Observing the Benefits of an Authoritarian Parenting Style
Mary Kathryn Hancock
Lindenwood University
Author Note
Mary Kathryn Hancock, Psychology Department, Lindenwood University.
Correspondence regarding this paper should be addressed to Mary Kathryn Hancock at Lindenwood University, 209 South Kingshighway, St. Charles, MO, 63301 or email mkh393@ lindenwood.edu
Abstract
There are six main parenting or child-rearing styles used by parents in the United States as well as many other countries. Among those six, there is one that stands out as rather beneficial. The authoritarian parenting style has received much praise from various research for its positive impact on children. This can be seen through the development of socialization in the child and self-esteem and self-acceptance. Benefits can also be seen through the academic achievements and outcomes for children with authoritarian parents. Research has shown these positives through various findings and results.
Observing the Benefits of an Authoritarian Parenting Style
In regard to childrearing, there are six main parenting styles used by parents in the United States. Each of these styles contain unique characteristics of communication with the child as well as how the parents handle raising the child. Among the six types, there has been considerable research done highlighting the authoritarian parenting style as an optimal style producing the most benefits for the child long term. The diverse affect this style has on various aspects of the child’s life can be observed by looking specifically at how it affects the child’s socialization, self-esteem, academic performance and overall educational outcomes.
In a study by Jerf Yeung and collogues, the relationship between authoritarian parenting and the child’s socialization and self-esteem was researched. With a previous knowledge that authoritative parenting, when effectively accepted by both the parents and the child, can lead to the self-acceptance and self-approval of the child, Yeung and colleagues set out to understand this further. With keeping factors of socialization, self-esteem, and the trust built in the parent-child relationship through authoritarian parenting, they hypothesized that perspective taking, and self-esteem of the child would be positively affected, while the self-esteem would be negatively affected by a discrepancy in parenting, and the perspective taking would mediate the parenting style’s effects (Yeung, Cheung, Kwok, & Leung, 2015). With a sample of 223 child-parent pairs with an average family size of 3.9 people, they conducted their research using a structured questionnaire measuring authoritarian parenting style from the perspectives of both the parents and children.
After running the results, their research yielded in support of their hypotheses (Yeung et al., 2015). Just as hypothesized, there was a positive effect on the child’s self-esteem due to the authoritarian parenting style. Also noted, the decencies noted by the children produced negative outcomes and effects on the perception taking of the child. As mentioned earlier in the study, the variable of trust stands out as an important factor in authoritarian parenting. This is shown through the positive effects when the style is done without discrepancies, and in return shown through the negative effects on the relationship when trust is not present. While their study produced results supporting the hypotheses, limitations and implications for future research was noted. The main limitations include the study sampling, the cross-sectional design chosen for research, and subjective element to how the study was measured (Yeung et al., 2015). It was suggested that future research address these limitations and continue to test the hypothesis at hand to see if eliminating these limitations would produce different results.
A recent study on self-compassion and mindfulness compared to the authoritarian parenting style sought to understand the relationship between them. The idea of mindful parenting is a relatively new term in the realm of parenting, however there are many similarities between it and authoritarian parenting. Keeping in mind a key focus of mindfulness parenting, to increase the parent-child relationship on a moment-to-moment basis, the study aimed to see if parenting stress and styles are associated with the parent’s disposition to mindfulness in their parenting (Gouveia, Carona, Canavarro, & Moreira, 2016). This research was done through a sample of 333 parents between the ages of twenty-seven and sixty-three. Scales and surveys based on the factors of mindful parenting, mindfulness, self-compassion, parenting style, and parenting stress were used to measure and analyze the data.
The results showed that “higher levels of dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion are associated with higher levels of mindful parenting that, in turn, is associated with lower levels of parenting stress, higher levels of authoritative parenting style, and lower levels of authoritarian and permissive parenting styles” (Gouveia et al., 2016). These results proved favorably for the research at hand by validating the idea that authoritarian parenting and mindfulness and positively correlated and associated. The higher level of mindfulness one has increases the likelihood that they will demonstrate more characteristics of authoritarian parenting and less stress related to parenting.
