What are the four styles of parenting balance according to Baumrind for successful kids?

It is indisputable that one of the toughest jobs out there is parenting. We all want to raise successful, joyful, and intelligent kids, but with the multitude of opinions circulating on social media about how parenting should be done, we often find ourselves questioning the best ways to raise children.

To find the right balance of Baumrind’s parenting styles, we have to look at the research. Diana Baumrind, a psychologist in the 1960s, developed a parenting framework to make parenting and children’s interactions easier. Understanding Baumrind parenting balance is crucial. Based on her research, finding the right parenting style is crucial for child development.

Through her work, she identified four parenting styles, and we can see how the balance of warmth and boundaries shapes the outcomes for our children. Understanding these parenting dimensions is crucial in attaining an authoritative parenting home.

What are the four styles of parenting balance according to Baumrind for raising successful kids?

Baumrind’s research uprooted four distinctive styles of parenting balance, which are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful. She addresses two critical parenting dimensions which she identified as demandingness (boundaries) and responsiveness (warmth). The most effective parenting style is identified as the authoritative style because of its uniqueness in balancing support and clear expectations.

Baumrind’s parenting style balance for raising successful kids

Finding the best Baumrind parenting style balance for raising emotionally strong kids is crucial for every family. Raising successful kids is all based on the approach a parent chooses to raise their children. Baumrind identified the authoritative parenting style as the best way to raise successful kids. Below is Baumrind’s parenting style balance.

Authoritarian Parenting

This parenting dimension exhibits high demandingness with strict discipline, but it lacks essential balance in emotional responsiveness. Parents who utilise this parenting dimension expect and demand obedience, respect, and discipline. They are in charge of everything; hence, they don’t provide any explanations for their actions. This parenting style employs strict rules with little flexibility, leading to difficulties for children raised in such families when expressing their feelings, as they believe their ideas are not respected. Therefore, an authoritarian parenting style produces children who are disciplined and compliant with rules, but these children often have low self-esteem.

Authoritative Parenting

The authoritative parenting style balances warmth and clear boundaries. This parenting style encourages open communication and independency for children while setting high, clear expectations. One of the hallmarks of the authoritative parenting style is that it uses reasoning to guide children’s behaviour rather than coercion, which is largely based on using fear to guide behaviour. Research based on children’s development shows that this parenting style contributes to high academic improvement, and it fosters positive self-esteem, which is crucial in raising successful kids.

Authoritative parenting is also similar to gentle parenting, and many people question whether gentle parenting actually works, and this balance of responsiveness and demandingness makes it actually work. Read more on gentle parenting here.

Neglectful Parenting

Baumrind also identified another parenting style as neglectful. The neglectful parenting style, also known as uninvolved, exhibits a lack of responsiveness/warmth and demandingness. Parents do not offer any parenting responsibility to their kids. Thus, parents who employ this type of framework are more concerned with satisfying their personal needs over their children’s. They only provide physical needs for their children, such as food, clothes, and shelter; they don’t prioritise or offer emotional support for them. Children raised under this parenting dimension often exhibit low self-esteem, reduced competence, and a lack of self-control due to the absence of a nurturing environment and guidance, which negatively impacts their social and emotional development.

Permissive Parenting

The permissive parenting style, also known as the indulgent style, according to Baumrind’s parenting style balance, exhibits high responsiveness and low warmth. This parenting style raises children in a nurturing environment, but it lacks control over boundaries; thus, children can do whatever they like without following any rules or being disciplined by their parents. Thus, parents who adopt this parenting style tend to be lenient towards their children. Children raised under this parenting style often struggle with discipline and frequently find themselves in trouble with the law.

Read more on how each parenting style impacts child development

Watch this video based on Baumrind’s parenting styles