impact child development”. In brief, this might mean that, parents’ actions and behaviour have a huge impact on their child, which may cause the child to adopt the behaviour and make it a habit as they grow to be parents. So, as a parent you should always keep in mind that “your kids watch you for a living. It’s their job, it’s what they do. That’s why it’s so important to try your best to be a good role model”, declares Lehman (n.d.). I will now discuss the authoritarian