Parenting Styles and Developmental Outcomes - Research Paper Example

PARENTING STYLES AND DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES Introduction Parenting styles refers to social and psychological frameworks adopted by parents and guardians in facilitating development of a minor from infancy to adulthood. These styles are characterized by definite demands and standards set by parents as a means of shaping the social and psychological makeup of their children. Parenting styles falls under four categories which include; authoritative, permissive, uninvolved and authoritarian. Each of the four styles has specific rules and guidelines that influence the manner in which parents impact development of their children. Relevant psychological research in the four distinct styles of parenting indicates that children raised within different parenting environments will develop correspondingly different social and personality traits. Common traits influenced by parenting styles include level of personal discipline, communication styles adopted by a child and level of self control and maturity demonstrated by adolescents in conventional social settings. In this context, there is a high probability that parenting styles and personality outcome of children have a cause and effect relationship. Description of the Four Parenting Styles Authoritarian Style This style manifests in the form of substantial parental control coupled with high level of child supervision. Children raised within an authoritarian environment should be obedient and respectful towards parental authority. This means that children are left with limited freedom (Barton & Michael, 2012). Behavioral conduct and general activities of children under this style should incline closely to rules and guidelines stipulated by parents. Usually, violation of those rules attracts punishment. In this regard, authoritarian style has low responsiveness but high demand on children. Authoritative Style Authoritative parenting operates with pre-established rules and guidelines. This means that parents practicing this style have high demands on behavioral patterns of their children. However, the high demand is offset by high level of responsiveness. Unlike authoritarian with low responsiveness, authoritative parents foster a democratic environment where children can question guidelines set by their parents. Parents adopting this style have a high propensity of forgiveness as opposed to punishment (Barton & Michael, 2012). Therefore, authoritative style has high responsiveness and high demand on children. Permissive Style Permissive parents set minimal rules for their children. This style has few demands on children, and tends to be more relaxed compared to the previous two styles. Permissive style fails to adopt traditional guidelines of parent-child relationship, especially obedience and respect for authority. Rather, permissive parenting fosters a lenient environment where children have high freedom of self regulation in behavior. Despite being a lenient style, permissive parenting advocates for high level of responsiveness. Parents adopting this style are communicative as opposed to implementing punitive action to their children. Uninvolved Style Uninvolved parenting is not responsive and has low demands. Children raised within this parenting environment detach from their parents at a young age. Uninvolved parenting creates an environment where parents are neglectful towards development of their children. This style involves limited monitoring of children’s behavior coupled with unengaged communication between minors and their parents (Ruth, 2001). This means that there are no definite rules and punitive measures resulting from children’s non-conventional behaviors. Developmental Outcomes of Parenting Styles As acknowledged earlier, parenting style and child personality traits have a substantially definite cause and effect relationship. Outcomes of each parenting style depend on the style’s degree of responsiveness and demand. Authoritative parenting style, which adopts high responsiveness and high demands, enhances positive child development (Erica, Pong & Lingxin, 2005). Children nurtured by authoritative parents tend to be caring. In addition, children from authoritative parenting homes demonstrate considerably high level of maturity. Parents practicing this style usually have a long and stable relationship with their children. On the contrary, authoritarian style creates limited autonomy for children. Consequently, youth and adults emerging from authoritarian families have unstable relationship with their parents. Parent-child relationship is full of family conflicts and parental depression. Socially, adults nurtured under this style tend to seek freedom throughout their lives; hence have a high tendency of divorcing their partners. Permissive parenting stipulates low demands on children. Parents do not apply punitive actions whenever child behavior deviates from conventional norms. As a result, adolescents emerging from permissive families have high tendency of engaging in harmful behaviors like drug abuse and unhealthy sexual orientations. However, high responsiveness coupled with low demands enables minors to develop elevated self-esteem (Erica et al., 2005). In addition, autonomy during early developmental stages allows children to possess good social