A child’s future success in romantic, peer, and parental relationships is likely to be influenced by the parenting style employed throughout childhood. Clinical and developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind created the terms authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive/indulgent parenting styles. Later, Maccoby and Martin introduced the disinterested/negligent approach.

Diana Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Theory

Baumrind observed that preschoolers had unique behavioral differences. Each type of conduct was strongly connected with a certain parenting style.

According to Baumrind’s idea, there is a strong correlation between parenting style and children’s conduct. Different parenting techniques can result in varied child development and results.

Baumrind first recognized three parenting styles based on considerable observation, interviews, and analyses: authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, and permissive parenting.

Among the several parenting theories, Diana Baumrind’s philosophy and parenting techniques are the most prominent. Although Diana Baumrind’s work on classifying parenting styles is well-known, Maccoby and Martin (1983) were the ones who developed this three-parenting styles model using a two-dimensional framework.

Baumrind’s liberal parenting style was broadened into two distinct types: permissive style (also known as indulgent parenting style) and neglectful parenting style (also known as uninvolved parenting style).

These are frequently referred to as the Diana Baumrind parenting styles or the Maccoby and Martin parenting styles.

The four parenting styles include:

1. Authoritative
2. Authoritarian (or Disciplinarian)
3. Permissive (or Indulgent)
4. Neglectful (or Uninvolved)

Parenting Styles and Children’s Outcomes

Social competence, academic success, psychological development, and problem behavior are all predicted by parenting style. Consistently, based on parent interviews, kid reports, and parent observations, research in the United States demonstrates:

• Children and adolescents whose parents employ the authoritative style evaluate themselves and are objectively judged as more socially and instrumentally competent than those whose parents do not use this style.

• Children and adolescents with uninvolved parents often do the worst in all categories.

Generally speaking, parental responsiveness seems to predict social competence and psychosocial functioning, but parental demandingness is often connected with instrumental competence and behavioral control (e.g., academic performance and deviance).

Which Parenting Style Is The Most Effective?

Decades of studies indicate that authoritative parenting is consistently associated with the best results in children. Psychologists and psychiatrists agree that authoritative parenting is the most effective parenting style. This categorization of child parenting techniques has been investigated in several nations for over 25 years. Results are often consistent with expectations for each parenting style. However, there are still contradictions and outliers in several places. The development of a kid may be influenced by the following significant elements.