Parenting Styles

STYLES OF PARENTING

Parenting is a broad term and includes various aspects from bringing up a child since its birth till the child is an adult. It is basically a process of raising a child and supporting its physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. Parents are expected to fulfil the child's basic needs and to make their child ready to face the world when they grow up. Parenthood is a journey for parents which is full of joy, happiness, personal development, sense of achieving and self-confidence at the same time it can be frustrating, sense of failure, different types of fears and a huge responsibility. 'But parenting has its own intrinsic pleasures, privileges, and profits.' (Marc H. Bornstein, Inf. Child Dev. 14: 311-314 (2005)). According to the journal, Infant and child development, Parenting is directly related to theory of mind and understanding of emotions. Various research conducted in the field of theory of mind have studied the importance of attachment, parenting styles and discipline (Inf Child. Dev. :18, 2009 p38).

Each parent is different and unique and so is each ones parenting styles. Some parents believe they have to be strict to discipline the child while some believe you should let the child free and let the child decide his own actions and activities. The childrearing practises can influence the overall development of the child. Parenting is a skill and parenting styles are often considered as traits. Parenting styles shows what the parents are feeling about the child through their body language, voice of tone, emotional display and quality of attention given to the child (Janette B. Benson, Marshall M. Haith 2009, p281). There are various studies to explore different styles of parenting. Diana Baumrind theorized several parenting styles after her research on more than 100 preschool age children in early 1960 (Baumrind, 1967, 1980). She identified distinctly 3 parenting styles which are:

1) Authoritarian parenting: Authoritarian parents are very strict about the discipline and behaviour of their children. The authoritarian parent disciplines the child by using bodily harm, social shaming/isolation. (Medinnus, G. p 119). They want to be in control of all the decision about their children which are not open to discussion. 'She [the parent] values obedience as a virtue and favours punitive, forceful measures to curb self-will at points where the child's actions or beliefs conflict with what she thinks is right conduct.' (Diana Baumrind's (1966)p. 890). There is very little communication between children and parents. Parents believe that children have to accept whatever they say. Authoritarian parents demand great maturity of the children and they rarely show their love and warm in tender ways(Mawnhinney and Petersen, P.177)

2) Authoritative Parenting: Authoritative parents have their own set of ideas of the behaviour and discipline they want to inculcate in their children; however they do not force their children to behave in certain way but talk to them and provide them with the reasoning for their expected behaviour. There is good amount of communication in this style of parenting. 'The authoritative parent affirms the child's present qualities, but also sets standards for future conduct. She uses reason, power, and shaping by regime and reinforcement to achieve her objectives, and does not base her decisions on group consensus or the individual child's desires' (Diana Baumrind's (1966)p. 891). Such parents are warm and they show their love towards their children.

3) Permissive Parenting: Permissive parents are least controlling and demanding from their children. They do not expect much discipline from their children. Children have freedom to behave as per their will and choose the actions and activities as they want to. Such parents believe that restricting their child action will invade in their child autonomy which may hinder their child overall natural development (Janette B. Benson, Marshall M. Haith, P 283). Permissive parents are warm and loving towards their children.