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.

Comparing and Contrasting parenting styles

I will be describing, comparing, and contrasting parenting styles from Baumrind, Lareau, and Kohn. 
Baumrind's parenting style is composed of three sub parenting styles : authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian. The authoritative style is when parents are demanding and have high control over their children, however are still caring and receptive. The permissive style is when a parent is nurturing, caring, and responsive but is also quite lenient. The last part of baumrinds parenting style is authoritarian, in this style parents are strict, punitive, less communicative  and offer less warmth. Baumrind's style elicits important sides of parenting and parenting choices.
Kohns style of parenting is different in the way that it reflects the traits that parents desire or look for in a child, more specifically the lower class tends to search for traits that would be valued in the working sector of society such as conformity, stying out of trouble, and being organized. Whereas the higher class look for traits such as independence, creativity, and curiosity.
This ties into Lareau's parenting style that describes how social class and how its values effect the way one is raised. For example, tend to be more controlling authoritarian seeking hard working trait from their children. This is a perfect example of how Lareau's style is the middle man of the other two, it combines both in the way that it is both similar and different and that is why I favor this style, its much more flexible to different familial situations.

Parenting Styles

I will be describing, comparing, and contrasting parenting styles from Baumrind, Lareau, and Kohn. Baumrind came up with a typology widely used today from observations. From these observations, Baumrind came up with 3 parenting styles: Authoritarian, Authoritative, and Permissive. Each style relates to parent interaction, form of punishment, and outcomes in children based of raising style. Baumrind's styles are used to explain Laureau and Kohn's styles. Baumrind's styles reflect the types of parenting style that Laureau and Kohn use to explain their theories. Lareau focuses more on social class and it's effect On values, norms, and expectations of parents for their children. Lareau explains how low income families are likelier to have less participation in children activities and extra curricular participation because of lack of money, yet these activities are important for academic achievement. Similar to Lareau, Kohn believes class takes a big role in parenting children. Unlike the other two though, Kohn relates the traits parents value most with the parents world of work. This style states that the characteristics parents will value reflect the characteristics they believe are needed for the work they're expected to be in in the future, thus related to social class. It's a matter of Conformity vs self direction. Kohn believes lower class families would attribute Baumrinds authoritative style versus higher class's use of permissive parenting most often than not. From these three, I like Baumrinds parenting styles because they are reflected from observations. Though they are limited in the sense that they don't take everything into consideration such as class, race or gender, they summarize three of the most common parenting styles.

Kohn’s parenting styles are conformity and self-direction. Conformity is a strict and supervised way of parenting. Self-direction is demanding development and the child’s motives.

Baumrind has three types of parenting styles: authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian. Authoritative style is understanding and flexible but also demands respect and obedience from the child. Permissive style demands no obedience and little interaction with the child. Authoritarian style demands complete control over the child and uses corporal punishment to express authority.

Lareau’s parenting style is concerted cultivation and Accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation fosters and assesses children’s interests and abilities. Accomplishment of natural growth style is more independent and rely less on their parents.

Out of all the parenting styles, I prefer Baurimand’s Authoritative parenting style. The parents have a higher degree of acceptance and communication with their children and still maintain a level of discipline with their children.

Parenting Styles

Kohn’s parenting styles believe in self-direction versus conformity parenting style. Conformity style favors working class occupations. Self-direction style focuses on the child’s motives and allows a child to development on their. Baumrind’s parenting styles consist of three parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Just like Kohn’s conformity style, the authoritarian style show parents being strict and punishing the child to control them. Permissive style express that the child has freedom with little rules. Lastly, authoritative style encourages freedom for which the parents are in control for their children. Lareau’s parenting styles consist of two parenting styles: concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation allows the children to show interests and is able to develop on their own. Also, accomplishment of natural growth is when parents provide food and shelter, yet the child’s development comes naturally, just like Kohn’s parenting style of self-direction. I favor Baumrind’s parenting styles because a child should be encouraged to experience on their own, but a parent should be there to guide the child and when it is appropriate, a punishment should be given.

