The Three Types of Parenting Styles
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By Kyle Russell
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There are 3 different parenting styles that David G. Meyers uses to describe parents in his book. The three are permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative. The book goes well into what they are and what they are describes as, which I will share with you.
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Permissive:
These parents are described as the parents who submit to their child’s desires along with making few demands and use little punishment. These parents often are too afraid to set rules for their children. They believe that children should be true to their own nature and that outside values should not be imposed on them. The book goes further to describe that offspring of the parents of this parenting style tend to be more aggressive and immature.
Authoritarian:
These parents are described as a kind of monarchy. The book describes them as parents who impose rules and expect obedience. This is often related with lines like “Don’t interrupt”, “Keep your room clean”, “Don’t stay out late or you’ll be grounded” , or “Why? Because I said so”. The book describes the offspring of the parents of this parenting style to have less social skill and less self-esteem.
Authoritative:
David G. Meyers describes this style as both demanding and responsive. These types of parents encourage open discussion and allow an exception from time to time. They enforce rules, but they also explain the reasons for such rules. The book describes the offspring of these children to be the most likely to be successful with the highest self-esteem, self-competence, and social competence.
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Ways to test your parents for their parenting style:
https://psychcentral.com/quizzes/parenting-style.htm.
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An important note:
The association between different parenting styles is only correlational. As the book describes, correlation does not equal causation. It also gives two other ways that a parent’s parenting style could be influenced.
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1. A child’s traits may influence parenting. Parental warmth and control vary from child to child, even in the same family. Twin studies have supported this possibility.
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2. Some underlying third factor may be at work. For example, competent parents and their competent children share genes that predispose social competence. Twin studies have also supported this possibility.