This article was originally written for Arden University as a coursework for Psychology studies.
The concept of defined parenting styles was first introduced in the 1960s when Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist, noticed that preschoolers exhibit different types of behaviour depending on the attitudes of their parents, and narrowed it down to three styles that produce different outcomes. In 1983, Maccoby and Martin expanded on Baumrind’s theory to include a fourth parenting style thus defining the authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved parenting styles (Li, 2020).
These theories are confirmed and researched using home and laboratory observations as well as parent interviews (Power, 2013). Furthermore, styles are defined by two dimensions – responsiveness and demandingness (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018).
This essay will compare the four parenting styles and contrast them given different sociocultural effects and circumstances to understand each style and its applications in everyday life. To understand the differences, advantages and drawbacks we must first look closer at each parenting style and its effects on the child.
Authoritative parents exhibit both responsiveness and demandingness (Power, 2013). They “shape, control and evaluate their child’s behaviour based on the absolute set of rules” (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). Authoritative parents have high expectations for maturity and achievement; they set rules and enforce boundaries but do so in a warm and affectionate setting (Amgain, 2019).
Authoritarian parents exhibit low responsiveness and high demandingness (Power, 2013). They are less nurturing and more stern with their children. Authoritarian parents use discipline, punishment and are more controlling. They seek obedience enforcing authority over the child (Amgain, 2019). This type of parenting is further divided into disciplinary and sub-disciplinary sub-types (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018).
Permissive parents show high responsiveness but low demandingness (Power, 2013). They tend to be less controlling and give more autonomy to the child (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). These type of parents are less willing to upset their child and set “very few rules and boundaries”. Permissive parents are warm, indulgent and more reluctant to enforce rules (Amgain, 2019).
Neglectful parents are low in both demandingness and responsiveness (Power, 2013) and therefore less likely to set high expectations or lay down harsh rules (Amgain, 2019).
Different parenting styles exhibit different parent-child interactions. Some parents may employ assertive techniques such as punishment or unexplained commands whereas others (or in other circumstances, regarding different rules) may use cognitive strategies such as reasoning and explanation (Smetana, 1994).
Authoritative parents exhibit problem solving and positive reinforcement as well as providing assistance with problem solving done by the child (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). They give clear and appropriate boundaries and justifications, grant autonomy over a limited range of personal issues (except multifaceted, friendship and prudential issues). They articulate their concerns clearly and facilitate understanding of the limits and boundaries of personal autonomy. This parenting style has been more observed in mothers (Smetana, 1994).
Authoritative parents tend to moralise non-moral issues such as their parental authority and treat both moral and conventional issues as obligatory. They fail to grant personal autonomy over issues that are typically treated as personal. For example, they may be stricter with tasks like cleaning the child’s room as they regard the room as the extension of their house and keeping up with their cleanliness standards as following their rules (Smetana, 1994).
In contrast, permissive parents can view the room issue completely differently, seeing it as the child’s personal space and letting them decide on its cleanliness. They are highly responsive to their child’s desire for autonomy and construct wider boundaries. When it comes to the child’s health and safety, they are as vigilant as authoritative and authoritarian parents but more lenient to their judgement in regards to their child’s welfare (Smetana, 1994).
Neglectful parents tend to be far less involved in their children’s lives. Often, neglect is a cause of mental health issues such as postpartum depression or abuse or neglect in the parent’s childhood (Amgain, 2019). Often due to their lack of capability to mentally deal with the demandingness of the child, they abandon the task or employ a very light touch.
Uninvolved parents often disregard their children’s misbehaviour and are even less worried about, for example, underage drinking. Unlike permissive parents who might permit this to “level” with their child, uninvolved parents tend to simply stay out of the issue altogether. The problem with too much leniency is that often parents, especially permissive parents, treat their children as they wish they were treated by their own parents (Amgain, 2019).
In contrast, authoritarian parents rank highest in surveys on their obligation and legitimate authority to make rules as their parental function. Authoritative parents surpassed authoritarian parents when asked whether it’s their legitimate authority to make rules on prudential and personal issues. Permissive parents scored relatively low for both their obligation and legitimate authority to set rules, especially on personal issues (Smetana, 1994).