Parenting Styles

I will be comparing two of Baumrind's paretning styles; Permissive and Authoritative.

The Permissive Style of parenting focuses on autonomy and freedom to express as well as downplay conformity. In this style there are few regulations and rules. A problem with this style is control is often lacking in situations with conflict. This picture below shows a parent who seems to have lost control over her child.

The Authoritative Style of parenting also encourages autonomy and tends to avoid punishment similarly to the permissive Style. This style focuses on positive reinforcement and while punishment is lacking, the difference between these two styles of parenting is in the latter style, parents have control over their children unlike in the first style mentioned. The picture below shows a similar situation as the picture above, except in this photo the mother has control over the situation.

Parenting Styles

Kohn’s parenting styles include self-direction versus conformity. Conformity parenting is when parents have strict supervision and self-direction helps to motivate children and help children develop important components of life such as consideration and reasoning.

Baumrinds parenting style is made up of three different styles, authoritative, permissive and authoritarian. Authoritative parenting style is a parent that has high levels of control over their children, yet they are also very warm and loving. They want their children to succeed and help guide in doing so. Permissive parenting style are usually parents who are very caring to their children but they also let their children get away with a lot of things. They have very little control over their children. Authoritarian parenting styles is where parents are very strict, and are not warm to their children. They expect a lot from their kids and expect nothing but the best.

Lareau parenting styles is made up of two different components: concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation is where parents help exemplify their child’s interests and abilities. Accomplishment is where the parents let their children naturally develop their basic needs.

Baumrind’s parenting style differs from the other two because it is directly how they treat the child. A parent may have one of Baumrinds parenting styles mixed in with one of the other parenting styles as well.

The parenting style I favor most would be Baumrinds parenting style because it seems to fit most models of parents or possibly mix some of the styles together. But this is something that is easily seen to others from the outside and is easy to identify. I believe that most parents can identify themselves with one of the Baumrind’s parenting styles. 

Parenting Styles

Three unique divisions of parenting styles by three different theorists, Kohn, Lareau, and Baumrind, were discussed in class. Kohn’s division of parenting styles is composed of self-direction versus conformity. Parents who practice conformity have working class occupations and prefer routine, strict supervision of their children and coordinated group or team action. Parents who practice self-direction stress the child’s motives and development of self-control, consideration, reasoning, curiosity, and initiative conformity. Lareau’s division of parenting styles consists of concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation is the belief in and act of fostering and assessing children’s interests and abilities. Accomplishment of natural growth is the belief in providing food and shelter only because development comes spontaneously. Baumrind’s division of parenting styles is comprised of authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative styles. Authoritarian style is when parents demand absolute obedience from their children and often use punishment to control their children’s behavior. Permissive style is when parents encourage autonomy in their children, give them the freedom to express and downplay conformity, impose few rules and regulations on their children, and have little control over them. Authoritative style is a style in which parents encourage freedom and autonomy in their children, rely on positive reinforcement towards their children, avoid punishing their children as much as possible, and are in control of their children. Baumrind’s types of parenting styles are related to the cohesion of the parents and the intellectual orientation, organization, and achievement of the children. I favor Baumrind’s division of parenting styles the most for a few reasons. The first reason is that it involves three types of parenting styles rather than two examples which shows that there is a middle ground between two extreme and opposing styles. Second, Baumrind’s examples are more detailed and focus on the roles both parents and children play and the interaction of these roles in child development. Finally, I find Baumrind’s illustrations of parenting styles to be closer in line with the realities that I have observed and experienced in my own family and the families of my peers. Baumrind’s division of parenting styles with its unique and descriptive examples paints a more accurate and precise picture of parenting styles for both parents and children in the institution of the family.

Parenting Styles

In Kohn's theory, parent's can follow two parenting styles: Conformity and Self Direction.  Parents who used the Conformity style valued supervision and rules.  On the other hand, parents who used Self Direction focused more on development of child's motives and curiosity.  Kohn's Conformity style is more prevalent with working class parents, while the Self Direction style is more prevalent with higher class parents.

