Influences and Development of Childhood

Influences and Development of Childhood and Adolescence
Robert Rintz
PSY/280
December 14th, 2014
Professor Johnson

With childhood development, there are many variables that contribute in molding a child into their adolescent stage in life. There are many possibilities from different parenting styles, which result in positive and negative impacts future personality of a child during middle childhood to adolescence. The outcome of a child’s personality into adolescence will depend if the parenting style is permissive, authoritative, or authoritarian. Family dynamics along with other peer relationships will contribute to how a human faces problems with trust and also how he or she will develop moral values. (Kopko, 2007), A permissive parenting style can be summarized by having a increased level of nurturance with decreased levels of maturity demands from children. Permissiveness can result in a difficulty with demands from the child, lack of control to the child and from the child, and also a lack of communication from the parent to child and vice versa. Overall the main problem that comes from a child that was grown into adolescence with a permissive parenting style in independence. Permissive parenting styles make children very independent of their parents with anything that becomes problematic. With unproblematic issues, the child will make their own decisions with little input from the parent at an age that he or she is not ready to do so. The permissive parenting style can be comforting with accepting and understanding parents, but most likely the parent is uninvolved. With a lack of involvement during middle childhood, a child will often require bribery for good behavior. The child will not take rules seriously, which can result in complications with social skills, insecurity, and a lack of self-discipline. A permissive parenting style sometimes can be view from other families as a functional family, but there are many dangerous consequences from this style. There have been studies that have permissive parenting styles linked to underage alcohol use. Not only the child uses at an early age, but the child usually uses with no moderation because of the lack of boundaries or guidance. In addition, the study also shows a link to drug use and other forms of misbehavior. Children whom grow up with a permissive parenting style do not develop a strong sense of self-discipline once they reach adolescence. Usually, the child will not be very involved or motivated with school work and will become less motivated by their peers. With an idea of what certain skills and lessons children learn from self-discipline and corrective criticism, an idea can be pictured of what that child will lack in the future. Because middle childhood is so important in molding a child into a functional adolescence, if there is a lack of contribution from the parent the child will become a dysfunctional adolescence. At adolescence a human can be very hard to change due to stubbornness and their beliefs from childhood. Children from a Permissive parenting background do not have a functional dependence and do not develop strong moral values. According to a psychology expert (Cherry, 2014), Authoritative parenting is one of the three parenting styles developed from Diana Baumrind. This parenting style is often referred to as a “democratic” style and involves high expectations from the child by the parent. Unlike a permissive parenting style, a parent using a authoritative style is more involved. The authoritative parent will often listen to their child and encourage independence. The results from the child’s decisions can be followed with consequences along with future expectations. Alike a permissive parenting style, an authoritative parent will express warmth nurturance, which is used in moderation according to age. According to Baumrind, children raised by a authoritative style usually become more capable, happy, and successful. This can mirror what that child will be like at adolescence. With happier dispositions, proper emotional control, good social skills, and self-confidence, a child will move into adolescence at an earlier age. Overall, authoritative parenting will come from a functional family. With strong self-discipline in a child, the child will make strong decisions and will be less affected by peers and other influences of their environment. Life influences during middle childhood are easily experienced and evaluated by a child from an authoritative background. With many influential experiences in middle childhood, a child will develop into an adolescent with strong moral values. In contrast to both authoritative and permissive parenting styles (Kopko, 2007), the authoritarian parenting style can be defined as a display of little warmth and very high control. Authoritarian parents are strict disciplinarians, which use strict consequences to force the child or adolescent in following directions. There are few discussions with their child regarding rules and standards are never debated. During middle childhood, the child will be very evasive of dependence, which can result in depression. Authoritarian parents definitely follow under a dysfunctional family. A adolescent from a authoritarian background will eventually become rebellious during their teens. Often rebelliousness can result in extreme complications during adolescence from the child to the parent. Authoritarian parents can be viewed as self-centered. Once the human moves from middle childhood into adolescence, the adolescent can become a lot alike their authoritarian parent making he or she self-centered as well. A child may be very evasive of peer pressure because of the strict consequences that will follow, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Experiences during middle childhood are important regardless how influential they may be. All influences in middle childhood contribute to the development of moral values. There is just such a difficulty in experiencing such life influences when coming from an authoritarian parenting style compared to a permissive or authoritative parenting style. In conclusion, the three different parenting styles have few similarities and very different results as a child moves from middle childhood into adolescence. Permissive parenting is comforting but does not display a structure that will help an adolescent with becoming more independent. Authoritarian parenting styles can be seen as totally opposite from a permissive parenting style but also make complications with an adolescent becoming independent. In addition, the permissive and authoritarian parenting styles are dysfunctional compared to the authoritative parenting style. Authoritative parenting styles can have a better opportunity to encourage a adolescent to be dependent with all the necessary comforts of a parent. Overall, parents can have the best outcome of a adolescent if they find a good mixture of each parenting style that will end in creating a adolescent with strong moral values.

References
Cherry, K. (2014). What Is Authoritative Parenting?. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/childcare/f/authoritative-parenting.htm
Kimberly, K. (2007). Parenting Styles and Adolescents. Retrieved from http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam/outreach/parenting/research/upload/Parenting-20Styles-20and-20Adolescents.pdf