Parenting styles are styles that help discipline children, parents use many different styles/theories to discipline their kids. 

Baumrind describes different methods to parent: Authoritarian and Permissive. Authoritarian, this directs control over the child. It encourages freedom and uses positive reinforcement to obtain obedience from the child. The parents only use punishment when is necessary. Permissive style, this style does not typically use punishment on the child. The children discipline under this style are most likely given a couple of rules to follow. Also, they are most likely not be always under the control of the parents. I truly think that these two styles are very important to discipline the kids. 


The picture shows how the mother is talking to her daughter in a very mannered way/style. 

Kramer vs Kramer movie

The Role Theory states that people invest time and energy to fulfilling multiple work and family responsibilities and these responsibilties affect the individual's health outcomes. Role Theory has three different components which are Role Conflict, Role Enrichment and Role Context. The hollywood movie Kramer vs Kramer examplifies how work-family duties can play out in an individual's everyday life and these daily activities can affect health. To best describe how this movie relates to the Role Theory, I will discuss scenes in the movie based on the Role Conflict component. There was more of Role Conflict in Kramer vs Kramer when dad struggled with being on time to his conference meetings at work because he had to buy groceries for his house. So doing household chores and keeping up with the demands of his job conflicted because of the time demand. There was also Role Conflict when dad experienced a shift in his responsibilities in the household. After his wife left him, he had to cook and prepare meals for his child and himself; and this consumed the time he usually used to work on his projects and prepare presentations for corporate conference meetings.

Another scene that showed Role Conflict from a different approach was when his wife returned to New York to claim custody of Billy, their son. While in the restaurant, she brought it to his attention that she loved her son and she thought their son would be better off with her. He reprimanded her for being out of Billy's life for 18 months and dismissed her claim of loving their son. Bottomline is that Role Conflict was shown because both parents fought for who should have full custody of the child.

Kramer vs Kramer - the movie

Role Theory describes the family- work concept as each individual's time and efforts attributed to different roles at work and in their families and how each role affects the outcome of another role. There are three sub cultures to Role Theory. The first is role conflict.  This is when one role may cause a strain in another role.  An example of this in the movie was when Kramer's son called him at work.  Kramer's role as a father was encroaching on his career role because this phone call was showing that Kramer's full attention was not on his work like it had been for the last five years.  The second sub culture is role enrichment. Role enrichments are the benefits that come from doing all the roles in one's life.  An example of this is when Kramer is fixing breakfast. Even though he is doing things wrong he is still using those quick thinking skills from work to explain to his son that this "Daddy's special French  toast" instead of admitting he did it wrong. The third sub culture is role context.  Role context advises that one evaluates the stress of their roles and how it effects one's own health. An example of this happened when Kramer's work made him late to picking up his son from a birthday party and he saw how upset his son was. At this time Kramer thought about how his roles were weighing on him. Later on in the movie, Kramer makes sure to leave the office on time and it shows him taking his time dropping his son off at school.  Kramer evaluated his role conflicts and adjusted to what better suited to his needs.  

Parenting Styles

Parenting styles are strategies and actions used by parents when rearing their children. There are multiple theories that describe different strategies that can be used. Baumrind describes three different methods to parent: Authoritarian, Authoritative, and Permissive. Authoritarian is a style that exercises direct control over the child. These parents use discipline to obtain obedience from the child. Authoritative style encourages freedom and uses positive reinforcement to obtain obedience from the child. These parents only use punishment when necessary. Permissive style does not typically use punishment on the child. Children are usually given few rules and are under little control of their parents. Baumrind’s styles describe the importance of parenting choices regarding control over the child’s behavior. Kohn describes parenting styles that identify characteristics that the parents are looking for in the child. Parents who desire their child to develop skills of self-control, critical thinking and reasoning, and curiosity value self-direction. Conformity is typically desired by working-class people and is desired by parents who desire their child to work as part of a group, develop a routine, and work under supervision.

Lareau suggests that social class will influence the way that parents interact with their children. Concerted cultivation aims to foster their child’s talents and abilities. This can be done by incorporating organized activities into their children’s lives. These children will have increased social experiences with adults and may develop better communication and academic skills. They will grow up prepared to excel in a structured environment. Parents in the middle and upper classes typically carry out the concerted cultivation approach. Natural growth is not as structured as the concerted cultivation approach. Children in the natural growth method will typically have more free time and have the ability to choose their own activities. This may be due to the lack of availability of parental time to provide structured activities for the child.