Baumrind's theory combines three styles called Authoritative, Permissive, and Authoritarian. Authoritative parents simultaneously use control and compassion with their children. Parents who are Permissive are less controlling, focusing more on the caring, nurturing aspect of parenting.  Lastly, Authoritarian parents focus most on control, leaving out many of the supportive characteristics of the other types.

The last theory is from Laurea who believes in Concerted Cultivation and Accomplishment of Natural Growth. Parents who use Concerted Cultivation plan out activities for their children in order to help their children's interests grow. On the other hand, parents who utilize the Accomplishment of Natural Growth allow their children more freedom to keep themselves busy without parent's planning.

When I compare these types, it appears that Kohn's Conformity style links with Baumrind's Authoritarian style because they both focus on rules and control. Laurea's theory is different from the rest because it focuses more on activities than discipline and nurturing techniques.

I agree most with the Authoritative theory because I feel that children need control AND compassion. For me, I see this style being especially important in the teen years (as shown in picture) when children need boundaries, but also the confidence to talk to their parents. If these are off-balance, the child-parent relationship will be more difficult.

Parenting Styles

Baumrind's parenting style consisted of three general styles: authoritative parenting style, permissive parenting style and authoritarian parenting style. The authoritaive parenting style consists of demanding parents that maintain high levels of control over their children, but they are also warm and receptive. The permissive parenting style consists of parents who are very nurturing, caring, and responsive to their children, but they are quite lenient. The authoritarian parenting style consists of strict, punitive, less communitive and offer less warmth and support.
Kohn suggests that parenting styles for lower-income and higher-income parents differ. Lower-income parents tend to emphasize conformity and related traits. Higher-income parents emphasize self-direction and creativity.
Lareau suggests that social class differences influence the way parents interact with their children. For instance lower-class families engage in fewer organized activities and were far more likely to spend their free time with their family and neighborhood friends. Middle-class parents enrolled their children in organized activities.
Contrast:
The three parenting styles focus on different aspects of child rearing. Baumrind's focuses on the way parents discipline their children as a whole. Kohn focused on the way parents raise theri children to fulfill their perspective social roles in life. Lareau focused on the way parents interact with their children and how much they expose them to other social settings.
Compare:
A comparision would be that all three focus on the parenting styles and how it influences the child's attitude and behavior.
**I personally favor Baumrind's parenting style since it has a medium ground. This theory is not so binary like the other two. It offers an insight on how balance while raising your child is key. Suggesting that there are times where u have to be lenient but also times where u have to be strict but always showing love and care.

Parenting Styles

Baumrind identified three styles of parenting; authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian.  Kohn focused on conformity and self-direction.  Lareau highlighted concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth.

Kohn and Lareau demonstrated the correlation between social class and parenting styles.  Kohn focused on how the world of the parents affected the traits they tried to install in their children; children were brought up in a way to learn the traits their parents thought to be most important.  In comparison, Lareau showed how parenting styles differed depending on whether they were middle, working, or lower class.

Baumrind essentially created a spectrum for parenting styles:

• little control over children/too much freedom: permissive
• balance of control & freedom: authoritative- the most desirable type of parenting stye
• extreme control over children/lack of freedom: authoritarian

I agree with the typology created when Baumrind identified three styles of parenting, because I have seen families that perfectly represent each typology.  Although I do acknowledge social class plays a part in a parent's style of raising their child, I have to agree with Baumrind in that most parents can fit in either of the three categories. 

Parenting Styles

Baumrind's parenting style includes three core styles authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. In the authoritarian style parents are obedience and status-oriented expecting their orders to be obeyed without explanation. These parents use punishment and fail to give reasons. Permissive style has the parents more as a friend than a parent who rarely disciplines and over indulges their children. They are nontraditional and lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation. The last style is authoritative which offers a balance of the previous styles. These parents are assertive, establishing rules and guidelines that their children are expected to follow. When children fail to meet the expectations, these parents are more nurturing and forgiving rather than punishing. They want their child to be assertive as well as socially responsible, and self-regulated as well as cooperative.


