Parenting Style Influences Child Development - Literature review Example

Parenting Style Influences Child DevelopmentThe title of this work is Parenting Style Influences Child Development and Social Mobility which was published Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Journal in January 2012. The authors include Professors John Ermisch, Yvonne Kelly, Anne Buchanan, Eirini Flouri and Doctor Anne McMunn.Method Studies show that early childhood cognitive development is strongly associated with education and economic positive outcomes. Household parental income also determines education activities and parenting.

These in turn affect cognitive development, in that children from wealthier households are likely to have higher cognitive development and less behavioral disorders compared to their counterparts from poor households. Parental activities as well as the parent-child relationship have been shown to affect a child’s development and wellbeing. Studies funded by ESRC have shown how the composition of the family that is the presence of an involved father and the employment status of the parent (s) determines child development outcomes.

The quality of the existing parent- parent as well as parent-child relationships in the household also determines cognitive and emotional development of children. Early motherhood is strongly associated with a much poor child outcome as well as a greater risk of generational poverty. This was a cohort study whereby and 100,000 individuals were sampled across 40,000 households. The question of whether interventions that would improve the quality of parenting as well as home environment would improve child cognitive and behavioural outcomes formed the hypothesis in this study.

Other hypotheses included there being is a strong association between household income and the parenting styles. VariablesThe independent variables in this study include parental household income, parenting styles, household composition and the age of the mother. The outcomes in this study were early child cognitive and behavior development levels, educational achievements and generational income.Findings The study established that children from wealthier households where both parents are employed have an increases cognitive attainment as well as less behavioural disorders compared to their counterparts from less wealthy households.

An optimum household environment is one whereby both parents live in the same house and are both earn a living. This has been shown to foster holistic child development. Children from poor households are less likely to learn at home. In most cases, they lag behind in skills like drawing, colouring and in the songs and rhymes that their counterparts in wealthier homes possess. The presence of an involved father; whether biological or not and living in or not, positively affects the child development outcome.

Early motherhood predisposes children to poverty as these women are likely to be uneducated and from poor households themselves and thus propagates generation to generation poverty. Children living with both parents and with a happy mother are more likely to be increasingly happy and emotionally stable compare to their counterparts with unhappy mothers. Limitations There were gaps in relating aspects of the study. For example, there was insufficient evidence relating poverty with parenting. The sampling was not done randomly hence the possibility of introducing bias to the study.