Introduction
There has been a number of parenting styles used by different parents on their children. A parenting style is a psychological construct that is used in order to give a representation of what parents use while they rear their children (Krause & Dailey2009). Parenting quality is one of the most essential things in a child’s development than the quantity which is spends on the child. The quality and quantity of parenting is one of the most things that most parents should consider. For instance, a parent may decide to spend the whole afternoon with his or her children but at the same time engaging in other activities at the expense of his or her children. In this case the children will not have quality time with their parent. Parenting styles usually represent in a broad way the manner in which parents respond to their children’s needs and the demand that parents have on their children (Domenech RodrÍguez, Donovick, & Crowley, 2009).
In child rearing a number of theories as well as opinions have been developed in order to come up with best way possible to rear children. These theories are used to show the different level of efforts that the parents invest in for the betterment of their children. While growing up, children pass through different stages of life. It is for this reason that parents need to develop their own most suitable parenting styles informed by different stages of their children’s life. Parenting styles should be connected with different stages that the children get into while growing up (Zakeri, Jowkar, & Razmjoee, 2010). There are a number of parenting styles which are employed by parents towards their children.
Types of parenting styles
There are four main parenting styles that parents can use on their children. These includes; authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and uninvolved parenting styles.
Authoritarian Parenting
This style of parenting involves the parents coming up with strict rules which the children are expected to follow without failure. Failure on the part of the children to observe the rules usually attracts a number of punishments from the parents. The parents decide on which punishment to give the child. These punishments are aimed at collecting the child in order to lure the child into observing the rules. A number of authoritarian parents are unable to give a concrete explanation to support the reasoning behind setting such rules and only say that the rules need to be observed not matter what and since they have said so. These parents are in most cases very demanding towards their children and show little response towards their children demands (Zakeri et al. 2010). According to Coplan, Hastings, Lagace-Segum and Moulton (2002), the authoritarian parenting styles is known to give rise to children who show obedient and proficient but lack happiness, social competences as well as self-esteem in their lives.
Authoritative parenting
This parenting style is very similar to the authoritarian style of parenting. Authoritative parenting usually involves parents coming up with rules as well as guidelines to be followed by their children. This parenting style is more democratic compared to the authoritarian style. As opposed to the authoritarian style, in this parenting style parents are usually responsive to their children and are very much willing to sit down with them and listen to their concerns. In the authoritative parenting and in cases where the children fail to meet their parent’s expectation, in this case the parents take a collective measure aimed at nurturing the children rather than punishing them (Domenech RodrÍguez et al., 2009).
According to Coplan et al. (2002), these parents are known to monitor their children well while impacting clear standards especially towards their conduct. The parent shows assertiveness rather than being intrusive and restrictive towards their children. Their aim is to see their children being socially responsible rather than being self-regulated and cooperative. The authoritative parenting style has been known to give rise to happy children as well as very capable and successful children who do well in a number of things in their lives.
Permissive parenting
Permissive parents are also known as the indulgent parents and usually exercise very few demands on their children. Permissive parents rarely exercise any disciplinary action against their children due to their low expectations of maturity as well as the self-control on their children. According to Hubbs-Tait, Kennedy, Page, Topham and Harrist (2008), these parents who exercise this style of parenting are known to be more responsive rather than being demanding. The parent s are usually known to be very lenient towards their children and do not mainly require any form of mature behavior on their children enabling them to have self-regulation and avoiding confrontations. These parents are widely known to be nurturing as well as communicative towards their children and acts more like a friend than a parent. Permissive parenting result into children who lack happiness as well as self-regulation. The children usually have more problems with the authorities and are seen to have poor performance in school.
Uninvolved parenting
This type of parenting style is usually characterized by parents having very little demands as well as being low responsiveness and very minimal communication especially towards their children. These parents usually fulfill the basic needs of their children but are known to be detached from the lives of their children. In some cases, these parents end up rejecting as well as neglecting the needs of their children. These children usually are known to rank lowest in almost all the domains. They usually have no self-control and exhibit low self-esteem while at the same time being less competent when compared to their peers (Huver, Otten, de Vries, & Engels, 2010).
Conclusion
In most cases parents usually do not fit in particularly one category of parenting style. In some cases parents may be seen to be authoritarian and in other times they may be seen as authoritative. In their differences, their approach to their children and especially in discipline might be seen to differ. Different parenting style usually attracts different approaches on disciplinary measures being taken on their children. Usually authoritative parenting presents a number of advantages compared to other styles. This comes about due to different perceptions presented by the children. In cases where the children perceive the requests from their parents as being fair and reasonable then the children are in most cases likely to compile with their demands (Huver et al. 2010).
There has been no any universally accepted best style of parenting. Parenting styles are usually associated with a number of different outcomes on the child. For instance authoritative is associated with positive behaviors like strong self-esteem as well as self-competence. However, these parenting styles are not solely concerned with the outcome of the children but usually a number of other factors play great roles towards the children’s behaviors. These other factors include the culture, children’s perception on parental treatment as well as social influences (Domenech RodrÍguez et al., 2009).
References
Coplan, R. J., Hastings, P. D., Lagacé-Séguin, D. G., & Moulton, C. E. (2002). Authoritative and Authoritarian Mothers’ Parenting Goals, Attributions, and Emotions Across Different Childrearing Contexts. Parenting.
Domenech RodrÍguez, M. M., Donovick, M. R., & Crowley, S. L. (2009). Parenting styles in a cultural context: Observations of protective parenting in first-generation Latinos. Family Process, 48, 195–210.
Hubbs-Tait, L., Kennedy, T. S., Page, M. C., Topham, G. L., & Harrist, A. W. (2008). Parental Feeding Practices Predict Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108, 1154–1161.
Huver, R. M. E., Otten, R., de Vries, H., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2010). Personality and parenting style in parents of adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 395–402.
Krause, P. H., & Dailey, T. M. (2009). Handbook of parenting: Styles, stresses and strategies. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
Zakeri, H., Jowkar, B., & Razmjoee, M. (2010). Parenting styles and resilience. In Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (Vol. 5, pp. 1067–1070).
