Is parenting really significant? Does parenting have a positive impact on a child’s life? 

One may wonder if his or her parenting style has effectively influenced his or her child’s complete development. 

A child’s holistic development, specifically psychological (emotional and social) and cognitive (intellect) developments, may be affected by numerous factors. These factors may be biological and environmental, which includes culture, family and more significantly parenting styles.

There are FOUR parenting styles namely “authoritative (demanding and responsive)”, “authoritarian (demanding and unresponsive)” and “permissive (responsive but undemanding)”. More recently, uninvolved parenting (unresponsive and undemanding) has been recognized as a fourth style.

Though each parenting style has varying characteristics, it is crucial for the child to receive both nurture and autonomy in order to obtain adequate development. Parenting styles such as authoritative and uninvolved influence a child’s cognitive and psychological development but authoritative parenting is preferred.

A child’s cognitive development is optimum for independence and decision making skills when experiencing positive and maximum parental support. Hence, an authoritative parent is said to be highly involved in a child’s development, offering positive and maximum parental support which encourages the development of a personality. A child reared by the authoritative parenting style exhibits high self-esteem, self control and task persistence.

In regards to a child who has high self-esteem, positive values and beliefs are passed on from the parents because of their high participation in the offspring’s life. For example, the importance of these parental beliefs and positive values are adopted from family discussions and family rules and practices.

Research has shown that children reared by authoritative parents have great academic success because the parents are extremely involved in all aspects of their lives and particularly, their academic achievements. Authoritative parents will praise their children for striving; help them with the difficulties they face in their school work and encourage them to do their best. Children given this positive and maximum parental support believe they have the competence to succeed in life.

The different areas of a child’s development are interconnected thus influencing one another.

Authoritative parents are demanding-have high hopes and expectations for their children.

Children of authoritative parents exhibit low amount of internalizing behavior such as depression and anxiety and externalizing behavior such as antisocial behavior and substance use.

Offspring of these parents are more socially and instrumentally competent than children reared by other parenting styles. Authoritative parents also show interest in their child’s social life. It is important that they know about their child’s whereabouts and the friends he or she keeps. Therefore, the child will be less likely to be antisocial in behavior because of their high autonomy granting. Similarly, it is important to note that though these parents are involved in the child’s social life, they do not dictate the type of friends the child should keep. Instead, they provide good advice and allow the child to make his or her own decision.

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Children of authoritative parents are better equipped to cope with life stresses and less likely to succumb to peer pressure, due to the competencies authoritative parents have instilled, it can be concluded that authoritative parenting has a positive impact on a child’s complete development.

Parenting styles, though not the only influence, wield great effect on a child’s development. Based on the scientific studies, authoritative parenting is preferred because it has the most positive influence on a child’s entire development while uninvolved parenting has the most negative impact.