Characteristics of Some Parenting Styles

In 1967, Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist, carried out a research on the behavioral characteristics of children and the link those characteristics could have with the way they are parented. This research was quite elaborative and it provided quite an insight about the correlation between parenting styles and resultant behavioral changes in children. Baumrind discovered three major parenting styles, i.e. authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting and permissive parenting.

The parenting style model by Diana Baumrind was extended further in 1983 by Maccoby and Martin. They basically extended the model’s ‘permissive parenting’ by dividing it onto two parts, i.e. indulgent parenting and neglectful parenting.

All four types of parenting styles are characterized by two major dimensions related to parental behaviors. One dimension is demandingness which refers to the degree at which parents control or want to control their kids’ behaviors. The second dimension is Responsiveness which is associated with the parents’ acceptance of their kids’ emotional status.

Now, let’s discuss 4 parenting styles briefly.

Authoritative Parenting

This parenting style is characterized by high demandingness and high responsiveness. The parents tend to enforce limits and they demand more from their kids. But everything they do involve compassion and empathy as the constant factor. They tend to understand the kids’ emotional status to anticipate any weakness, but they also try to ensure that their kids overcome these weaknesses.

Authoritarian Parenting

This parenting style is associated with high demandingness and less responsiveness. The parents having this style usually have higher standards. But they rarely take into consideration the kids’ behavioral and emotional limitations. One common statement related to this parenting style is ‘Because I said so’. This statement often heard by the parents when they are asked the reason for issuing instructions for their kids. Hence, these parents usually pay very less attention to what children might have to say and they are not quite nurturing.

The children being raised under this type of parenting can have several alarming limitations. They usually have unhappy disposition, are usually less independent, have lower self-esteem, do not perform well academically, can have more behavioral issues, and can have poorer social skills.

Permissive parenting (indulgent)

This type of parenting is the most lenient one. This style is basically characterized by less demandingness and high responsiveness. Permissive parents usually tend to set very few limitations, and they are usually found not in the favor of enforcing rules. Although the parents having this style of parenting are more indulgent, they think of enforcing rules as a way to disappoint kids. This is the reason that children being raised under this type of parenting are usually the ones with less self-control, who cannot follow rules, who have egocentric tendencies, and who do not know much about relationships and interactions.

Neglectful parenting

Neglectful parenting is another type of permissive parenting but it doesn’t involve much of the parents’ interaction with their kids unlike the indulgent parenting. This parenting style involves low demandingness and low responsiveness. Hence, the neglectful parents do not care about the children needs and they also do not want to be involved in the matters of their children. As a result, the children are neglected and they develop several behavioral issues.