It is also important to note the children’s perception on the parenting styles, as they tend to see their parents as either permissive or authoritarian whereas parents mostly see themselves as authoritative (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018).
It is crucial to provide a child with the appropriate amount of behavioral control. That positively affects the child’s development. In contrast, insufficient or excessive control is associated with negative outcomes (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018).
Aspects like aggression and delinquency can be caused by parent-child relationships, though they can be defined in different ways – starting with observations from parents and teachers on misbehaviour, reports from peers (for example the child bullies others) or even criminal activity reported by the law enforcement. It is noted that poorer parenting approaches result in worse behaviour overall (O’Connor and Scott, 2017).
Authoritative parenting is associated with positive developmental outcomes (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). Children of authoritative parents tend to be happy and have competent social skills. They are more independent, with better grades, academic accomplishments, and mental health (Amgain, 2019).
Children with authoritarian parents show negative developmental outcomes such as aggression, somatic complaints and anxiety. When looking at joint parenting styles, children with two authoritarian parents show very poor results. Even children with less involved but intrusive parents showed better results than children with two authoritarian parents (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018).
Children of these parents are less independent, have lower self-esteem and tend to be more insecure. They are also more prone to mental health issues and exhibiting behavioral problems (Amgain, 2019). A study also concluded that children, especially girls with authoritarian parents, face eating disorders while striving for thinness (Enten and Golan, 2009).
Permissive parenting has been associated with internalizing and externalizing problem behaviours (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). Children raised by permissive parents are more demanding, impulsive and rebellious. They tend to be aggressive and have low self-control and achievement (Amgain, 2019). Since permissive parents give their children “more autonomy than they are capable of handling”, it may fail to convey social standards, norms, and expectations (Smetana, 1994).
The least favorable outcome is seen in children with neglectful parents (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). Children growing up in neglectful families are more impulsive, and encounter mental health issues such as addiction and suicidal thoughts (Amgain, 2019).
It has, however, been proven that over-exaggerated parental control (for example, controlling behaviour during free play time or granting less autonomy in parent-child conversations) can lead to issues like anxiety and shyness. However – and this is where the application of parenting styles becomes complex – the factor of a child’s genetics can come into play, including parental anxiety (Wood et al, 2003).
It has also been noted that children of authoritarian parents achieve lower grades (Dornbusch et al., 1987) but the data varies across cultures, gender, and the researcher’s own definitions of parenting styles. Many variables should be accounted for, which makes the study of parenting styles and their effect on the child difficult.
For example, when looking at child outcomes, authoritative parenting style seems like the most favorable. However, when adding the variable of sensation seeking in the child, studies show that authoritative parenting is associated with 10 of the 12 variables regarding cigarette and marijuana use (Stephenson and Helme, 2006). However, again variables come into account as cigarette use can also be related to exposure via adverts, parents smoking and other factors.
Parenting is affected by individual skills, values, social status and culture (Amgain, 2019) as well as the age, gender (Ruffman, Slade, Devitt and Crowe, 2006) and other factors involving the child. For example, in Asian countries the most common parenting style is authoritarian. However, cohorts come into play as it has been studied that Nepalese parents tend to be more lenient towards their children, wanting to treat them as they would have wanted to be treated themselves. This can cause problems such as premature exposure to age-inappropriate material (Amgain, 2019).
It is also important to note that not all families use one set parenting style. Styles may differ between parents or even be on the spectrum of a select parenting style (congruent authoritarian parenting (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018) or a mix of authoritative and authoritarian styles (Power, 2013). In mixed parenting models, the more effective style can buffer the negative effects of a less effective approach (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018).
As a study conducted via questionnaires, the legitimacy of results is in question as the results may be subjective (Kuppens and Ceulemans, 2018). For example, concepts like “personal domain” can be translated differently based on the parents’ personal or cultural context. For that the solution is observers, however, even then it is impossible to determine the change from the usual parenting approach (Smetana, 1994).
