Parenting Styles Issues - Essay Example

Parenting style can be defined as the psychological construct, represented by strategies which parents use to rear their children. The ultimate aim of parenting is to develop a child into a competent, happy, productive, well-adjusted, and caring member of society (Chao, 2001). It facilitates shared values, feelings of connectedness and most importantly a sense of identity in a child’s personality (Descartes, 2012).

According to researchers, there are three general types of parenting styles. These are authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Authoritative parenting refers to demanding and responsive parenting behaviour. They have a child-centred approach but at the same time expect maturity from them. Authoritarian parents are those who are demanding but not at all responsive (Stewart-Brown and Waylen, 2008). They are very restrictive and less responsive towards child’s needs. Children of these parents have less social competencies. Permissive parenting refers to lenient or non-directive kind of parenting which can be characterized by having few behavioural expectations from the child (Tingting and Tianyu, 2012). These kinds of parents are responsive to the child’s wishes and needs. There are many other types of parenting styles such as attachment parenting, over-parenting, positive parenting, etc. From another point of view, parenting style can be based on the two basic units of a parent that is mother and father. Parents can pick up different styles according to the sex of their child.