The Different Parenting Styles

Parenting styles have been described as the collection of parents’ behaviors which create an atmosphere of parent-child interaction across situation (Mize and Petit, 1997). Darling and Steinberg (1993) defined parenting style as “a constellation of attitudes toward the child that are communicated to the child and that, taken together, create an emotional climate in which the parents’ behaviors have expressed.” Despite these challenges, researchers have uncovered convincing links between parenting styles and the effects these styles have on children. There are different styles of parenting: authoritative, authoritarian and permissive.
Parents who use an authoritarian style are often very demanding, rigid, and punitive. They expect absolute obedience from their children and often use forceful measures to control their behavior. Verbal give-and-take is rare because the child is expected to accept parental authority without question "You'll do it because I said so".
Authoritarian parents typically show their children little warmth and support. The parents may be experiencing stress due to low income, parental conflict, or substance abuse. In addition, psychological factors such as depression increase the likelihood of punitive patenting styles. Children from these homes are often irritable, belligerent, and hyperactive (Bluestone and Tamis-LeMonda, 1999; Gaertner et al., 2007; Meteyer and Perry-Jenkins, 2009).
Another study suggests that authoritarian patenting styles can lead to children becoming overweight: Strict mothers who commanded their children to "Clean your plate or else!" were five times more likely than now flexible patents top have children who were overweight by the time the children entered the first grade (Rhee et...

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...erg, “Authoritative Parenting”. Marriage and Families: Changes, Choices, and
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Rhee, Kyung E., Lumeng, Julie C., Kaciroti, Niko et. al., Parenting Styles and Overweight Status in First Grade. PEDIATRICS Vol. 117 No. 6 June 1, 2006 pp. 2047 -2054. Print.