Different Parenting Styles

How Different Parenting Styles Affect Child Development

Nature vs Nurture is a popular debate that not only psychologists discuss, but also a topic that a wide variety of people question as well. Are children naturally born with certain traits and cognitive abilities or is it nurtured into them by their parents? Perhaps it's a bit of both. I sought out to find the correlation between how different parenting styles affect child development. I focused in on Piaget's cognitive development theory to get a base for my findings in child cognitive development. I followed it up with different articles of research that discuss the studies and findings of four main parenting styles and how they affect a child's cognitive development. I began with

For researchers Darling and Steingberg, they believe good parenting has an impact on on child development. They believe that good parenting prepares children for stipulations caused by cultural or subcultural ideology. Parenting style is a huge factor in child development. It affects psychological and social functioning of the children. (Joseph M.V, 2008) There are four main parenting types: authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting and neglectful parenting. Another researcher named Baumrind researched these main types of parents and found dramatically different results in development of children per style. He found that preschool children raised by authoritative parents were had the best outcomes in later years. They were happy, positive, socially responsible, self sufficient, achievement driven and cooperative with adults and peers. Children of authoritarian parents tended to be moody and snappy, easily distressed, relatively unmotivated, and not very enjoyable to be around. Children of permissive parents were often impulsive and reckless, especially if they were boys. They tended to be bossy and selfish, rebellious, little to no self control, unmotivated and low in independence and drive for achievement. Quantitative research over time has indicated that the worst developmental outcomes were associated with uninvolved parenting. Children of

Although my research was mainly to find how parenting styles affect child development, it can be concluded that parents do play a role in a child's cognitive development, however it affects other areas of development as well. According to Piaget, children develop in certain stages and substages which don’t 100 percent have to do with parenting styles. Although a parent can set the stage for how the child will grow up and view the world, a lot of cognitive development occurs naturally. The nature versus nurture debate will continue for ages to come, but thankfully there is still plenty of research being done. However, it is safe to say that parenting styles do indeed affect a child’s cognitive