Kohn's parenting style consist of two core styles, conformity and self direction. With conformity the children are under strict supervision and follows a more set routine. Self direction on the other hand is more lax stressing the child’s motives and development of self-control, consideration, reasoning, curiosity, initiative conformity.


Lareau's parenting style has two core styles, concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation allows children to foster their interest and abilities. Accomplishment of natural growth the parents provide the basic necessities such as food and shelter while the child's development happens spontaneously.


The style I agree with is Baumrind's style of parenting. Compared with the other two it has one more core style. Kohn's style of parenting can be found within Baumrind's, authoritarian is similar to conformity and permissive is like self direction. As for Lareau the authoritative and permissive styles of Baumrind incorporates to some degree concerted cultivation. Baumrind incorporates the other styles as well as giving more parenting styles with in-depth explanations.

Parenting Styles

Kohn's parenting styles explains how parents of the working class more than often rely on a conformity parenting style because it resembles that of their workplace environment. Kohn's second parenting style, self- direction, dresses how a parent allows a child to develop at their own pace. Baumrid's parenting theory consist of three parenting steles. The authoritarian style, like Kohn's conformity style, suggest that the parents are very strict, however, it differs in the sense that in the authoritarian style the is punishment to control the child's behavior. Baumrid's permissive style suggest that the child has complete freedom with no rules or punishment. Lastly the authoritative parenting style allows a parents to have consul of their kids by having a balance between the freedom that the is given to the child and the punishment the kid receives when he misbehaves, however the punishment is very minimal. Lareau's parenting styles is composed of two parenting styles. Concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation allows the child to show their interest and abilities where as accomplishment natural growth suggest that parents shelter and food for their child but do not take part i their development and just it the development come naturally at its own pace, much like Kohn's self direction theory.

I personally prefer Baumrind's Authoritative parenting style. Being a parent myself this is the method that i more than likely find myself using. I encourage my daughter to be independent and give her the freedom to engage in things that interest her. Although i do punish her from time to time i try to avoid it as much as passive, like Baumrid's parenting theory suggest.

Parenting Styles

Kohn's Parenting Style uses a self-direction versus conformity parenting style. The two styles deals with conformity and self-direction. Conformity style is when the parent lives a lifestyle that is repetitive. Self-direction style is focuses on disciplining the children and it affects how the children develop.

Baumrind's parenting style has styles of authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Authoritarian style is when the parent demands obedience and uses punishment to control the children's behavior. Permissive is when the parent sets few rules and regulations, when there is a conflict the parent has little control over the situation. Authoritative encourages freedom and autonomy and relies on positive reinforcement.

Lareau's parenting style uses concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation is when the parents foster and assess children’s interests and abilities. Accomplishment of natural growth provides the basic needs such as food and shelter for the child and the child's development comes spontaneously.


The style of parenting that I agree with the most has to be Baumrind's parenting styles. I like the Authoritative one the best. It is good to give the children positive reinforcement and have little to no punishment at all.

Parenting Styles

In Ch. 9: Raising Children, Baumrind describes three parenting styles that consist of Authoritative, Permissive, and Authoritarian.  The authoritative parenting style consists of parents keeping control of their children by demanding things from them that may include good grades and behavior.  Although they may be very demanding of them, they still care very much about their children so they help guide them in the right direction.  The permissive parenting style consists of parents who are very caring and nurturing with their children, however, they are not very demanding.  These parents are more lenient are more likely to dismiss poor behavior from the child.  Authoritarian parenting style consists of parents being very strict and controlling with their children without allowing any communication to guide them in the right path.  They demand so much of their child without showing them any care or support.  In this parenting style it is also more likely that parents will illicit physical punishment, which is also called corporal punishment (Seccombe, p. 252) onto the child so that they listen to them.

