Parenting Styles: How They Shape a Childs Character in the Long Run

Abstract

Topic: Parenting Research Question: How does Parenting Style Shape the Child's Personality/Character in the long run? Introduction Parenting is a demanding responsibility as it entails engagements with the child from childhood through adulthood. It is not a simple task of taking care of an infant and abandoning the child along the way but rather an engaging responsibility of ensuring care and protection of the child throughout their lives. Therefore, one can define parenting as a complex process of raising children and ensuring protection and care to enhance healthy development into adulthood. Parenting is not a one-day affair but rather a lifetime responsibility that enables parents to play a major role in shaping the type of adults their children become in the long run. However, different parenting styles play a major role in determining the parent-child relationship, with each style having different effects on the child's behavior. Within this essay, a thorough analysis of different parenting styles will help respond to the extent of the effect that each style has in shaping the child's character in the long run. Parents play a major role in molding their children's behavior and attitude, thus the need to be conversant with the parenting style. It is the joy of every parent to bring up responsible children whose attitude towards life and others is always positive. Each parent's wish is that their children become role models to others in their childhood and adulthood. However, sometimes things go contrary to such expectations, and many parents become so disappointed by their children. Mackler et al. (2015) associate' parental stress with the parents' desires to meet the demands of raising a child with limited resources. Parental stress is also associated with several maladaptive child outcomes, either directly or indirectly, through negative parenting; thus, one needs to be conversant with the type of parenting style one exercises to avoid such in-eventualities (Mackler et al., 2015). The type of parenting style determines the relationship between the child and the mother or father. Such a relationship has significant effects on the child’s behavior and attitude towards life greatly. Authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved serve as the primary parenting styles whose effects on the child differ significantly and have the potential to shape such a child’s attitude towards the parents, society, and life in a great manner (Wittig and Rodriguez, 2019). Who are authoritarian parents, and what effects does such a parenting style have in shaping the child's character in the long run? Just as the word suggests, the authoritarian parenting style comes along with the parent's authority while engaging with the child. It is an extremely strict parenting style that places high expectations on children with little to no responsiveness. According to Mackler et al., (2015), yelling and corporal punishments are not news in this parenting style as parents punish their children for failure and ignore their achievements. In this parenting style, there is a very poor children-parent relationship attributed to fears; thus, children follow the rules without questioning to please their dictatorial parents. Authoritarian parents socialize and familiarize their children with expectations of the set culture, which may be contrary to what such children expect and thus experience contradictions in the long run. Since this style defines the unfriendly relationship between the child and the parent, there rise trust issues between the two parties as the parent expresses no signs of empathy in whatever case. Growing up in such an environment proves unproductive to the child who remains dependent on their parents’ authority/rules for most of their lives. However, since childhood experiences shape a child’s character greatly, authoritative parents make their children feel sorry after making mistakes instead of teaching them how to make better choices leading them to become very irresponsible in the future. Such children develop self-esteem problems from childhood through adulthood as assumed that since their opinion was never valued during childhood can never be valued even in adulthood, thus remaining dependent on others for most of their lives. Dealing with such characters proves challenging as even in a job, marriage, or any relationship situation, they fear making decisions or choices without consultation, which in the long run affects their mental well being, especially upon comparison with their counterparts who experienced a different parenting style (Johnson and Galambos, 2014). Unfortunately, the fear of making a personal decision exposes such characters to bad situations like criminal acts, especially when their controllers, especially during adolescence and adulthood, have evil motives. Bringing up an independent child is very important as it helps shape their choices throughout their lives which remain limited in authoritarian parenting style affecting such characters' self-esteem, which is contrary to authoritative parenting style. Authoritative parents engage and understand regardless of the set rules and their expectations from the children. Unlike authoritarian parents who never engage their children in problem-solving or decision-making processes, authoritative parents try their best to balance being firm while expressing warmth and support. In this style, parents employ positive reinforcement and reasoning to guide their children without expressing any signs of criticism or ignorance of their achievements. There is always a strong bond between the parents and the children as children become involved in the decision-making process when the parents come up with rules and explain their benefits to the children making such children become part and parcel of the parenting efforts for their good. It is a style that enables the children to make their own decisions and choices in life as always valued and not punished after failure, thus ready to make amends on their errors to enhance success in achieving the best outcomes. Bringing up a child from an authoritative parenting perspective proves essential as it shapes the responsibility characteristic in a child without much pressure. When an authoritative explain their expectations to the children and leave them to make a choice, it defines the child's independence, which becomes molded from childhood through adulthood. Such children become socially accepted and self-reliant, attributed to the high levels of self-esteem that these children experience, making them feel ready for anything in life (Pinquart and Gerke, 2019). Understanding a child and valuing their achievement means a lot in shaping their potential to handle life situations and remain well expressed through authoritative parent-child engagement. IT is imperative to note that authoritative parents make their children feel accepted and valued, limiting the chances of depression and anxiety even when they grow up. Such kids are free with their parents making them have a strong life balance. For this reason, such kids remain responsible in life and ready to make sound choices, thus less likely to engage in antisocial behaviors like...