Defining Authoritarian Style of Parenting

Parenting refers to the activity of rearing a child according to certain strategies. The parents are often observed to implement various strategies in order to rear their child and guide them in their pathway of life. The parenting quality of the concerned parent is essential for the development of the psyche of the child. The parenting quality can thus at times prove to be more essential than the time that the concerned parent spends with the child. The literature identifies four different styles of parenting that are generally depicted by the parents. These include the authoritarian or the disciplinarian style of leadership, the permissive or the indulgent parenting, the authoritative parenting and the uninvolved style of parenting (Zarra?Nezhad et al., 2014). The following paper attempts a discussion on the matters that pertain to the authoritarian style of parenting. The paper opens with a discussion and the definition of the authoritarian style of parenting. The paper then proceeds to discuss the matters that are related to the effects of the authoritarian parenting style on the concerned children. The paper also attempts to shed light on the advantages of the style. The paper nears the conclusion with the limitations of the concerned style of parenting.

The over protective nature of parenting depicted by the concerned guardians of the child tends to have a huge impact on the development of the psyche of the child. The authoritarian style of parenting is characterized by the involvement of the parents who are generally observed to be very strict in nature. The authoritarian parents are known to be extremely demanding in nature. However, the authoritarian parents tend to display low responsiveness towards the concerned children. These type of parenting that is related to the strictness that is executed by the concerned members of the organization (Steinberg & Darling, 2017). The authoritarian parenting style allows a very low sphere for the open conversation among the children and their parents. This style of parenting involves the instructions to the concerned children on the ways that define the kind of behavior that is expected from them. The children are majorly found to be dealt with in a strict manner thereby leading to the conditions wherein the children are always found to be apprehensive about making mistakes or faltering in delivering the proper attitude towards the situation that they might have been facing during a given scenario (Doepke & Zilibotti, 2017). The authoritarian style of parenting involves the strictness on the part of parents which further leads to the creation of a distance in the communication within the family (Schiffrin et al., 2014). The authoritarian parents are often found to be relying on the reprimands and punishments that are extended towards the children in order to demand the obedience of the concerned children. The parents also known to have been relying on the methods of punishments in order to provide the concerned children with the necessary amount of lessons that might be needed in their ways of life.

Effects of Authoritarian Parenting on Children

The authoritarian style of parenting affects the concerned children in various aspects of their development. The authoritarian style of the parenting tends to involve all the processes that are involved in the proper development of the child. However, the excessive strictness of the parents on the activities of the child leads to hampering the development of the concerned child. The authoritarian parenting also known as the hovering style of parenting discusses the high amount of involvement of the parents in the lives of the children. The high levels of interference of the parents in the lives of their children leads to several suffocating conditions that are faced by the children themselves (Shloim et al., 2015). The children are also known to have been burdened by the weight of the maintenance of the various instructions that have been set by the concerned parents. These activities tend to hamper the ability of the child to justify the reasons of the various activities that the concerned child has been involved in. The concerned parents who have been practicing the authoritarian parenting style tend to justify the overprotective nature through the arguments that the concerned children need help in the identification of the good and the bad decisions (Pinquart, 2016). However, the excessive amount of the parental involvement in the overall lives of the children tend to stunt the growth of the child in the intellectual matters and thus result in the underdeveloped conditions of the psyche of the concerned child. The authoritarian parenting style allows a very low sphere for the open conversation among the children and their parents (Moilanen, Rasmussen & Padilla?Walker, 2015). This style of parenting involves the instructions to the concerned children on the ways that define the kind of behavior that is expected from them. This results in the conditions wherein there is very low communication among the various members of the family especially among the parents and the children. Thus the children are not clarified on the reasons behind the instruction. This leads to the conditions wherein the reasoning power of the children are hampered.

The hovering style of parenting further leads to the conditions wherein the concerned child suffers from various types of the mental and psychological problems. The major effects of the hovering style of parenting implies the low self-esteem among the given children. This also leads to the fact that the child might not be able to decide on the course of action that is appropriate for the given situation. The concerned children are observed to be extremely shy and fearful as compared to the other children of their age. The children are also known to be ignorant of the difference that is existent within the concepts of obedience and love (McGinley, 2018). The extreme levels of involvement of the parents in the lives of the children lead to the conditions wherein the children face huge difficulties while dealing with the various social scenarios. The children are also observed to have been misbehaving once they are out of the vigilance of their parents (Kakinami et al., 2015). The advent of the mobile phones has led to the conditions wherein the concerned children face the problem of the parental intervention even when the parents are not physically present in the area. The children are also known to have been burdened by the weight of the maintenance of the various instructions that have been set by the concerned parents. These activities tend to hamper the ability of the child to justify the reasons of the various activities that the concerned child has been involved in.