I feel that the best parenting style is the authoritative parenting style because it shows the child that their parent cares about them and at the same time, they are being very constructive in teaching them the right things.  In this parenting style, it is more likely that a child will follow through with good behavior because they are able to communicate with their parents to learn right from wrong and would not be afraid of their parents harming them like someone with a parent in the authoritarian style.  

Parenting Styles

There are three parenting styles that are from Kohn, Baumrind and Lareau -all of the components within their theories of parenting styles are not identical but they are all factual even if some are not the best type of style for parents to use.
For Kohn, there are two types of parenting styles -one relies on conformity in which it is used regularly by the working class because that is how their workplace is structured and on the other side is the style of self-direction which is all about a child's own development and curiosity during their growth. Kohn's style is similar to Lareau's parenting style since he also has only two types but Lareau's "accomplishment of natural growth" is a little extreme since bases child development on spontaneity and parents only need to provide food and shelter. But Lareau's "Concerted Cultivation" is similar to Kohn's Self-direction because parents take note of their child's abilities and what they're interested in and they let the child explore themselves.

 As for Baumrind's three style of parenting styles (which i favor out of all three) it goes into more depth of the parenting style and it can be easily applied into certain family structures, while the other two theories are vague and broad enough for parents to adapt and add into other parenting styles of Baumrinds. There are three styles which include, authoritarian (absolute obedience), permissive (no control), and authoritative (most balanced) so i favor this parenting style over that of Kohn and Lareau since it is specific enough to see the different styles and how they can help in a positive or a negative way to a child's development and the family structure.

Parenting Styles

Kohn- Has two parenting styles, conformity and self-direction. Conformity parenting is that in which parents are in a constant regiment, always in some sort of routine and with strict supervision. Self-direction parenting is that in which the parent allows the child to be curious and develop at their own pace.

Baumrind- Has three parenting styles, authoritarian, permissive and authoritative. Authoritarian being over controlling and requiring some sort of punishment for an outcome of obedience. Permissive being that in which the children are able to express and and do as they please with little to no control. The last style is authoritative, which allows the child to be expressive but also has a level of control as well as rewards and minimum punishments.

Lareau- Has two parenting styles, concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. Concerted cultivation is the of letting the child display their interests and at the same time evaluates the child's development in abilities. Natural growth is the kind of parenting that provides a shelter and food for the child as well as an adequate environment but the growth development takes part on its own.

Personally I favor Baumrind's Authoritative parenting style. A child is new to everything in life and therefore need guidance/rules but they also need to be rewarded or reinforced. Also, this parenting style includes punishment, although minimal, which is necessary in the development of character; I believe. Over all it allows a parent to have control of their child and the child to have some control of his/her growth development.

Parenting styles

Kohn’s parenting styles deals with conformity and self-direction. The conformity style is when the parent lives a lifestyle with repetition. It has become a routine for the parent and children to do the same thing every day and live by a schedule. In this style the parent needs to be in control through strict supervision. The self direction style is based on discipline toward the children. The amount of motives and self-control does the parent give the children depend on how they develop. 

Baumrind’s parenting styles deals with parents being authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. When the parents are authoritarian they demand absolute obedience. The parent has to be in control of everything and usually has the final word. The parents can be permissive to the children by giving them absolute freedom. Rules are set but not allows followed and the parent doesn’t demand too much control. The last is authoritative, when the parent is heartening to the children. These parents are in control of their children through positive reinforcements and little punishments. 

Lareau’s parenting styles deals with concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. The concreted cultivation style is assessing the children’s interest and abilities in society. It helps the children build social skills and find activities that cause an interest. As for, accomplishment of natural growth, it deals with the basic needs of the child. The development of the children will occur impulsively if the needs are met.

I favor Lareau’s parenting style best because it has all the elements in order to help a children accommodate to the needs in society. The parenting style gives the children the ability and knowledge to gain interest in themselves and others around them. When the basic needs are met in a children’s life their growth will occur spontaneously.  It will soon help the children develop their way through life and cope with society. The two parenting style is simple and it’s a part of life development.

