The Impact of Parenting Style in Childhood Development

Introduction
Good parenting is parenting that prepares children to meet the demands
of the specific culture or subculture in which they live. We can nonetheless
draw some conclusions about the ingredients of good parenting that will
apply in most settings. We can go far in understanding which parenting
styles are effective to prepare the children to meet the society. Darling
and Steinber(1993) defined parenting style as overall climate of parent
child interactions. It is an affective context of sorts that sets the tone for
the parent’s interactions with the child. Parenting style is a determinant
factor in child development. It affects psychological and social functioning
of the children. Parenting style is largely affected by the influence of one’s
own parents. Temperament educational achievement, culture,
socioeconomic status and the influence of their spouse affects parenting
style well temperament of the parent and the child affects style of
parenting, and the mother and father may differ in style as well (Belsky,
2005). Therefore the article deals with different parenting styles that
parents use for raising their children.

Literature review
We can understand the effectiveness of parenting style by considering two
dimension of parenting, Parental acceptance / responsiveness (also
referred to as parental warmth or supportiveness) refers to “the extent to
which parents intentionally foster individuality, selfregulation, and self-
assertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent to children’s
special needs and demands” (Baumrind, 1991). Parental demandingness
(also referred to as behavioural control) refers to “the claims parents
make on children to become integrated into the family whole, by their
maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to
confront the child who disobeys” (Baumrind,1991).

By crossing these two dimensions, four basic patterns of parenting styles should be
considered and defined by Baumrind (1967, 1991) in a pioneering longitudinal study.
Baumrind (1967) found that preschool children raised by authoritative parents were the best
adjusted. They were cheerful, socially responsible, self reliant, achievement oriented and
cooperative with adults and peers. Children of authoritarian parents tended to be moody and
seemingly unhappy, easily annoyed, relatively aimless, and not very pleasant to be around.
Children of permissive parents were often impulsive and aggressive, especially if they were
boys. They tended to be bossy and self centred, rebellious, lacking in self control, rather
aimless and quite low in independence and achievement.

Findings
Subsequent research has shown that the worst developmental outcomes
were associated with a neglectful, uninvolved style of parenting. Children
of neglectful parents are notable for behavioural problems such as
aggression and frequent temper tantrums as early as age three. They
have a tendency to become hostile and antisocial in adolescents
(Sigelman, 1999).
Children of permissive parents were very immature. They had difficulty
controlling their. Impulses and were disobedient and rebellious when
asked to do something that conflicted with their momentary desires. They
were also overly demanding and dependent on adults, and they
showed .Less persistence on tasks at preschool than children whose
parents exerted more control. The link between permissive parenting and
dependent, non-achieving behaviour was especially strong for boys. (Berk,
1998).

As children move into school, peer and community contexts, the

parent-child relationship change. Recent changes in the family such as
high rates of divorce, maternal employment can have positive as well as
negative effects on children. In middle childhood, the amount of time
children spend with parents declines dramatically. The child’s growing
independence means that parents must deal with new issues like misuse
of the facilities like internet access, mobile phones, substance abuse,
teenage pregnancy, problems between peer groups, emotional problems,
all forms of child abuse and exploitations, lack of social responsibility, etc.
The common thinking is that authoritative pattern of parenting style is
best for child development. But it may vary according to culture and
societal changes (Myers-Walls et al., 2006).

From one point of view there are many parenting styles as there are
parents. One helpful grouping is provided in E. E. LeMasters’ listing of five
parenting styles : the martyr, the pal, the police officer, the teacher-
counsellor, and the athletic coach (Lamanna and Riedmann, 1988).
Individual parents probably combine elements of two or more of these
styles in their own personal parenting styles.

Each of these parenting styles has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The parent as martyr face some problems like, the goals the martyring
parents set are impossible to carry out and the parent always feel guilty.
The parent as pal style points out that there are some relationship risks. If
things do not go well, parents may want to retract to a more formal,
authoritarian style of parenting. But once they have established a buddy
relationship, it is difficult to regain authority. Children are more likely to be
influenced by their parents’ knowledge and expertise or wish to identify
with parent’s values than by the parents authority. The key is respect and
a close relationship; habitual punishment and the policing of adolescents
are far less effective modes of socialization. The style of parent as teacher
counsellor put the needs of the child above the parent’s needs. It may be
difficult for most parents to always be there to stimulate the children.
Children also have inherited intellectual capacities and needs. Instead of
this parenting style interactive perspective regards the influence between
parent and child as mutual and reciprocal. The athletic coach style
recognizes that parents, like coaches have their own personalities and
needs. Once individual become parents, they remain in this role the rest of
their lives. As we explore parenting over the course of life, we will apply
principles and suggestions from the interactive and athletic coach
perspectives on parenting.

