CNL-518: Essay on Parental Styles and Child Development, 2020

This essay examines the four primary parenting styles: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved, and their respective impacts on a child's socioemotional development during middle childhood. The essay defines each style, highlighting the key characteristics of each approach to child-rearing. It then delves into the effects of each style on a 10-year-old child, exploring how these parenting methods influence behaviors, social skills, academic success, and the child's overall well-being, referencing research findings to support the analysis. The essay emphasizes that authoritative parenting is often associated with the most positive outcomes, while authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved styles can lead to various challenges in a child's socioemotional growth. The paper also references supporting research by Bratu (2019) and Nyarko (2011).

Running Head: Parental Style and Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood 1
Parental Style and Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood
Student’s Name:
Student’s ID:
CNL-518-0500: English
Professor’s Name:
19/02/2020

Running Head: Parental Style and Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood 2
Parental Style and Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood
The styles of parenting have four significant classifications and are usually termed as Authoritarian,
Authoritative, Permissive, and Uninvolved. So, primarily the Authoritarian parenting refers to a style of
parenting attributed to extreme demands and low responsiveness. The parents practicing authoritarian style hold
huge expectations from their children, providing minorly through nurturance as well as feedback.
Secondly, Authoritative parenting is a style of parenting featured by responsiveness that tends to be
high together with high demands. Such parents tend to respond to the emotional needs of their children while
maintaining high standards, setting limits, and happens to be consistent in boundaries enforcement (Nyarko,
2011).
Further, A style of parenting known as permissive parenting is a type characterized by high
responsiveness and low demands. These parents are incredibly loving, and therefore provide rules and
guidelines to their children. Permissive parents are not in expectation of mature behavior from their children
and are comparatively friendly over being a parental figure.
Last but not least, another style of parenting being uninvolved parenting also is referred to as
neglectful parenting and is a style attributed by no or lack of responsiveness to the needs of the child's needs.
Such parents formless to almost no demands from their children and often are indifferent, neglectful, or
dismissive in behavior.
As a matter of fact, each of these styles of parenting has a significant role to play in the
socioemotional development of a child, especially in middle childhood. This is because it is an age when a child
is likely to have developed complete sense and is transcending towards teenage when he is expected to have his
behavior, thoughts, and actions unlike before being instructed by parents.
Understanding the effect of authoritarian parental style, we can find that if at all the tactics of
authoritarian disciplinary works, it is expected from them to lead to fewer problems concerning behavior as the
child gets older, however, interestingly, this isn't practically true. This has been observed by tracking the

Running Head: Parental Style and Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood 3
development of children. Children belonging from an authoritarian family and less adaptive socially,
resourceful, and tend to become more involved in activities like bullying.
Next, we understand the effect of authoritative parental style; the kids raised by authoritative
parents are much more likely to be self-reliant, independent, successful in academics, well-behaved, and
socially accepted. These kids are less prone to anxiety and depression and do not engage in antisocial behavior
as such. According to Bratu (2019) in the case of permissive parental style, the kids possess poor social skills, lack
self-discipline, are self-involved and demanding in nature, feel highly insecure because of lack of guidance and
boundaries. However, as far as uninvolved parental style is concerned, the kids raised by uninvolved parents have a
sense of fear regarding dependency on other people. Often, they are withdrawn emotionally. During adolescence, they
exhibit delinquency, are fearful of stress, anxiety due to lack of support by the family.
References

Running Head: Parental Style and Socioemotional Development in Middle Childhood 4
BRATU, R. (2019). The Impact of the Permissive Parental Style on Children Development. Anuarul
Universitatii Petre Andrei Din Iasi - Fascicula: Asistenta Sociala, Sociologie, Psihologie, 23, 27-34.
https://doi.org/10.18662/upasw/24
Nyarko, K. (2011). The influence of authoritative parenting style on adolescents' academic
achievement. American Journal Of Social And Management Sciences, 2(3), 278-282.
https://doi.org/10.5251/ajsms.2011.2.3.278.282