Parenting Styles

Kohn divides parenting styles into two different general categories: those who promote conformity and those who encourage self-direction.  According to Kohn, the parents who promote conformity tend to come from working-class occupations and thus possess "working-class values" such as routinization, punctuality, and group work skills.  The parents who encourage self-direction are usually (not always) of a higher class, where they themselves have been afforded time and space to be creative and so they encourage their own kids to be curious, reason, and develop their own sense of self-control.

Baumrind, on the other hand, saw three divisions of parenting. The authoritarian style is a form of absolute control in the form of obedience and is held in place with punishments.  The permissive style allows children freedom to express him- or herself.  Few rules are instituted, which can also lead to other issues with a lack of structure in place.  Authoritative parents have control over their kids, but try to minimize punishments and use positive reinforcement tools.  Like permissive parents, they encourage freedom.

Lareau, like Kohn, divided parenting into two styles.  The first is termed "concerted cultivation" is a style where parents consciously take steps to cultivate the interests and abilities of their children.  Whether this be through providing lessons or taking them certain places, action is taken in development.  On the other hand, "accomplishment of natural growth" style provides sustenance, but believes that development arises spontaneously and does not need to be cultivated.

Comparing the three styles, both Kohn and Lareau suggest binaries, where there are only two extreme options.  Baumrind provides three divisions, one of them (authoritative) being a medium between the two.  All three theorists have styles that reflect the values and beliefs of the parents.

Personally, I favor Lareau's parenting styles.  Though his model is simple, it recognizes that parents either care/take interest or do not care/do not take interest in the development of their children.  Whether a parent is strict or not seems like a criteria secondary to simply taking interest in a child.

Parenting Styles

Kohn
conformity - involves strict supervision
self direction - stresses development and motivation

Baumrind
authoritarian - demands obedience
permissive - little control and few rules. children given much freedom
authroitative - encourages freedom and relies on positive reinforcement. avoids punishment

Lareau
concerted cultivation - assess children's interests and abilities
accomplishment and natural growth - provides basic needs but but development is spontaneous

i believe Baumrind's ideas of parenting styles make the most sense. he provides a wide variety of styles which show how different parents are. from the neglectful to the strict, he provides good explanations to why children are different because they are raised differently.

Parenting Styles

Kohn, Baumrind and Lareau all have different ideas on parenting styles.

Kohn brings the two components (self-direction and conformity) to attention. Self-direction stresses the child’s motives and development of self-control, considerations, reasoning and initiative conformity whereas the conformity stresses strict supervision and is seen more with parents in working class occupations.

Baumrind brings two components to light as well, authoritarian and permissive. The authoritarian approach demands absolute obedience from the child and use punishments to correct the child’s bad behavior. Permissive is the polar opposite and stresses few rules and regulations. In comparison to Kohn’s idea of conformity, Baumrind’s Authoritarian approach is similar.

Lareau brings two more concepts to the parenting style table too; concerted cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. The concerted cultivation style states that parents foster and assess their children’s needs, interests and abilities. The Accomplishments of natural growth is more low key saying that parents provide the essentials for survival but do not push their child’s development.

Parenting Styles of Kohn, Baumrind and Lareau

Kohn Style:
This style notes that parents raise their children according to favored value traits that reflect the parents' work and lifestyle particular in their field of work. This style offers 2 aspects of parenting depending on the parents' social class status. Lower income parents tend to emphasize conformity because this traits is highly needed and is useful in working class jobs. An example given is an assembly line jobs which requires high levels of obedience and conformity not creation, ambition or curiosity. Higher income earning parents most likely stress self-direction in their children. This style teaches the children to have self control, consideration, reasoning, curiosity, and initiative conformity because the higher income family's are likely to hold jobs that entail or need these traits.

