Do Different Parenting Styles Affect College Drinking Behaviors?

How Do Differing Parenting Styles Affect College Drinking Behaviors?
Parents watch their children grow up, graduate from grade school and high school then they send their child off to college. Once children graduate high school and head to college, the parents are left behind. The children begin a new phase in their life, which can be a new and exciting adventure. Some of the children behave and make mature decisions. Others, however, do the opposite and engage in dangerous behaviors such as drinking. The negative behaviors transpire due to how the child grew up and what type of parenting style was used with the child. Parenting styles can impact a child’s development as well as behavior. That being said, how do differing parenting styles

There are three main categories of parenting styles. These parenting styles include permissive, authoritative and authoritarian. Patock-Peckham and Morgan-Lopez (2006) describe permissive parenting as when children control their own activities, with little or no rules or monitoring, and allowing the children to make adult-like decisions before they have properly matured enough. Parents might think that no discipline and having fun is the way to go, but in reality, it can cause children to be irresponsible and disrespectful. When children are making their own choices, the decisions that are made are typically not the best ones. This is due to impart that the children do not necessarily recognize there could be a safer or more mature choice as an alternative. Authoritative parenting includes “providing clear and firm direction for their children, but this disciplinary clarity is moderated by warmth, reason, flexibility, and verbal give and take” (Patock-Peckham & Morgan-Lopez, 2006 p.118). Authoritative parents know when to enforce rules but also know when to let children be autonomous. This type of parenting style is a respectable combination of high expectations, strictness and unconditional love. The authoritarian parenting style is the most stringent. Patock-Peckham and Morgan-Lopez (2006) explain the authoritarian style as being more focused on rules and acquiescence, punishment and the

Patock-Peckham & Morgan-Lopez (2006) found that the permissive parenting style utilized in a mother-daughter or father-son relationship can increase impulsiveness, increase alcohol use and decrease the control of drinking. This finding shows that it is important for the same gender parent to child relationship to have a healthy equilibrium of punishment and warmth, because the same gender parent is often seen as the role model (Patock-Peckham & Morgan-Lopez, 2006). While permissive parenting may seem easier and a good idea at the time, truly it is the opposite as it can negatively impact a child’s behavior and self-control in the future. The child raised with the permissive style will have difficulty being responsible and understanding when enough is