Parenting Styles, The Differences That Make a Difference
There are four different styles of parenting
that are characterized by different attitudes and behaviors that the parents exhibit towards their children. These can look different across varying cultures and socioeconomic contexts.
The type of parenting style that is implemented will reflect the way children face social and even
non-social problems. Along with that, executing positive parenting techniques is essential for
early cognitive development, emotional balance, and maturation of thought.
Furthermore, adults whose parents had enforced a healthy parenting style, tend to have more
secure attachments style, display greater social skills, and have less likelihood of mental illness.
So what are the four parenting styles? There is authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and
neglecting/ uninvolved. Here is more details on each of those:
Authoritative
- Highly responsive and highly demanding towards the child.
- Solves problems with the child.
- Parents create a positive emotional climate for the child.
- Promote autonomy, support assertiveness, and individuality.
- These parents would socialize their children by expecting mature behavior and consistently setting and enforcing clear standards.
- These parents are typically openly affectionate.
- Encourage two-way communication with their children.
- Use of natural consequences.
An authoritative parenting style may look like the parents saying, “you need to do this because
I’m telling you to, and this is why..”.
Authoritarian
- Parent-driven.
- Low responsiveness, yet very demanding.
- Set strict rules and punishments.
- One way communication.
- Very little consideration for the child’s social-emotional and behavioral needs.
An authoritarian parenting style may look like, expecting the child to do something because
they asked, and responding with things like “because I said so”.
Permissive
- Child-driven.
- These parents are typically moderately to highly responsive to the child.
- They are less controlling on the child’s behavior, coincidentally they also make less maturity demands.
- Rarely gives or enforces rules.
- They typically will overindulge the child to avoid conflict.
Permissive parenting is high in communication, but very passive with giving the child direction
most of the time.
Neglecting / Uninvolved
- Uninvolved or absent.
- They give little time and attention to the child.
- They lack in proper socialization for their child.
- They show low affection towards their child.
- Can be hostile, or make negative attributions about their child.
- When they do impose directions on their child they tend to be harsh without explanation.
Neglectful/ uninvolved parenting may look like very little communication and direction, but
when they do they can be harsh and lack explanation.
Why are these important for you to know?
So the question is what is the importance of knowing the different parenting styles?
Each style can result in a differently behaved child. So which one is the most effective? This can
be a very subjective question, but it is a very commonly asked question. Both Authoritative and
Authoritarian can be successful at home with children following rules/ doing what they are
asked. Although the most effective parenting style is one that helps parents raise a happy, well-
adjusted, confident, with high emotional intelligence. Which can be done with either of those
parenting styles, you just have to see which one works best with your child. So if you find that
you fall into one of the parenting styles and it is not working at home, you may need to make
some changes big or small to see a more desired outcome!
Blog by Alyssa Noel