Lareau Style:
This style argues that children are raised, developed and taught differently depending on the parents' social economic background. This style proposes that children of middle and upper class families are raised by concerted cultivation. These parents takes into consideration their child's abilities and interests and caters to it. For example, the parents of concerted cultivation most likely will have their child's daily activities and plans organized and layed out. They will most likely enroll their kids in extra curricular activities outside of school such as a club sports team. The way these parents discipline their children is by communication rather than physical punishment. In contrary, Lower class parents are more likely to use the method of accomplishment of natural growth. This meant that their children engaged in far less or no organized activity at all compared to their counterparts. Children of natural growth are usually more independent. For example they would come home from school on their own, fix their own dinner and then decide what to do next. They are more likely to engaged with friends around their neighborhood that hold the same background characteristics. Lower income families lack the money and time  to enroll their kids in organized activities. They most likely would rely on physical punishment to discipline their children.

Baumrind Style:
This style offers three different styles in varies in magnitude and characteristics. The first is Permissive. This style of parenting may be very nurturing and responsive to their children. The parents of this style communicate well with their children but are quite lenient. They have very few demands and control on their children. The second style is Authoritarian. The parents here are strict punitive, less communicative, and offer less warm and support. These parents expect complete obedience with little room for compromise and error. They offer very little real communication and most likely will rely to physical punishment for discipline. The last style is Authoritative. This style states that parents are demanding and maintains high levels of control over their children, but they are also warm, receptive and understanding. These parents try to raise their children with compassion while also setting limits on their behavior. Children are expected to be well cultivated and behaved but parents are also caring, flexible, understanding, communicative and responsive.

*** I highly favor Baumrind's Authoritative style of parenting. The reason being is that this style is well balanced in areas of strictness, discipline and fairness. This style offers guidelines, rules and expectations that are subject to the child's conformity but also offers understanding and  room for error from the child.

Parenting Styles

Kohl's parenting style consist of two styles. These two styles indicates that parents value traits in their children that reflects the parent's world. Lower income families emphasize conformity, are likely to raise their children to stay out of trouble, and provide them with traits to help them survive in the working class society. In contrast, higher income parents are likely to have careers that requires them to be sociable and independent. This involves self-direction and these parents prepare their children with these skills to help them in life.

Lareau's parenting styles indicates that social class strongly differs in the ways parents interact with their children. Concerted cultivation shows that middle class parents has a greater presence in their children's lives such as scheduling, participating in sports, and various extracurricular activities that will transmit important life skills. In contrast, parents in the working class engage their children in the accomplishment of natural growth. These parents have less time to spend with their children and do not have the money to hire professional help. This also causes the parents to have less time to get involved with their child schooling and activities.

Baumrind has three styles of parenting. Authoritarian parents demonstrate high parental control and low parental warmth. Permissive parents demonstrate high parental warmth and low parental control. Authoritative parents demonstrate appropriate levels of both parental control and warmth.

Kohn's self-direction styles is similar to Baumrind's Authoritative parent style and Lareau's concerted cultivation style. These theories share similarities with parents having high interest in their children characteristic skills needed in life.

Out of the three theories, I found Baumrind's Authortative parenting styles the best. These parents set their children standards, but also allow their child to have choices. Overall, these parents recognize the good things that their child does.

Parenting Styles

Parenting Styles:

-Kohn: Stressed parenting styles as either conformity or self direction, conformity being a sort of set way the child acts and lives and self direction is a more free way letting the child express curiosity.

-Baumrind: Three different types of parenting. Authoritative meaning very strict rules, a lot of punishment, and no compromise, permissive meaning no rules, too little control for conflicts, and authoritative being a medium between those two; compromise and punishment used in moderation, encourage child's freedom though as well, most control. Parenting styles relate to cohesion and organization.

-Lareau: Stressed two different styles. Concerted cultivation concentrated on children's interests.  Accomplishment of natural growth meaning there is the necessities such as food and shelter but development happens randomly.

Kohn and Baumrind have similar thoughts in their styles because one style is more "strict" than another.

Lareau and Kohn are similar in that the accomplishment of natural growth and conformity are both rather structured parenting styles while the other two in each category (self direction and concerted cultivation) are more "free"

They are all different in that Kohn seems to be portraying expression, Baumrind is focused on conflict/cohesion, and Lareau is very basic (needs and interests).

