Parenting Styles free essay sample

We believe our children are the future. How do we ensure that we can provide them with all the essential tools to make it as productive adults? Can we produce responsible, loving and caring, respectable individuals to take our place in governing the world? There are a few ways that have been described in the molding of future adults. Parenting styles control the outcome of each individual child and can determine how these children will develop into young adults. In this present day there have been studies to determine what aspects of parenting will yield the most effective and efficient individuals for our society. Parenting styles will dictate how a child will develop competence in dealing with the world. Parenting styles is a model of parental control developed by Diana Baumrind. In her research she determined that there are three descriptive model of parental control that differentiates parents on the basis of maintaining control over their children. (Erberg, Querido, Warner, 2002). According to our text, there are three parenting styles. These are Authoritarian parenting, Permissive Parenting and Authoritative parenting. Each is described as a style where different levels of parental control, guidance and influence are asserted. These different levels may have a direct association with a specific child or adolescent behaviors and affecting individual’s personal development and ability to deal with the outside world as adults. When we consider how our parents raise their children, do we say they know what it takes to properly prepare them for what they will face outside the home? We can say that as parents we try to bring our children up as best we can. Authoritarian Parenting emphasizes on control through strict discipline and obedience. Permissive parenting emphasizes on self-expression and self-regulation with few demands or expectations placed on the child. Authoritative parenting is a style where the parents want to respect individuality but also have a certain level of expectation and a set of standards for conduct. It has a key aspect of reasoning that governs a reciprocal relationship between parent and child. Parental and child involvement and nurturing create a higher level of competence in facing developmental and environmental challenges. After describing what parenting styles are and where it derived from, we can look at an actual group and their parenting style. We may see the differences between parenting styles and outcomes derived from these differences. In my article reviews, I will look at African America families’ parenting style and paternal involvement to determine how it affects young children’s behavior. Although there are many African American families across America, most have a closely related socioeconomic status and live in urban areas where the same models of parenting must be used. According to Jay Fagan, â€Å"African-American and Puerto Rican American Parenting Styles, Paternal Involvement and Head Start Children’s Social Competence,† there are cultural variations in parenting as adaptations to environments in which parents raise their children (Fagan, 592). In the inner cities across the United States, African American parents have to develop a parenting style that may not conform to that established and described previously. Although African American parents have been described as having a stricter parenting style similar to an authoritarian style, they must also have a variation of a more rigid authoritative parenting style. So a mixture of the two could be described as authoritative-authoritarian style. â€Å"Parenting styles that are viewed as less optimal in one cultural context may be necessary to cope with the realities of another cultural context (Fagan, 593). With all due respect to the research Baumrind performed and the development of her parenting styles models. African American parents create a parenting style that accounts for protecting their children from the harsh reality of inner city violence, poverty, and high levels of discrimination, unemployment and poor schooling. It must be described as a parenting style that develops based on their cultural context and environment in which they live. Parents that develop a parenting style based on their environment show a level of control over their circumstances. These parents attempt to develop a parenting style that will be effective in not just nurturing their children but keeping them safe in an environment different than that of their European counterparts. Therefore the parent-child relationship is dependent not only on factors that will produce positive behavior but also will facilitate survival in a world that has layers that must be navigated in order to achieve the success of producing a socially competent individual. â€Å"African American parents may feel that it is far more mportant to socialize their children to survive in a society where racism is prevalent. Thus, socializing children to respect authority may be of greater importance than socializing them to value individual differences (Fagan, 597). † This is described previous as an adaptation of normative parenting styles. The development of a parenting style which uses a combination of control and parent-child involvement to create behaviors that facilitate survival in an opposing world. In developing behaviors necessary to survive, African American parents have a stricter parenting style. They may not always be able to utilitize all of the aspects of one specific parenting style based on safety needs or survival while facing different adversities. African American parents place a high value on respect of authority while also displaying high levels of support and expression of emotions (Fagan, 594). Fagan’s study focused on three parenting style variables nurturance, responsiveness and a measure of predictability of structure. All three of these variables must be used to survive in the parent and child’s environment. African American parents must maintain a higher level of control to provide a safe environment either internally or externally based on a violent surrounding area. In order to develop trusting relations the use of nurturance and responsiveness to child’s needs creates a well mannered and behaved child. The predictability of structure is necessary because of the lack of margin for error in terms of safely developing a child to be prepared for outside environment. Fagan