What kind of parenting style help children become happy about themselves and friendly with
others? How these parenting styles affect children in their later life. The outcomes of any
given parenting style on any given child depends on many factors that interact with each
other, including the child’s age, sex, and temperament.; the parents’ personality
characteristics, personal history,economic circumstances, and the like; the needs of all the
family members; and the values of the culture. The following generalizations are drawn from
the study conducted by Baumrind (1967).

Authoritarian parenting styles generally lead to children who are obedient

and proficient, but they rank lower in happiness, social competence and
self-esteem. They lack social competence as the parent generally predicts
what the child should do instead of allowing the child to choose by him or
herself. The children also rarely take initiatives. They are socially
withdrawn and look to decide what’s right. These children tend to be low
in self confidence and lack social and academic competence. These
children lack spontaneity and curiosity. These children were often
characterized by lacking spontaneity and intellectual curiosity (Cole et al.,
2005).

Authoritative parenting styles tend to result in children who are happy,

capable and successful. Authoritative parenting without physical
punishment produces the most positive results and the fewest problems
for children in today’s world. Children who have been raised in
authoritative homes score higher on a variety of measures of competence,
social development, self-perception, and mental health than those raised
in authoritarian, permissive, or neglectful homes. This is true not only in
childhood, but also during adolescence, as evidenced by higher academic
achievement and psychosocial development, and fewer behavioural
problems (Ballantine, 2001).

Permissive parenting often results in children who rank low in happiness

and self-regulation. These children are more likely to experience problems
with authority and tend to perform poorly in school. Permissive style of
child rearing is nurturant and accepting, but it avoids making demands or
imposing controls of any kind. Permissive parents allow children to make
many of their own decisions at an age when they are not yet capable of
doing so. They can eat meals and go to bed when they feel like it and
watch as much television as they want. They do not have to learn good
manners or do any household chores. Although some permissive parents
truly believe that this style of child rearing is best, many others lack
confidence in their ability to influence their child’s behaviour and are
disorganized and ineffective in running their households (Berk,
1998).Children with permissive parents tend to have high self-esteem and
good social skills but are more prone to problem behaviour. Accepting
responsibility is difficult for many of them.

Analysis
The incompatibility of the parenting role with the working role is but one
source of frustration for fathers and mothers trying to raise their children.
At least five reasons of frustration, which is associated to parenting, might
be identified (Lamanna and Riedmann, 1988): Parenting today requires
one to learn attitudes and techniques that are different from those of
one’s parents, parents feel anxious and guilty about their performance,
changing goal from one best technique to another, society does not offer
parents much psychological or social support.

Social class and parenting styles. The ideas that parents have about
parenting and the ways in which parents perform their parenting functions
differ across socioeconomic strata. Parents from different socioeconomic
strata rear their children differently, partly in response to the different
circumstances in which they live as well as ways of interacting with the
world, including their children. Socioeconomic status (SES) remains a topic
of great interest to those who study children’s development. This interest
derives from a belief that high SES families afford their children an array
of services, goods, parental actions, and social connections that
potentially redound to the benefit of children and a concern that many low
SES children lack access to those same resources and experiences, thus
putting them at risk for developmental problems (Bradley and
Corwyn,2002).

