Parenting is one of the most challenging and rewarding roles. Parenting is a collection of parental attitudes, practices, and expressions that characterize parent-child relationships. Individuals learn to parent from different from their parents, role models, society, and life experiences; thus the reason for diverse parenting styles. Parenting styles vary greatly in every household, but experts have broken down parenting styles into four main categories: permissive, authoritarian, authoritative and neglectful. Parenting style has tremendous effects on the child's social development, including the ability to deal with life situations as adults.
Researchers have explored the issue of different parenting styles in detail. In his study, Baumrind (1996) defined three distinctive parenting styles as authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. The parenting style influences parenting behavior, including emotional, behavioral and psychological dimensions. Singh (2017) examines the four parenting styles to show how it affects the child's esteem and mental health. Singh (2017) defines authoritarian parenting as the style of parenting where parents set strict rules for the children, and when the children fail to follow the rules, they are punished. Authoritarian parents do not explain the reasoning for the rules, and they have high demands for the children. Authoritarian parents are not responsive to their children; they provide little direction and guidance to their children. They expect their children to behave well and they are punished when they make mistakes. Children are careful with what they do because they do not want to be punished.
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Like authoritarian parents, authoritative parents establish the rules and expect their children to follow. The parents impart clear standards for the children's' conduct, and they are very assertive. Authoritative parents are responsive to the children's needs and are willing to listen to their concerns and suggestions. While the parents expect a lot from their children, they provide warmth, feedback, and support ( Tavassolie et al., 2016) . When their children fail to meet their expectations, authoritative parents seek to understand why they failed rather than punishing them. Authoritative parents want their children to be responsible, respectful and successful members of the society.
Permissive parents are also referred to as indulgent parents. They do not make many demands for their children, and they have not established a strict code of conduct. Permissive parents hardly discipline their children and have low expectations for their children. Baumrind (1996) differentiates permissive parents from the rest by describing them as, "more responsive as they are demanding. They are nontraditional and lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation." Permissive parents are nurturing, and they maintain excellent communication with their children such that they take more of a friend role than a parenting role. The last category of parents is uninvolved or neglectful parents. Neglectful parents make few demands from their children, and they do not play an active role in their lives. These parents may fulfill the children's basic needs by providing food and shelter, but they are detached from the children's life. They do not offer guidance, rules, or support for their children, and some of them do not even provide basic needs.
From the definitions of the authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, it is evident that these two types of parents deal with their children differently and they have different relationships with their children. According to Lomanowska et al. (2017), parenting is the cornerstone of early socio-emotional development, and adverse parenting styles are associated with adjustment problems, mood and behavioral disorders. Children of authoritarian parents often feel insecure and look for approval because they did not get it from their parents. Strict parents are too hard on their children, and this affects their self-esteem and ability to form social relationships. Gogolinski (2012) adds that children of authoritarian parents lack crucial social and communication skills because the parents did not give them a chance to express themselves. Studies report that children of authoritarian parents rank lower in happiness and self-esteem (Gogolinski, 2012). They are generally obedient and successful but rank lower in happiness and social competence in comparison to children of authoritative and permissive parents.
Since authoritarian parents combine a low level of warmth with high levels of control, the children often rebel when they can no longer take the punishments meted on them for failing to do what they are supposed to do. Authoritarian parenting style is linked with high levels of hostility, delinquency, rebelliousness and antisocial aggression ( Tavassolie et al., 2016) . Additionally, excessive parental control is associated with the development of anxiety in children. The anxiety develops when children are denied the freedom to explore things on their own because authoritarian parents expect them to act in a particular manner.
Orkin et al. (2017) add that the different parenting styles are characterized by two dimensions of parenting behavior, which is the quality of emotional relationships between parents and children and the degree of control. The emotional relationship between a parent and the child can be warm, nurturing, or cold depending on the parenting style. Authoritative parents are friendly and supportive to their children, unlike authoritarian parents. Authoritative and permissive parents use a lesser degree of control with their children, unlike authoritarian parents who are not nurturing and employ a higher degree of control. According to Gogolinski (2012) authoritative parenting lead to happy, capable and successful children. On the other hand, children of permissive parents rank low in happiness and self-regulation. Children from permissive homes have a problem with authority; they tend to perform poorly in school and at work since the parents did not create structure and rules. Studies of children with permissive parents show that they have behavior problems at schools because their parents are not demanding. Permissive parents cannot control their children and the children get into a lot of trouble in school. They act impulsively and tend to have poor performance because they do not have the patience to learn in a structured environment.
Many studies attempt to address the outcomes of different parenting styles. Most of them conclude that the authoritative parenting style is associated with positive results (Sheridan et al., 2014) Authoritative parenting styles combines both the positive aspects of authoritarian and permissive styles. The researchers, however, have failed to show whether the authoritative parenting style has positive effects when both parents adopt the style or when one parent is authoritative. Parenting is even more challenging when both parents have distinct parenting styles; for example, a permissive parent will find it hard to agree with an authoritarian parent on how to punish the child for mistakes such as missing curfews or lying. The parents will disagree about the consequences leading to discord in their relationship, and this will affect the child's view of the family. Conflict, like parenting style, also affect the child. Children who witness conflicts are left wondering whether the family is falling apart and some of them blame themselves for the discord in the family. Orkin et al. (2017) hypothesize that conflict among parents will influence the child's views of family relationships as well as the child's future parental style. For instance, children who grow up in an environment of conflict question whether they can go to the family for support.
In conclusion, parenting styles influence future behavior in children, including self-esteem, communication, social relationships and happiness. The four main types of parenting styles might not reflect on all parenting styles as there are parents who mix different styles depending on the situation. Researchers suggest that the authoritative parenting style is the best style as authoritative parents are reasonable and fair to their children. Authoritative parents listen to their children rather than expecting them to follow their rules blindly for fear of punishments. Permissive parenting comes with problems too as the children do not get the necessary guidance, discipline and support from their parents, and this will determine how they relate with people in authority in future. The correlational studies on parenting style and child's behavior have identified patterns of behavior for each parenting style. Studies also show that a child's behavior can influence parenting style; for example, parents can choose to adopt an authoritarian style when the child keeps misbehaving. Parents have to be aware that their parenting styles shape many aspects of their children's lives and even their parenting styles. Parents have to be flexible enough to adjust their parenting style positively depending on their children's behavior. Both parents should combine the positive aspects of each of their parenting styles to create a unique blend.
References
Gogolinski, T. (2012). Effects of differences in parenting styles on couple distress and children's perceptions of family support (Doctoral dissertation).
Lomanowska, A. M., Boivin, M., Hertzman, C., & Fleming, A. S. (2017). Parenting begets parenting: A neurobiological perspective on early adversity and the transmission of parenting styles across generations. Neuroscience , 342 , 120-139.
Orkin, M., May, S., & Wolf, M. (2017). How parental support during homework contributes to helpless behaviors among struggling readers. Reading Psychology , 38 (5), 506-541.
Sheridan, S. M., Koziol, N. A., Clarke, B. L., Rispoli, K. M., & Coutts, M. J. (2014). The influence of rurality and parental affect on kindergarten children's social and behavioral functioning. Early Education and Development , 25 (7), 1057-1082.
Singh, S. (2017). Parenting style in relation to children's mental health and self-esteem: A review of literature. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing , 8 (12).
Tavassolie, T., Dudding, S., Madigan, A. L., Thorvardarson, E., & Winsler, A. (2016). Differences in perceived parenting style between mothers and fathers: Implications for child outcomes and marital conflict. Journal of Child and Family Studies , 25 (6), 2055- 2068.