The style that I favor the most is the authoritative parenting style. This style allows the child to make decisions and encourages individual development while also employing necessary structure and reinforcement to maintain adequate control over the child. This is the method that my parents employed and I believe that it was very effective. I chose this photo to illustrate the importance of providing structure and encouraging childhood development.  

Kohn used conformity and self-direction in his parenting style. Laureau focused on concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation was used to foster and assess children's intersts and abilities, and accomplishment of natural growth includes food, shelter, but the child's development comes spontaneously. Baumrind used his levels of parenting with authoritarian, permissive, neglectful, and authoritative parenting styles.

I feel that Baumrind's style is the clearest and most effective in explaing parenting styles. THe authoritarian parent demands obedience and most commonly uses physical discipline. The child is most likely scared of the parent and does not feel comfortable to approach them when they need them. The authoritative parent encouranges freedom and autonomy while still having control of the child. They use positive reinforcement, and still maintain rules and regulations. The permissive parent allows their child to do whatever they want and has little no control over what their child does. They do not have any rules or regulations for the child and does not discipline them. Out of the three, I believe that the authoritative parenting style is the most effective because they still let their child develop and have their own identity, while still having rules and regulations.

Authoritative parenting style

This is an example of the Authoritative Parenting Style. The reason why I believe this is an example of the Authoritative Parenting Style is because, both parents have a high level of control if their child and in the picture they are explaining to her what she did wrong. Authoritative Parenting Style is defined as demanding and maintains high level of control over the children, but is also warm and receptive.  Even though the child may not like the punishment or what she is being told her parents still are telling her what is right and wrong.  Both Parents looks flexible, caring, and responsive. They are not screaming at the child, but they are still holding her accountable for her actions. If  the parents did not hold their child accountable for her actions and were lenient they would have been the permissive parenting style and the child would have never understood right from wrong.

Parenting Styles

"A child should be raised this way or that way." Well this is only an opinion that parents develop as a result of their childhood experience. Culture and individual values both have influence on the methods parents adopt to raise their own children. In some parent(s), culture, compared to personal values may have more influence over their parenting styles, where as in other parents it may be vice versa.
Furthermore on this subject, I am going to pin point my preferred parenting styles that are components of the theories developed by Kohn(1977), Baumrind(1991) and Lareau (2003) by describing, comparing and contrasting the different components of choice.

Self-direction (Kohn 1977) is a division in Kohn's parenting style that "stresses child's motives and development of self-control, consideration, reasoning, curiosity, initiative conformity." This is a parenting style where the parents give particular importance to the child's passion, what the child loves to do best and what the child is very good at doing. After the parents assess and discover what motivates the child, they then use their influence as parents to lay the foundation that will guide the behavior of the child towards the child's passion. The parents lay the foundation by teaching the child the ways to develop discipline and self-control to stay focused and avoid problems such as deliquency, which may alter the child's potential for a successful future. The parents also instil other crucial values in their children through stimulating the childs curiosity.

In this kind of parenting style, the child has a good sense of freedom to structure and develop their own character because the parents usually do not force their individual preferences on the child. These children are more likely to have high self-esteem and confidence. Totally controlling the child is not healthy because it may eliminate the child's ability to express their own individual values when they become adults and will cause them to fear authority. This is my favorite of all the parenting styles because it teaches children bravery, self-control, discipline, excellent work ethic and appreciation for others. Parents of such children are usually community oriented individuals who want their children to pick up on those values where the well-being of the community is vital to person's success.

I also like the Authoritative parenting style (Baumrind 1991), because it complements the Self-Direction parenting style. In the Authoritative style, the parent lets the child express themselves even it means objecting to their parents' authority and actions. Even though the child knows that they have this privilege, they know not to do so in an irrational manner. The child clearly knows his/her boundaries and honors the parents as the authoritative figure. They also learn not to interact with or address their parents in the same way they would with friends. Such parents are usually open and friendly with their children, may watch cartoons with the child, and these qualities are few among others that enables a child to engage in high quality communication with their parents.

My third choice is Annette Lareau's Concerted Cultivation parenting style (2003). This parenting style is concerned with the proper emotional and spiritual development of the child which the child will attain through careers, personal life goals and hobbies. Therefore, parents of these children want the best for child and they want the children to have a sense of purpose and the parents empower the child to fulfil them. The parents of these children also teach them that they have to question authority and societal functions. The main point of this parenting style is to cultivate the child's sense of purpose and build the child's sense of freedom and confidence. Children who discover and follow their passion, later become confident adults who have a good sense of freedom, compared to children who don't because those who don't may end up in a career or job they absolutely hate and feel trapped to keep the job to make ends meet.