Baumrind's Diverse Parenting Styles

Diverse parenting and their effect on sculpting kids’ personalities

Becoming a parent to a child is always a blessing for any couple. An opportunity to provide guidance and leadership to help them develop into their own skin. As the years pass however, how much influence does Buadrind’s three parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative) directly molds and shapes a child’s personality? Within each style, the method of raising a child is vastly different, and behavior outcomes can fluctuate.

Every child has experienced that one person who acts like a dictator, distinguishing Buamrind’s infamous authoritarian parenting style. Baumrind defines this style as a parent whose word is set in stone, never to be questioned. Commonly

One of the more common styles used, it incorporates effective discipline tactics like an authoritarian, but offer equal love and nurturance like a permissive parent would. The benefits to authoritative parenting compared to the prior two styles are that a child’s life is more balanced. Children from authoritative backgrounds receive more of a normal life compared to those with permissive or authoritarian upbringings. Parents will mutually guide them with love, but not hesitate reprimand them when a wrongdoing has occurred. By doing so, it prevents children from being spoiled. They’re able to differentiate when something good has happened, or they’ve just disappointed their parents and consequences will transpire. Another benefit of authoritative parenting is the parents offer more motivation and support in their actions. While overwhelming support and love is a trademark to permissive parenting, authoritative parents know the boundaries to not overdo it to prevent their children from becoming overconfident. Also within this style, discipline is more positive without the harsh aftermath. A child is less likely to experience anger issues if they’re able to associate punishments when they’ve done something bad. It’s rather different than authoritarian parenting where if they accidently did it and admitted to it, they still received the same level of punishment regardless. As a result, parents strive for their kids to be better and “although authoritative parents also make demands, they accord their children a high degree of autonomy and responsibility, and encourage them to set their own goals and work schedule” (Leung et al. 3). Lastly, an outcome of the authoriatative method resides in school performance being consistently satisfiable. It’s not uncommon for parents to use positive reinforcement for good grades.