Children’s Response to Parenting Styles

5 year old Karen was the twin sister of 5 year old Katrina. After their mother died, their maternal decided to bring one of the girls up. Karena was adopted by Aunt Malory, while Katrina stayed with her father. Katrina didn’t get to see much of her father. He would drop her at school and then not turn up till late evening. Katrina would spend hours in front of the TV or playing with her friends but there was no one to check whether she was doing her home work or not. A baby sitter came for a few hours, and would spend some time with Katrina, but still she developed into a passive child with a low sense of self esteem. Karena on the other had was loved so much that she was brought up with a healthy sense of right and wrong and had immense self confidence.

Children raised in dramatically different environments can later grow up to have remarkably similar personalities. Conversely, children who share a home and are raised in the same environment can grow up to have astonishingly different personalities from one another. The difference lay in the upbringing and response of the tw to the parenting style. While Katrina was responding to an uninvolved style of parenting, Karen was responding to an Authoritative style of Parenting. Parenting styles refer to a set of strategies that parents adopt to raise their children Let us take a look at the 4 different styles of parenting as put forth by psychologist Diana Baumrind in the year 1960s. Based on a study of more than 100 preschool-age children through parental interviews and observations, the following styles of parenting were made popular:

1. The Authoritarian approach to parenting provides children with a clear set of rules which have to be followed without question or reason, while permissive parents constantly are giving into their child’s every wish. The authoritative parenting style gives children rules along with explanations for those rules, and reinforces good behavior. The impact on children is that children they are obedient but low in happiness, social competence and self-esteem.

2. Authoritative approach establish rules and guidelines that their children are expected to follow. However, this parenting style is much more democratic. Authoritative parents are responsive to their children and willing to listen to questions. When children fail to meet the expectations, these parents are more nurturing and forgiving rather than punishing. They are assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive. The impact on children is that children happy, capable and successful.

3. Permissive approach rarely disciplines their children because they have relatively low expectations of maturity and self-control. More like a friend, they are nontraditional, lenient, do not insist on maturity, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation. As a result, the children experience problems with authority and tend to perform poorly in school.

4. Uninvolved approach shows no responsibility taken by the parent. This results in a child feeling rejected and neglected.

The differences in adopting different styles are due to the culture, personality, family size, parental background, socioeconomic status, educational level and religion of a family which create a unique blend.