Parenting Styles and its Effects on Childhood (Sociology 351, Blog #2)
What was your childhood like? Were you able to come and go as you pleased or were you stuck living by harsh rules? For my second blog entry I wanted to look deeper at the different parenting styles that new parents may adopt and how these types of parenting can affect how the child acts. Parenting styles such as an Authoritative or Authoritarian mindset differ from one another and results may be different but in the new era we live in, these may not be the real route of the issue.
Before I get into the main issues with types of parenting, I believe that we should have the same definition of some of the parenting styles we will be discussing. Taken from the scholarly article, The Moderating Effects of Parenting Styles on African-American and Caucasian Children’s Suicidal Behaviors, written by Leilani Greening, they state that Authoritative parents are warm in their presences and likely to be understanding of the child while Authoritarian parents are less understanding and have more restrictions on the child (Greening, 2010).
We can see the two differentiating parenting styles and how one is a tad more strict than the other. Parents will follow their own style of parenting but when comparing the two styles to one another, we can see that the Authoritative mindset seems to be healthier for the child. We also need to remember that no one parenting style is the correct one but we can only view the effects of these differentiating parenting styles. Taken again from the same scholarly article by Leilani Greening, they state that authoritarian’s negative parenting style has been linked to suicidal behaviors in those who are adolescents (Greening, 2010).
We see that the authoritarian parenting style has some serious negatives to it but what some overlook is how parental conflict can play a big role as well in adding to the negatives. Let’s look at an example. My friend’s parents follow the parenting style of Authoritarian and the child does not have much freedom in what they want to do. Going out, having fun, or needing advice are not luxuries they have and to add, the parents argue a lot. The home is a hard place for them to be and is easily seen through their emotions. They are often quiet, depressed, have high anxiety and have little motivation to do anything for themselves. It is a really tough situation but this can happen to many people. These issues that the children have which were caused from the parent’s parenting style are very serious. Taken from the CNN article, How parents shape their children’s mental health, by Elissa Strauss, they discuss how parents with problems and issues such are depression and strictness in life are more likely to pass off these negative traits to their children (Strauss, 2020). As we have seen in the example, parents who follow the parenting style of Authoritarian can make life harder for the child with a lowered amount of freedom and can even pass off negative traits like depression and anxiety on to their child. As we continue, we will see more on why this style of parenting feels very outdated.
Looking at this same situation in the lens of today’s time of the continuing pandemic, more and more people are feeling this depression and pressure from not only parenting but life itself as seen from The Guardian article discussing these issues. I also feel that this video from the YouTube channel “IU Communications” shines more light on situations like my friend is in.
The Authoritarian parenting style can seem very outdated in today’s era and for good reason. Times have drastically changed with several movements and global shifting events occurring in the last decade. The best solution for parenting would be to be more understanding and adapt to our constantly changing lives. As taken from the CNN article, Why the old way of parenting no longer works, by Elissa Strauss, they state that the Authoritarian parenting style is an old fashioned mindset and doesn’t really work in this new era. More and more children are growing up in a world with more liberal uses of democracy and equality (Strauss, 2018). Children are being raised to question why rather than to just blindly believe and follow others. With the Authoritarian parenting style of restrictions and following order, it makes sense why this parenting style is outdated.
The real question to bring up is why parents feel the need to parent in this style. As we have seen in the blog, there are many negatives to this style of parenting but no answer as to why. My thought for this in wondering why parents would use the authoritarian parenting style comes down to a theory from my class. The theory to look at is with the Social Exchange Theory. As taken from Module 3 from my class, it is stated the theory looks at interactions as cost and rewards in a rational mindset (Esguerra, 2021). An example can be with parents not wanting or expecting children so their engagement with the child may seem not worth it and thus creates abandonment issues and harsh parenting styles. The returns that parent would be getting back would not be enough for the parent to care for the child and this is a big problem that is common. Many children growing up missing either one parent or both in their lives can hurt the child emotionally and mentally.
All this time we have been talking about negative parenting styles but there are good ones as well. As stated earlier in the blog, the Authoritative parenting style contains more understanding parents and have a wider range of freedom for the child. Taken from the scholarly article, Socioeconomic status and young children’s problem behaviours — mediating effects of parenting style and psychological suzhi, written by Shilan Luo, they state that parents that follow the Authoritative parenting style have more emotional warmth for the child and can better shape the behavioral development of the child (Luo, 2021). We see the benefits of following the Authoritative parenting style in how it is positively affecting the child. The child has more support and has a better chance of developing into an adult. From the same article, we see more information shed on this style of parenting when Luo states that parents that invest high quality time with the child lead to fewer behavioral problems with the child and have a higher cognitive action (Luo, 2021). Though parenting styles can be up to interpretation, the Authoritative parenting style seems to bring the best chance for the child.
In conclusion, with parenting styles, there are many different methods out there though they all have their own result that comes with it. We saw how the Authoritarian parenting style with its more restrictive and lack of freedom methods can lead to added pressures and stress and can also lead to more serious issues such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal behaviors. The Social Exchange theory very much adds on to this parenting style in explaining why parents may parent in the style that they do. We also got to see the other side of this parenting style with the Authoritative parenting style and how having compassion and understanding for the child leads to a better chance of the child having a brighter future living to be a prepared adult. Though there is no one right way to raise a child, knowing the results can both can help new parents make more educated choices.
Works Cited
Esguerra, Tamatha (2021). Sociology 351, Module 3
Esguerra, Tamatha (2021). Sociology 351, Module 8
Greening, Leilani, Stoppelbein, Laura, & Luebbe, Aaron. (2010). The Moderating Effects of Parenting Styles on African-American and Caucasian Children’s Suicidal Behaviors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(4), 357–369.
Luo, Shilan, Liu, Yunyan, & Zhang, Dajun. (2021). Socioeconomic status and young children’s problem behaviours — mediating effects of parenting style and psychological suzhi. Early Child Development and Care, 191(1), 148–158.
Ludwig, S. E. (2010). What you need to know about childhood depression. CNN.
Marsh, S. (2020). Parents struggle to get help for mentally ill children during pandemic. The Guardian.