Advantages of Authoritarian Style of Parenting

The limitations of the afore-mentioned style of parenting lies in the excessive strictness of the parents on the activities of the child leads to hampering the development of the concerned child. The authoritarian parenting also known as the hovering style of parenting discusses the high amount of involvement of the parents in the lives of the children. The high levels of interference of the parents in the lives of their children leads to several suffocating conditions that are faced by the children themselves. The children are also known to have been burdened by the weight of the maintenance of the various instructions that have been set by the concerned parents. The authoritarian parenting style allows a very low sphere for the open conversation among the children and their parents (Hutchison et al., 2016). This style of parenting involves the instructions to the concerned children on the ways that define the kind of behavior that is expected from them. This results in the conditions wherein there is very low communication among the various members of the family especially among the parents and the children (Hirschler-Guttenberg et al., 2015). Thus the children are not clarified on the reasons behind the instruction. This leads to the conditions wherein the reasoning power of the children are hampered. Thus, the children might face huge troubles in their future lives and adulthood. The adult lives of the students are highly influenced by the matters that are related to the psychological aspects of the child (Gherasim, Brumariu & Alim, 2017). The low development of the psychological factors of the child leads to the conditions wherein they might face a lot of problems in the matters that need to be dealt with in the adult years of the child. These conditions might be avoided through the processes of counselling of the parents who have been extremely involved in the lives of their children leading to the loss of their independence.

Thus, from the above discussion it might safely be concluded that the hovering style of parenting leads to the loss of the independence of the child and even influences the self-confidence of the child. The children are also known to have been burdened by the weight of the maintenance of the various instructions that have been set by the concerned parents. These activities tend to hamper the ability of the child to justify the reasons of the various activities that the concerned child has been involved in. The excessive amount of the parental involvement in the overall lives of the children tend to stunt the growth of the child in the intellectual matters. This might result in the underdeveloped conditions of the psyche and the mental conditions of the concerned child.

References:

Doepke, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2017). Parenting with style: Altruism and paternalism in intergenerational preference transmission. Econometrica, 85(5), 1331-1371.

Gherasim, L. R., Brumariu, L. E., & Alim, C. L. (2017). Parenting style and children’s life satisfaction and depressive symptoms: Preliminary findings from Romania, France, and Russia. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(4), 1013-1028.

Hirschler-Guttenberg, Y., Feldman, R., Ostfeld-Etzion, S., Laor, N., & Golan, O. (2015). Self-and co-regulation of anger and fear in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders: the role of maternal parenting style and temperament. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(9), 3004-3014.

Hutchison, L., Feder, M., Abar, B., & Winsler, A. (2016). Relations between parenting stress, parenting style, and child executive functioning for children with ADHD or autism. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(12), 3644-3656.

Kakinami, L., Barnett, T. A., Séguin, L., & Paradis, G. (2015). Parenting style and obesity risk in children. Preventive Medicine, 75, 18-22.

McGinley, M. (2018). Can Hovering Hinder Helping? Examining the Joint Effects of Helicopter Parenting and Attachment on Prosocial Behaviors and Empathy in Emerging Adults. The Journal of genetic psychology, 179(2), 102-115.

Moilanen, K. L., Rasmussen, K. E., & Padilla?Walker, L. M. (2015). Bidirectional associations between self?regulation and parenting styles in early adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25(2), 246-262.

Pinquart, M. (2016). Associations of parenting styles and dimensions with academic achievement in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 28(3), 475-493.

Schiffrin, H. H., Liss, M., Miles-McLean, H., Geary, K. A., Erchull, M. J., & Tashner, T. (2014). Helping or hovering? The effects of helicopter parenting on college students’ well-being. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(3), 548-557.

Shloim, N., Edelson, L. R., Martin, N., & Hetherington, M. M. (2015). Parenting styles, feeding styles, feeding practices, and weight status in 4–12 year-old children: a systematic review of the literature. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 1849.

Steinberg, L., & Darling, N. (2017). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. In Interpersonal Development (pp. 161-170). Routledge.

Zarra?Nezhad, M., Kiuru, N., Aunola, K., Zarra?Nezhad, M., Ahonen, T., Poikkeus, A. M., Lerkkanen, M.K. & Nurmi, J. E. (2014). Social withdrawal in children moderates the association between parenting styles and the children’s own socioemotional development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(11), 1260-1269.