Parenting styles are shaped in part by socioeconomic factors. Middle class

and lower class parents often pursue different goals and emphasize
different values in raising their children. Compared to middle and upper
class parents, lower and working class parents tend to (1) stress
obedience and respect for authority; (2) be more restrictive and
authoritarian more frequently using power assertive discipline; (3) reason
with their children less frequently, and (4) show less warmth and affection.
Why might these differences in parenting behaviour exist? Most
explanations centre on the stresses associated with low income living and
their effects on parenting.
One explanation for the link between economic factors and parenting
styles focuses on the skills needed by workers in different occupations.
Parents from lower socioeconomic groups may quite sensibly emphasize
obedience to authority figures because their job demands it. Middle and
upper class parents may reason with their children and stress individual
initiative, curiosity and creativity more because these are the attributes
that count for business executives, professionals, and other white collar
workers. Both middle- and lower- income parents have devised styles of
parenting that are well adapted to the distinctive demands of their socio-
cultural setting.
Changing Parenting Styles. Historically child rearing had a strong parental
orientation. That is parents tended to rear their children according to their
own needs and values. But over time, a transition from the parental to the
child orientation has been made (Bell, 1971). The study of human
development has been guided through most of its history by a simple
parent effects model in which it is assumed that influences in the family
run by one way: from parent to child. But recent research also proved that
a child’s behaviour influences the style of parenting his or her parents use.
A child effects model of family influence highlights instances in which
children influence their parents rather than vice versa. Child’s antisocial
behaviour elicit coercive and ineffective parenting style from parents at
the same time that ineffective parenting style elicit anti-social behaviour
from the child, it becomes hard to say who is more influential. This
scenario is best developed by a transactional model of family influence. In
which parent and child influence one another reciprocally (Sigelman,
1999).

Like fashions seem to go in cycles. Yesterday’s parents feeling their own

parents were too strict, turned to self-demand schedules, child-centred
homes, progressive education and more indulgent concepts of child
rearing. Now some parents are worried that today’s children are too
spoiled so are reacting to what they feel has been over permissiveness. It
is evident that parenting styles change from one generation to the next
and that, parents often have to sort out conflicting advice (Rice, 1979). A
set of studies have clearly demonstrated that early child care-giving
patterns vary within India according to family size, class / caste, rural-
urban, and even regional differences (Sharma, 2003).

A study on parenting styles in India. The study was conducted using a sample consisting of
72 families (father and mother of preschool and preadolescent children) ranging in age from
20 to 45 years. Subjects were selected from 12 divisions of Cochin city, located in the state of
Kerala, India. Data were collected using a socio demographic information sheet and parenting
styles dimensions Questionnaire developed by Robinson et al. (2001). The socio
demographic information sheet was used to collect the social and demographic information of
the parents like age, gender, family type and size, education and occupation of parents,
monthly income of the family and duration of their marital life. The parenting style and
dimensions questionnaire helps to find out the parenting styles adopted in these families. It
was found that seventy three percent of the parents are using the authoritative approach
irrespective of their social class. Findings in this study indicate that sex of parent and child
and socioeconomic status were not related to the choice of parenting style. A positive
correlation has been found of parenting style with education of the parents. Sixty five percent
of the parents who are professionals would like to use permissive parenting style for their
children. Duration of marital life was found to be significantly correlated to choice of
parenting styles in both age groups that is preschool and preadolescent children. The current
study used a standardized parenting style measure to determine parenting style. This study
contributes to the understanding of the parenting styles used in Kerala
.
Conclusion
Society often assumed that parenting came naturally and parents just
knew what to do when it came to discipline, nurturing, toilet training,
esteem building and so forth. This perception is slowly changing. Today’s
parents are quicker to acknowledge that they don’t always have the
answers or that they may not want to raise their children as they were
raised. Societal changes have made it more difficult to rely on parenting
techniques from the past. The pace of social change is increasing as India
opens up to western influences. The rapid pace at which these changes
occur, leave children facing issues their parents never dreamed of. The
root cause of most of the mental health problems of children and
adolescents are related with parenting styles adopted in their families. So
the parents should be more aware of the different parenting styles and
their impacts on child development. Despite of the high importance of this
issue, research on parenting in India is sparse (Sharma, 2003). The impact
on social change on childhood and parenting styles needs to be further
examined. Nowadays the parenting styles are different from those early
existed ones. At early times the lower and working class parents tend to
stress obedience and respect for authority,be more restrictive and
authoritarian, more frequently using power assertive discipline and show
less warmth and affection. Meanwhile the upper and middle class followed
the authoritative or permissive parenting styles. However, the modern
families are giving more freedom and relaxed discipline practices to their
children irrespective of their income. Parenting style overlap depending
upon a number of factors, such as the number of children, the unique
personalities of the parents and child, parents’ attitudes and the structure
of the family (Schwartz and Scott, 1994). The parenting style needs
change according to the societal changes. Awareness regarding parenting
style is very important in modern parenting. Even most of the functions of
families have been taken over by other societal institutions; parents
remain the major socializers of their children. Thus their style of parenting
has important consequences for society.

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