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Parenting styles

society Maturity 11-13 Next article →

A parenting style is a way that parents act and feel when raising a child. It is not just one single action. Instead, it is a broad pattern of behavior. This pattern creates an emotional climate for the child to live in.

Mother's Love
Mother's Love

This is different from a parenting practice. A practice is a specific thing a parent does, like helping with homework. A style is the overall mood or feeling in the home. Parents might change their style as a child grows up. They might even use different styles with different children in the same family.

Researchers study these patterns to see how they affect children. Some experts look at how much a parent responds to a child's needs. They also look at how many rules a parent sets. These rules are called demandingness. Being responsive means being supportive and accepting.

Family Reading Hour
Family Reading Hour

Some studies show that warmth and support help children grow well. This can help them become more independent. Other research looks at how specific practices, like supervision, help with school grades. These patterns can start as early as preschool and last through college.

In the 1960s, a researcher named Diana Baumrind studied these styles.

Diana Blumberg Baumrind, 1965
Diana Blumberg Baumrind, 1965

She created a way to group these behaviors into three main types. The first is authoritative, which balances rules with freedom. The second is authoritarian, which uses many strict rules. The third is permissive, where parents are kind but use few rules. Later, researchers added a fourth type called neglectful. This style is considered unresponsive and undemanding. These groups help us understand how different parents approach their jobs.

Many famous thinkers have studied how children grow and learn. Jean Piaget was a pioneer in this field.

Jean Piaget in Ann Arbor
Jean Piaget in Ann Arbor

He studied how children think and reason about the world. Another thinker, Erik Erikson, said people go through eight life stages. In each stage, there is a new challenge to face. For example, a baby from birth to one year old learns about trust. A child aged two to three works on their own will. Parents might change their style to help a child through these stages.

History shows that people have thought about education for a long time. In 1693, John Locke wrote about the importance of physical habits. In 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that children learn from the world around them. Some modern thinkers have different views on how much parenting matters. Judith Rich Harris argued in 1998 that genes and friends are very important too. She suggested that parenting styles might not change everything. However, other recent studies suggest that warm parenting can still help children do well.

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Mother's Love.jpg
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Family Reading Hour.jpg
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Jean Piaget in Ann Arbor.png
File:Diana_Blumberg_Baumrind,_1965.png
Diana_Blumberg_Baumrind,_1965.png
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