Developmental Views Of Parenting Style And Effectiveness

Essay, Research Paper

Parenting effectiveness and influence have been studied by developmental

psychologists who have been interested in the role of parenting and how it may affect the

success or failure of children. An important aspect to this area of research is parenting

styles. There have been four styles noted and each may have differing outcomes for the

children in later life: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and unengaged/uninvolved.

Positive discipline and corporal punishment are ways parents may choose to respond to a

child’s misbehavior. Usually corporal punishment is identified with the authoritative

style and positive discipline with the authoritarian style. Research has suggested that

parenting strategies might be culturally specific in their relation to child behavior

problems. Socioeconomic status has also been found to affect child-rearing practices and

poverty can cause strained parental-child relations which causes parents to be less

nurturing. When negative behaviors have been identified behavioral family

interventions, which apply social learning principles, have been suggested as a means of

helping children with conduct problems.

Four Styles of Child Rearing

Permissive parents “are more responsive than they are demanding. They are

nontraditional and lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable

self-regulation, and avoid confrontation” (Baumrind,1991, p.62). They allow their

children to make too many decisions for themselves. Some of these parents believe that

they have little control of their children’s behaviors.

Authoritarian parents “are obedience- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be

obeyed without explanation” and will use punishment to get what they expect (Baumrind,

1991, 62). They expect a high level of conformity of their children. Often they are

unresponsive to their children’s needs. Often, if the child does not do exactly as the

parent requires the parent will use force to get the child to do what is expected.

Baumrind’s (1991) study describes authoritative parents as both demanding

and responsive. The parents set reasonable limits for the children and expect them to

follow through, but will also listen to the child’s concerns. They express warm feelings

toward the child and are patient. Both parent and child gets to have a say in matters.

Unresponsive/uninvolved parents are low in both responsiveness and

demandingness. They may reject the child. They do not show any effort beyond what

is needed to take care of the child’s basic needs. If this parenting style is extreme it is

considered child neglect.

Children of authoritative parents usually have the most desirable

profiles. They are generally friendly with peers, independent, have a high

degree of self-control, and work well with adults. They have more self-confidence when

attempting new tasks. They also tend to have more self-control.

Children of authoritarian parents tend to act out aggressively and display disruptive

behaviors. Bierman, Lengua, McMahon, and Stormshak (2000) found that parenting

styles that included yelling/ nagging were associated with all types of disruptive behavior

problems and children of parents who showed little affection were prone to oppositional

behaviors.

Children of permissive parents tend to be immature. The children tend to be

dependent and demanding of adults. They may become involved with drugs as

adolescents. They usually have poor self-control and lack good judgment. The parents

have not expected anything of the children so they do not aspire to much later on.

Punishment is defined as the application of a negative stimulus to reduce or eliminate

a behavior. There are two types typically used with children: punishment involving verbal

reprimands and disapproval and punishment involving physical pain, as in corporal

punishment. Corporal punishment involves the application of some form of physical

pain in response to undesirable behavior. Harris, Holden, and Miller (1999) found that

many parents use spanking and feel it is justified because, in the parents opinion, it

corrects the child’s misbehavior quickly. Straus and Gelles’s study (cited in Donnelly,

Lewis, Mahoney, and Maynard, 2000) reported “Almost all mothers (92%) and fathers

(86%) in the United States report using some type of physical discipline with 3-to

6-year-old children. Both research groups agree that there are clear implications for

intervention or prevention of harsh punishment, especially since punishment often only

produces short-term effects. If punishment is to be effective it must be consistent so it

won’t cause high rates of disobedience. There should be some discussion of the

reasoning for punishment.

Positive discipline is a means of encouraging positive behavior. It allows the child to

know what behaviors would be favored. Reinforcing emerging desirable

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать