Four Characteristics Of Authoritative Parenting: The Style Of Parenting Children

As a child grows up, they look to their parents for guidance and support. A parent makes it his or her goal to understand how their child thinks, and they are constantly focused on how they should instruct their baby to be an adult. Notably, there are four main styles of parenting: authoritative, authoritarian, neglectful, and permissive. Of these four categories, the authoritative style of parenting is the most efficient and beneficial to both parents and children. Authors Bianca Mgbemere and Rachel Telles have stated that authoritative parenting creates the healthiest potential environment throughout a child’s life, and allows them to cultivate skills such as self-sufficiency and time management. However, authoritative parenting is not the only favored parenting style, and many regards permissive as the best parental guideline when rearing children. The authoritative style of parenting is constructive to a child’s development and allows them to have a healthy environment while enabling the progression of self-efficiency and structure, but many consider the merits of authoritative parenting to be debatable. A strong communicative relationship between a child and a parent is necessary. According to the psychology department at Vanderbilt University, inductive, or authoritative parenting, surpasses the best “open communication style with [a] child.” Mgbemere and Telles state that “the ability to speak to [your] child without judgment and [rebuke]” is essential in any