When observing children in a playground, you will notice that there are different behaviors that each child shows. You can see friendly children, naughty children, silent children, and aggressive children. There are also children whose behavior you cannot understand. Maybe you also have a hard time understanding your child’s behavior.
In the 1960s, Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley observed preschoolers who have different behaviors. She came up with a theory that explains the behavior of each child in correlation to how their parents treat them.
Four Types Of Parenting Styles and the Effects on Child Development
She provided four types of parenting styles that can help you understand why your child is behaving in a specific manner.
- Authoritative
- Authoritarian
- Permissive
- Neglectful
These four parenting styles will also help you to assess yourself and help you know how it affects the behavior of your children as they grow.
1. Authoritative
The Authoritative kind of parenting style has a balance of discipline and love.
These Authoritative parents are the ones who:
- Set boundaries and clear rules while considering the child’s emotion through open discussion, good guidance, and providing the reason for the parent’s actions toward the child.
- Communication is frequent and important in knowing how the child feels.
- Keep a positive relationship with their child.
- Supportive
- Warm and responsive
The parents who are of Authoritative parenting style produce children who:
- have self-esteem
- tend to be happy and successful
- comfortable in expressing their opinion when they grow up
- have good decision-making and able to evaluate risks on their own
- better social skills
- higher academic performance
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2. Authoritarian
The Authoritarian kind of parenting style is also known as a disciplinarian.
The Authoritarian parents are the ones who:
- Focus on strict rules while avoiding the emotion of the child
- Think that the child should not voice out and give an opinion
- High expectation on the output of their child’s activity
- Less nurturing and focus only on punishment for a child’s disobedience
The parents who are of Authoritarian kind of parenting style produces children who:
- have low self-esteem
- might suffer from mental illness
- have a lower academic performance
- are too sensitive
- have poor social skills
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3. Permissive
The Permissive kind of parenting style is letting the child get, do, and say what he/she wants.
The Permissive parents are the ones who:
- Are warm and responsive yet have few or no rules
- Give everything that the child wants
- Do not give a consequence and who just choose to understand the child even after doing a bad thing
The parents who are of Permissive parenting style produces children who:
- Think that the world is always in favor of them
- Perceive that they can get anything easily
- Struggle academically
- Do not appreciate authority in the rules
- More likely to have health problems like obesity because the parents just give what the child wants
4. Neglectful
The Neglectful kind of parenting style is also known as an uninvolved parent.
The Neglectful parents are the ones who:
- Do not ask their children about their school or homework
- Do not listen when the child is sharing something
- Spend more time in watching TV or using their phone instead of playing with their child
- Do not know where or whom their child is with
The parents who are of Neglectful parenting style produces children who:
- struggle with self-esteem.
- most likely grow up depressed and suicidal.
- have an impulsive behavior
- suffer from early pregnancy
As a parent, you should have the responsibility of nurturing and taking care of your child. Their first school should be your home. May you rear up your child with love and care, so they will become the children whom they were meant to be when they become adults. More on parenting styles here.
Thoughts on these Four Types Of Parenting Styles
As a parent we sometimes are unaware which sort of parenting styles we tend to apply when we deal with our kids. These four types of parenting styles may just be some sort of labels or distinction on how parents are grouped together when parenting. Which type of parenting style would you think you are? Share your comments below.