I would have to say that I choose Baumrind as being my favorite parenting style.  I think it is the most descriptive and applicable style and really touches upon all points of parenting.  Although not specifically stated, the authoritative style can encompass things such as the child's curiosity or interests, which seem to only be the main focus of other styles.  I think it is helpful in understanding how children develop and I even applied it to my own life and found it applicable as well, which is another reason I believe it's best; there are many different situations and families who can relate to them.  

Parenting Styles

                          

                      Parenting Styles

                    
                              
Kohn: This theory is more split on emphasizing the individual or society. 
       Conformity:  conforming to the ways of society, the rules that are set up for everyone to follow in their respective roles.  A working class model with emphasis on occupations that are routine with strong supervision.  It's more of a group work thing where all the parts of the machine have to run well, so each person must do their part correctly.
       Self-direction:  this part focuses more on the child/individual.  It looks at a child's motives and desires.  A big goal is development of the mind in waya of curiosity, reasoning, considering different possiblities and self control.

Baumrind: This theorist has 3 styles of parenting, having to do with organization, cohesion, involvment and intelect.
      Authoritarian: very strict parent, child has to follow rules, no going around it. Punishment often used to control.
      Permissive:  this parent lets the child do whatever they want, they do not set rules or boundries for the child.  They do allow for them to express themselves, but the lack of concern for rules often leads to problems.
      Uninvolved: this parent just doesn't do anything.  They don't set up rules, they don't invest time in the child, and they don't provide necessary support
     Authoritative: this parent encourages the child to explore and express themselves.  At the same time they setup rules and responsabilites for the child.  They focus on autonomy and using positive reinforcement. 

Lareau: This theorist breakes up parenting into two categories
       Concerted cultivation: in which parents provide for the child, while also providing them with support, and showing support aswell as helping to grow their abilities.
       Accomplishment of natural growth: this is when parents mainly focus on the necesities, making sure the child is fed, clothed, and sheltered.  This part assumes that development will happen spontaneously.

Of the three theorist's, I like Baumrind's the best.  It seems that elements of Kohn and Lareau's theories are included in Baumrind's.  I feel though, that a parent can be more then one of these styles, and that it greatly depends on the situation.  A parent can be generally one main style, but fluctuate in and out of other styles depending on what is going on with them, the child or the family situation.  Also, parents can change parenting styles over time, depending on if they got divorced, or had more children, etc.   I think this is why kids always say that the first born always has it the hardest, I think it may be because new parents start out a little mre authoritarian, and become more authoritative as they parent and learn more. 

Parenting Styles

Kohn: parents prepare their children for society based on their core values. Lower income families raise their children to conform and obey because these traits will be useful in working class jobs, which is the conformity style. In contrast, higher income families raise children to be creative and independent, which is the self-direction style. Children are prepared for the world of work because of parent value traits.

Lareau: parents from different social classes interact with their children in opposite ways. Middle class parents expose their children to organized activities. They discipline them by talking to their children. This is concerted cultivation because middle class parents try to control their children's routines, yet attempting to instill self-direction. In contrast, working class parents raise children that are less apart of organized activities and more likely to spend their free time with their family and friends. They have a lot of authority and discipline their children with physical punishment. This is accomplishment of natural growth because children are provided food and shelter, but their leisure time is unstructured and spontaneous.

Baumrind: There are three styles of parenting. In authoritative parenting, parents are demanding and have control over their children, but are also warm and receptive to their children. In authoritarian parenting, parents are very strict and less warm, thus the children are fearful and withdrawn. In permissive parenting, parents exercise a lot less control on their children, hence children are aggressive and out of control.

Authoritarian style of parenting is similar to Kohn's style of conformity and Lareau's concerted cultivation. Authoritative style of parenting is similar to Kohn's self direction and Lareau's accomplishment of natural growth. I like Baumrind's authoritative style of parenting the best because these parents set limits and boundaries with their children, yet they listen and respond with love towards their children.