venessParenting effectiveness and influence have been studied by developmental psychologists who have been interested in the role of parenting and how it may affect the success or failure of children. An important aspect to this area of research is parenting styles. There have been four styles noted and each may have differing outcomes for the children in later life: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and unengaged/uninvolved.
Positive discipline and corporal punishment are ways parents may choose to respond to a childs misbehavior. Usually corporal punishment is identified with the authoritative style and positive discipline with the authoritarian style. Research has suggested that parenting strategies might be culturally specific in their relation to child behavior problems. Socioeconomic status has also been found to affect child-rearing practices and poverty can cause strained parental-child relations which causes parents to be less nurturing. When negative behaviors have been identified behavioral family interventions, which apply social learning principles, have been suggested as a means of helping children with conduct problems.
Permissive parents “are more responsive than they are demanding. They are nontraditional and lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation” (Baumrind,1991, p. 62). They allow their children to make too many decisions for themselves. Some of these parents believe that they have little control of their childrens behaviors. Authoritarian parents are obedience- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be obeyed without explanation” and will use punishment to get what they expect (Baumrind, 1991, 62).
They expect a high level of conformity of their children. Often they are unresponsive to their childrens needs. Often, if the child does not do exactly as the parent requires the parent will use force to get the child to do what is expected. Baumrinds (1991) study describes authoritative parents as both demanding and responsive. The parents set reasonable limits for the children and expect them to follow through, but will also listen to the childs concerns.
They express warm feelings toward the child and are patient. Both parent and child gets to have a say in matters. Unresponsive/uninvolved parents are low in both responsiveness and demandingness. They may reject the child. They do not show any effort beyond what is needed to take care of the childs basic needs.
If this parenting style is extreme it is Children of authoritative parents usually have the most desirable profiles. They are generally friendly with peers, independent, have a high degree of self-control, and work well with adults. They have more self-confidence when attempting new tasks. They also tend to have more self-control. Children of authoritarian parents tend to act out aggressively and display disruptive behaviors. Bierman, Lengua, McMahon, and Stormshak (2000) found that parenting styles that included yelling/ nagging were associated with all types of disruptive behavior problems and children of parents who showed little affection were prone to oppositional Children of permissive parents tend to be immature.
The children tend to be dependent and demanding of adults. They may become involved with drugs asadolescents. They usually have poor self-control and lack good judgment. The parents have not expected anything of the children so they do not aspire to much later on. Punishment is defined as the application of a negative stimulus to reduce or eliminate a behavior. There are two types typically used with children: punishment involving verbal reprimands and disapproval and punishment involving physical pain, as in corporal punishment.
Corporal punishment involves the application of some form of physical pain in response to undesirable behavior. Harris, Holden, and Miller (1999) found that many parents use spanking and feel it is justified because, in the parents opinion, it corrects the childs misbehavior quickly. Straus and Gelless study (cited in Donnelly, Lewis, Mahoney, and Maynard, 2000) reported Almost all mothers (92%) and fathers (86%) in the United States report using some type of physical discipline with 3-to 6-year-old children. Both research groups agree that there are clear implications for intervention or prevention of harsh punishment, especially since punishment often only produces short-term effects.
If punishment is to be effective it must be consistent so it wont cause high rates of disobedience. There should be some discussion of the Positive discipline is a means of .