compared African American and Puerto Rican families and their parenting styles to determine the differences of any measures they need to survive in their individual environments. He determined that there are similarities in each but African American parents are more authoritarian in an attempt to control the outcome of their child’s survival. This ultimately contributes to developing a more obedient and less rebellious child. His study also attempts to take in account the father’s role in development of parenting styles. It concludes the addition of fathers does not change the outcome of parenting styles because each culturally diverse aspect tends to have a different value system and faces different levels of challenges (Fagan, 597). Other challenges such as paternal employment, income levels and extended family involvement may play a role in developing parenting styles hold a lesser importance than developing behavior that facilitates safety and survival. This journal article has given me insight of the challenges of African American parents face while attempting to raise a child. Their parenting style must be framed to develop a child behavior that facilitates survival facing inner city violence, racial discrimination, poverty and general inequality. Many factors play a role in development of a parenting style but particularly for African American parents you look at a mixture of parenting styles to facilitate survival and development of behavior that focuses on their priorities. In the journal article, â€Å"Parenting Styles and Child Behavior in African American Families of Preschool Children,† written by Jane G. Querido, Tamara D. Warner, and Sheila M. Eyberg, it is hypothesized that the authoritative parenting style was most predictive of fewer child behavior problems. They take the information gathered through parenting practice questionnaires given to 108 African American female caregivers with preschool children, ages 3 to 6. Using a demographic questionnaire, the ECBI report measure of disruptive behavior, the AAAS-33 measuring 10 dimensions of African American culture, and the PSD report measure of parenting practices, data was collected and a correlation analysis was performed using the variables of maternal education, income and the three parenting styles. This journal article was a brief report that attempts to predict the occurrence of childhood behavior issues in African American families based on the different parenting styles. The authors compare the parenting styles of Hispanic Americans, Japanese Americans, European Americans and African Americans. According to their studies, Hispanic parents favored authoritarian and punitive style in comparison of European Americans. Japanese Americans favor respectful and well-mannered children and European Americans children were more â€Å"self-directed and tolerant, (Querido, Warner, Eyberg, 272). While they describe African American families placing greater emphasis on sharing parental responsibilities among community members and use of physical punishment more frequently as in an authoritarian style more than European American parents. African American parents do not experience the same backlash of negative behavioral outcomes from children with punitive punishment as European American parents. There is not a reasoning provided behind this other than the word â€Å"frequently† as in developing a conditioned response to punitive punishment in African American children. There are more instances of externalized behavior in European American parents that used authoritarian style versus the same number of African American parents using same parenting style. This is shown in a study performed first by Baumrind and later studied by a group led by Deater- Deaker in1986 (Querido, Warner, Eyeberg, 272-273. ) Showing European American mothers experience more negative outcomes from their form of punitive punishment than that of African American parents. After completion of questionnaires, the evidence is correlated based on the variables. It is concluded that the variables of maternal education and income play a major factor in choice or development of a parenting style. Female caregivers with less education and income reported an increase in behavior issues and were seen to use more permissive parenting and authoritarian parenting styles. Although the authors hypothesized that authoritative parenting provided the best behavioral outcome, it is stated the African American authoritarian style with the use of punitive punishment is not associated with negative behavioral problems. These differences were challenged as children grew into adolescents. The outcome is that which is hypothesized with authoritative parenting producing better behavioral in all cultural diversities. While this journal article attempts to survey African American parents’ parenting styles and child behavior, it fails to show a definitive correlation based on all parenting styles. The authors tend to favor their hypothesis. Although it seems they used proper investigative techniques all of the conclusions seem to lean towards their endorsement of authoritative parenting. The definition of authoritative parenting makes it the apparent choice by definition alone. Some evidence gathered proves that with variable factors included a variation of this definition works based on cultural differences. This is proven by the difference in use of punitive punishment in African American homes versus European American homes with its effectiveness in controlling child behavior, either through conditioning or education. In conclusion, this article jumps from proving a difference in the use of authoritarian parenting and punitive punishment in different cultural backgrounds to defining that the opposite form of parenting, authoritative parenting, is more effective. It fails to describe how the opposite is more effective by not providing readers with proof or actual questions asked to determine a conclusion proving hypothesis. Even by adding the different variables it only shows one cultural group affected by the variables and how these variables affect these people and their children. It is almost always evident that every parent must pattern their parenting style around the child and positive growth based on that child’s needs. All factors of each parenting style and environmental factors should be considered in providing a foundation to establish a positive child behavior.