While the results were favorable, the study included five main limitations that could have contributed to skewed findings. The design chosen cannot infer about causal inferences, therefore a study design other than cross-sectional should be done in order to strengthen the findings. The sample also contributed to the limitations as the majority of the sample was mothers. It has been suggested that future research focus additional attention on fathers to increase the accuracy of research. Another sampling limitation includes that the majority also reside in rural areas, rather than an equal amount of rural to urban residents. The self-report measures used also contribute to limitations as the validity of the results may be skewed. Lastly, self-compassion was measured as a whole rather than looking at the individual factors that comprise the term. It has been noted that future research should study the three dimensions of self-compassion: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness over self-identification (Gouveia et al., 2016). If each of these limitations are taken into consideration on additional research and in turn yield the same results, the findings of the current study would be strengthened and held in a higher regard.
A study looking at the role of parenting styles and the child’s academic performance was done including an additional variable, self-efficacy. Using self-efficacy as the mediating variable, it was sought out to see if the distinct parenting style had a direct impact on the child’s academic achievement (Masud, Ahmad, Jan & Jamil, 2016). This study was done by using a sample of 313 students comprised of four different university academic compartments. Questionnaires were given to each of the students and analyzed through structural equations. The questionnaires aimed to find if the two main variables, parenting style and academics, were directly related while also assessing the relationship between parenting style and self-efficacy.
The results of the study provided mixed feedback. Looking at the first question at hand, the results concluded that parent’s styles and academic performance do not have a significant relationship. However, despite this unfavorable finding it was also found that, “students from authoritative families enrolled in college/university and also in secondary schools have higher and significant self-efficacy beliefs as compared to those of authoritarian and permissive families. Children from authoritative families have high self-efficacy beliefs and when they face challenges regarding academic tasks, they handle it effectively” (Masud et al., 2016). So, while the study did not support the idea of parenting style and academic achievement being significantly correlated, it did provide findings that support the relationship between parenting style and self-efficacy, which in turn results in higher academic achievement.
The limitations noted in the study include the lack of diversity in the sample and suggest future research use students from various universities rather than different compartments of the same one. Another limitation was potential bias, as they only recorded results from the students, not the parents or other family members. A final limitation was the use of cross-sectional design suggesting that using a different design would allow for more validity of future research.
Another study looked at the impact of each parenting style on the educational achievements of the child. Using a sample of 4100 observations, the study was conducted using six levels to measure educational achievement. It was found that parenting style did indeed have an impact on the educational achievement and long-term outcomes for children: “Authoritative parenting style was found to be the best among all types of parenting. Particularly, relative to uninvolved parents’ children, authoritatively reared children were predicted to have 1.1 more years of schooling and be 18.5, 13.6, and 16.3 percentage points more likely to obtain at least bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree, and high school diploma” (Majumder, 2015). Not only did authoritarian parenting prove to be the most successful and beneficial in regard to the child’s education, but it also proved much better than an uninvolved approach to parenting. A combination of being supportive while also demanding seemed to be a key factor in this study. There was one main limitation noted in this study: “while it is recommended to use instruments in the MSL estimation to obtain more robust results, no appropriate instrument was found in the NLSY97 to be used in this study” (Majumder, 2015). It has been suggested that additional studies and research be done keeping this in mind.
References
Gouveia, M. J., Carona, C., Canavarro, M. C., & Moreira, H. (2016). Self-Compassion and Dispositional Mindfulness Are Associated with Parenting Styles and Parenting Stress: The Mediating Role of Mindful Parenting. Mindfulness, 7(3), 700-712. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0507-y
Majumder, M. A. (2015). The Impact of Parenting Style on Children’s Educational Outcomes in the United States. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 37(1), 89-98. doi:10.1007/s10834-015-9444-5
Masud, H., Ahmad, M. S., Jan, F. A., & Jamil, A. (2016). Relationship between parenting styles and academic performance of adolescents: Mediating role of self-efficacy. Asia Pacific Education Review, 17(1), 121-131. doi:10.1007/s12564-015-9413-6
Yeung, J. W., Cheung, C., Kwok, S. Y., & Leung, J. T. (2015). Socialization Effects of Authoritative Parenting and Its Discrepancy on Children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(6), 1980-1990. doi:10.1007/s10826-015-0353-x