A problem found with observation, however, is parental anxiety which reduces the factor of “warmth” and often prompts parents to discipline their children more strictly when observed (Simons and Conger, 2007).
Other factors can include social class (poorer families tend to exhibit less involved parenting (Amgain, 2019)) or aspects like single and shared parenthood – where a parent who is less present tries to compensate for it by exhibiting a less favourable parenting method.
An interesting phenomenon was noticed on Twitter during COVID-19, where parents exchange findings about their children which they hadn’t previously noticed. During the outbreak, a lot of countries closed schools and offices switched to remote work – this resulting in parents and children being at home simultaneously, for longer stints than usual. Parents noticed their children eating more than expected [appendix 1, image]. This is an interesting trend as it applies to the child’s most basic needs and yet was not known in its full extent by parents. Parents are more involved in their children’s lives during school summer breaks, when appetites decrease due to hot weather (Marriott, 1993). So while parents knew their children’s summer eating habits, they were surprised at the food consumption during the winter months as they would normally eat one or two meals at school.
This indicates that even extremely involved parents may miss some of their child’s behaviors when put in separate environments or when others look after their children for a period of time. However, it can not be associated with the uninvolved parenting style. Context, observation and subjectivity is at play when studying effects and outcomes.
The findings of this essay indicate that the most favorable outcomes stem from the authoritative style. However, it is not without its drawbacks. Available data is subject to the interpretation of observers and parents.The unusual interruption of day to day life by a researcher is also at play and may affect the mental state and actions of the parent as well as the child.
Data varies across cultures, cohorts, age, gender, family models (e.g. nuclear family will include two parents to be observed and how both their parenting styles interact with each other) and social classes. Even factors like whether the child is homeschooled or is at home only during the school breaks accounts for parental involvement but doesn’t necessarily indicate that involved parents are best suited for raising a successful child – involvement alone doesn’t indicate good parenting practices, and overinvolvement can be just as harmful to the child.
The study of how parenting styles affect the child is relatively new and open to improvements before firm conclusions can be drawn. However, current studies show that the most favorable outcomes come from children raised by authoritative parents.
References
Amgain, G., 2019. Cool Parent Syndrome; Redefining Cool. Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences, 1(1).
Dornbusch, S., Ritter, P., Leiderman, P., Roberts, D. and Fraleigh, M., 1987. The Relation of Parenting Style to Adolescent School Performance. Child Development, 58(5), p.1244.
Enten, R. and Golan, M., 2009. Parenting styles and eating disorder pathology. Appetite, 52(3), pp.784-787.
Kuppens, S. and Ceulemans, E., 2018. Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known Concept. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(1), pp.168-181.
Li, P., 2020. 4 Parenting Styles – Characteristics And Effects. [online] Parenting For Brain. Available at: <https://www.parentingforbrain.com/4-baumrind-parenting-styles/> [Accessed 3 March 2020].
Marriott, B., 1993. Nutritional Needs In Hot Environments. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
O’Connor, T. and Scott, S., 2017. Parenting And Outcomes For Children. [ebook] London: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Power, T., 2013. Parenting Dimensions and Styles: A Brief History and Recommendations for Future Research. Childhood Obesity, [online] 9(s1), pp.S-14-S-21.
Ruffman, T., Slade, L., Devitt, K. and Crowe, E., 2006. What mothers say and what they do: The relation between parenting, theory of mind, language and conflict/cooperation. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24(1), pp.105-124.
Simons, L. and Conger, R., 2007. Linking Mother–Father Differences in Parenting to a Typology of Family Parenting Styles and Adolescent Outcomes. Journal of Family Issues, 28(2), pp.212-241.
Smetana, J., 1994. Parenting styles and beliefs about parental authority. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1994(66), pp.21-36.
Stephenson, M. and Helme, D., 2006. Authoritative Parenting and Sensation Seeking as Predictors of Adolescent Cigarette and Marijuana Use. Journal of Drug Education, 36(3), pp.247-270.
Wood, J., McLeod, B., Sigman, M., Hwang, W. and Chu, B., 2003. Parenting and childhood anxiety: theory, empirical findings, and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(1), pp.134-151.