skills, while parents will have low depression related to child supervision. With respect to uninvolved style, children emerging from such households demonstrate low performance in almost all aspects of their lives. Lack of parental supervision and emotional attachment hinders healthy social and psychological development of children. Uninvolved parents have no time for hugging their children and reading them bedtime stories. Children from uninvolved families are delinquent and violent because they feel neglected and unwelcomed in the society (Thomas & Ryan, 2012). Parents adopting this style will have short, unpredictable and unstable relationship with their children. Social Contexts and Variation in Parenting Styles Despite proposal of a definite cause and effect relationship between parenting style and child outcome, one should acknowledge that there are other factors which influence adolescent behavior apart from parental supervision and responsiveness. One of these factors includes the social aspect of gender. Boys and girls nurtured within a similar parenting environment shows different behavioral outcomes (Erica et al., 2005). Usually, men raised by permissive parents develop substantial impulsiveness and drug-related problems. On the other hand, girls raised within the same parenting environment develop solid self-management skills coupled with considerably high degree of self-esteem (Barton & Michael, 2012). Therefore, outcomes of parenting styles also depend on gender difference as opposed to only the effects of responsiveness and demands imposed by parents. Apart from gender, cultural background also plays a significant role in shaping social and psychological outcome of children. The cause and effect relationship of parenting style and child outcome predicts that minors raised in authoritative families shows high academic performance as opposed to those raised in authoritarian, uninvolved and permissive households. However, relevant studies supports that academic performance of children in elementary and high schools depend on ethnic background. Children from Anglo-American and Hispanic cultural origin demonstrate high academic performances while those from African-American and Asian origin performs poorly (Ruth, 2001). This means that academic ability of students does not solely depend on parenting styles, but relies on other socio-cultural aspects like ethnicity and economic capability of families. Recommended Parenting Style At this juncture, one can appreciate the fact that other social factors apart from parenting styles influence social and personality outcome of children in the society. However, parenting styles imparts the biggest influence in personal development of children as opposed to other social factors like gender and culture. After evaluating all the four parenting styles, I would personally advocate for adoption of authoritative style in nurturing of children. Authoritative style not only enhances close supervision of minors but also responds to the children’s needs in a rational manner. This style is instrumental in developing strong parent-child bonds within a family unit (Thomas & Ryan, 2012). Close supervision ensures that children do not engage in destructive behaviors like drug abuse. In addition, high responsiveness fosters a warm environment for child development. This means that authoritative parenting style yields children with desirable social and personality traits. However, high demands and high level of responsiveness keeps children and adolescents under parental control for an extended period. This style does not promote child independency. Close control by parents will not enable a child to develop the required level of self-management skills commonly observed with permissive parenting style. This means that young adults emerging from authoritative families may not be strong enough to stand for themselves in real social settings. Such children may easily fall prey to harmful influence from age-mates because they lack the required self-management skills. Conclusion In conclusion, it is undeniable that parenting styles plays a significant role in influencing behavioral outcome of children in the society. Each parenting style has unique characteristics in terms of demands and responsiveness of parents towards their children. These varied levels of demand and responsiveness determines whether children will be caring, indulgent or impulsive. Apart from parenting styles, relevant research acknowledges that social and cultural factors are influential in child development. Therefore, outcomes of parenting are a combination of style adopted and underlying social factors within the society. Reference List Barton, A. L. & Michael, S. K. (2012). Gender Differences in the Relationship among Parenting Styles and College Student Mental Health. Journal of American College Health, 60(1), 21-26 Erica, G., Pong, S. & Lingxin, H. (2005). The Roles of Parenting Styles and Social Capital in the School Performance of Immigrant Asian and Hispanic Adolescents. Social Science Quarterly, 86(4), 929-950. Ruth, K. C. (2001). Extending Research on the Consequences of Parenting Style for Chinese Americans and European Americans. Journal of Child Development, 72(6), 1832-1843. Thomas, J. M. & Ryan, D. S. (2012). Parenting Style Transitions and Delinquency. Youth and Society, 46(2), 228-254. Read More