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PARENTING STYLES: WHY DO THEY MATTER?

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MODERN society is giving additional significance to parenting styles. It represents the diverse approaches parents use to develop their children. This article glimpses into various kinds of parenting styles followed by most families. It goes without saying that modern parenting is assorted with various concerns. It cannot be denied that root causes of a majority of mental health problems that arise in adolescence can be associated to parenting styles.

Most parents use a variety of styles depending on their ‘culture ’and prevailing societal demands. The patterns of parenting styles and their impact on child development are enlightened in this article. The reason being that: The effect of social changes on childhood derives plentiful attention. Parenting style needs change according to the changes taking place in a given society. Take note that influence of social class on the selection of parenting style is also discussed by most scholars.


Studies show that ‘good parenting’ is parenting that prepares children to meet the demands of the specific culture or subculture in which they belong to. We can nonetheless draw some conclusions about the ingredients of good parenting that will apply in most settings. We can also go far in understanding which parenting styles are effective to prepare the children to meet society. Darling and Steinberg (1993) defined parenting style as an overall climate of parent child interactions.


It is an affective context of sorts that sets the tone for the parent’s interactions with the child. Parenting style is a determinant factor in a child’s development. It affects the psychological and social functioning of the child. Parenting style is largely affected by the influence of one’s own parents. Additionally, temperament, educational achievement, culture, socioeconomic status and the influence of their spouse affects parenting style as well. The personality of the parent and the child affects the style of parenting, and the mother and father may differ in style as well.


We can understand the effectiveness of parenting style by considering two dimensions of parenting. There is parenting acceptance or responsiveness, which can be simply referred to warmth and supportiveness of parent towards their children. The other one is a parent who is too demanding and controlling, this can refer to the claims parents make on their children as part of the family. By taking into cognisance these two dimensions of parenting styles, there are basic patterns that we observe in parenting and can be categorised in four categories. These are; authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved parents. The authoritarian, authoritative and permissive parenting styles were originally identified and defined by Baumrind (1967, 1991). He discovered that preschool children raised by authoritative parents were paramount adjusted.

They were cheerful, socially responsible, self-reliant, achievement oriented and cooperative with adults and peers. Children of authoritarian parents inclined to be moody and seemingly unhappy, easily annoyed, relatively aimless, and not very pleasant to be around. Children of permissive parents were often impulsive and aggressive, especially if they were boys. They tend to be bossy and self-centred, rebellious, lacking in self-control, rather aimless and quite low in independence and achievement.  Subsequent research has shown that the worst developmental outcomes were associated with a neglectful, uninvolved style of parenting. Children of neglectful parents are notable for behavioural problems such as aggression and frequent temper tantrums as early as age three. They have a tendency to become hostile and antisocial in adolescents.


As children move into school, peer and community contexts, the parent-child relationship changes. Recent changes in the family, such as high rates of divorce, maternal employment can have positive as well as negative effects on children. In middle childhood, the amount of time children devote with parents declines dramatically. The child’s growing independence means that parents must deal with new issues like misuse of the facilities like internet access, mobile phones, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, problems between peer groups, emotional problems, all forms of child abuse and exploitations, lack of social responsibility, etc.
What kind of parenting style helps children become happy about themselves and friendly with others? How do these parenting styles touch children in their future life. Let us explore it in our next article.

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