The Role Of Parenting Styles

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Within the realm of Communication and Parenting, it is apparent that most researches will refer to three main parenting styles: permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parenting. Permissive parenting is described as a style in which parents exert minimal psychological control combined with high levels of affection. Authoritarian styles differ from this greatly, as it is defined as parenting with many demands and few expressions of affection. Authoritative parenting can be described as a balance of permissive and authoritarian styles. Authoritative parents have high expectations for their children, and they are able to effectively share ideals of love and respect. The essay “The Role of Parenting Styles in Children's Problem Behavior,” …show more content…

Therefore, finding the most efficient and accurate way of doing so is worthy of discussion. Though Aunola and Nurmi claim that children are incapable of effectively measuring their parent’s tendencies and behaviors, a study done by Judith Smetana says otherwise. In “Parenting Styles and Conceptions of Parental Authority during Adolescence,” Smetana compares and contrasts the ways in which adolescents and their parents view their parenting styles. Smetana notes that “...little research has compared parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of parenting styles.” In making this comment, Smetana implies that her study will help explain differences in their perceptions. Understanding these differences will allow researchers to better analyze studies that use different methods in attaining their data (parent reports or adolescent reports). Because the results of this study showed that adolescents often times viewed their parents as either more authoritarian or permissive, these viewpoints may directly affect the study done by Aunola and Nurmi as their claims are based on the reports of parenting styles done by parents alone. If they were to also gather the perceptions of the children involved in the study, they might be able to have a more well-rounded understanding of how different parenting styles relate to problem behaviors, or they could reduce the discrepancies among different

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