Parental Style and Socio-Emotional Development in Middle Childhood Parenting Styles Parenting is one of the most complex and diverse process and different parents use different parenting styles best suited for their children. This is because no ultimate parenting style which is able to fit all parents and children (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). This is different due to the different social and cultural environments surrounding children.
There are different parenting styles, which include authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved. Each parenting style influences children differently and integrates different traits to the children (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). Authoritative Parenting This style involves parents focusing on their children and implementing measures aimed at improving their children (Larzelere, Morris, & Harrist, 2013). Authoritative parents engage their children more by wanting to relate with what their children go through which helps them to provide better guidelines and approaches to address some of the emotions that they go through (Larzelere, Morris, & Harrist, 2013). This relationship enhances the trust and freedom that the children have with their parents, which is important in directing the children to the right approaches in addressing some of the life issues. This style also requires parents to set principles, which help in determining the development of the children.
The authoritarian parenting style involves high control but at the same time accommodating (Larzelere, Morris, & Harrist, 2013). Authoritarian Parenting This parenting style is a strict parenting style which the parents demand children to follow the set guidelines all the time. This style involves parents setting strict rules and consequences for the breach of the rules (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). Parents are not responsive to the children rather expect the children to live in certain expectations. Children face punishment without explanations but because of breaking the rules (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). This parenting style is not accommodative to the children and does not focus on nurturing the child.
The authoritarian parenting style involves high control with low responsiveness to the child. Parents using this parenting style have very high expectations for their children. Any feedback is given is often negative feedback (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). Permissive Parenting This parenting style involves low demands and high responsiveness from parents.
Parents using this parenting style are loving with few rules and guidelines to their children. The parents highly engage with their children and play the role of a friend more than a parent (Siegel & Hartzell, 2014). The parents also understand their children’s behaviors and are always warm to their children and do not control their children. This parenting style also allows parents to correct their children lovingly without harsh punishments for mistakes (Siegel ; Hartzell, 2014). The parents only intervene when things run out of control. The parents also believe children can regulate themselves based on their own reasoning.
In times of making important decisions impacting the children, the parents involve the children in the decision-making process to give their opinions (Siegel ; Hartzell, 2014). Uninvolved This parenting style is also viewed as neglectful parenting since it involves an aspect of being unresponsive to children’s needs. In this parenting style, parents implement very few demands or sometimes no demands at all for their children (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). This parenting style also involves parents having little engagement with their children and their main role includes the provision of the basic needs to their children.
Children have other needs, which include social and emotional needs, which are not addressed by these parents (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). This parenting style creates a disconnection of parents from their children as the parents do not participate in any engagements with their children and may even sometimes avoid the children. Children in this setting solve their problems independently as their family members do not provide support to them (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). A Description of Each Style’s Effect on the Socioemotional Development of a 10- Year-Old Child The authoritative parenting style will nurture a child’s emotional reasoning which strengthens the child’s outcome in different aspects of their lives including the socioemotional development (Feller, Wolfgram, ; University of Wisconsin, 2014). This parenting style will enable children to be well behaved, which will lead to them being socially accepted. This is because this parenting style expects children to behave maturely and children are efficiently supported emotionally (Feller, Wolfgram, ; University of Wisconsin, 2014).
The authoritarian parenting style requires strict obedience to rules with less parental responsiveness. This may negatively affect a child’s socioemotional development. If a child is already facing challenges from the social environment, this parenting style will not address those challenges faced by the child. The socioemotional development of a 10-year-old child requires more responsiveness from the parents, which the authoritarian approach does not provide (Feller, Wolfgram, & University of Wisconsin, 2014). The permissive parenting style lacks expectations and demands on the child, which affects the child’s self-regulation.
This may lead to negative behaviors due to the lack of boundaries, which may affect their socioemotional development (Feller, Wolfgram, ; University of Wisconsin, 2014). The 10-year-old child may have poor social skills, which may negatively affect their social functioning. Uninvolved parenting style does not provide guidance to children and children have to learn by themselves (Feller, Wolfgram, ; University of Wisconsin, 2014). This leads to children being influenced by other peers to whom they relate socially. Children do not get emotional and social support from their parents as they are emotionally disconnected from their children.
This can lead to influence from other peers, which might be negatively affecting their socioeconomic development (Feller, Wolfgram, ; University of Wisconsin, 2014).
References Feller, A. L., Wolfgram, S. M., ; University of Wisconsin. (2014). Parenting styles and their effect on child development outcomes.
Menomonie, WI: University of Wisconsin. Kail, R. V., ; Cavanaugh, J. C. (2018).
Human development: A life-span view. Australia; Boston, MA: CENGAGE Learning. Larzelere, R. E., Morris, A. S., ; Harrist, A. W.
(2013). Authoritative parenting: Synthesizing nurturance and discipline for optimal child development. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Siegel, D. J., ; Hartzell, M.
(2014). Parenting from the inside out: How a deeper self-understanding can help you raise children who thrive. New York: Penguin Group.
