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Diana Baumrind defined three main parenting styles. The three she distinguished are 1) Authoritative 2) Authoritarian 3) Permissive. Nearly twenty years later, Maccoby and Martin added a fourth parenting style: Neglectful. There is a correlation between demand and responsiveness and for each parenting style the ratio of the two is different.
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Authoritative
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This kind of parenting is usually referred to as the golden standard for parenting. Why is this so? An authoritative parenting style has high demands for the child and also has high response to the child's needs. Parents who practice an authoritative parenting style use verbal reasoning with their children. In addition, the parent respects their child as an individual. Authoritative parents set high standards for their children and encourage them to meet the goals that were set. When a child does wrong the parent will see that the child is a person and will evaluate the wrong done, address the issue and talk about it with the child; they make sure they understand what was wrong and why it was wrong. This kind of parenting encourages the child to ask questions. Children that result from this kind of parenting have excellent verbal skills, have self-confidence, do well in school and express opinions.
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AuthoritarianParents who practice this type of parenting style set high standards for the child but have low responses to the child's needs. Parents tend to like obedience and use expressive language. This kind of parenting is very "parent' centered. For example, a parent who practices this kind of parenting style might say something like, "Don't talk to me in that tone of voice". Punishment such as spanking is also used in these types of parenting styles. Children who are a result of this kind of parenting know that the parents mean well. They respect authority, they do well in a social environment and follow rules well. However, they do have trouble thinking for themselves.
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Permissive
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The parent of a permissive parenting style is more of a friend to the child than a parent. They don't demand much of the child but they respond to the child's every need. Since there are no real restrictions, the child does whatever he or she feels like. A child that comes from a permissive parenting household has a high sense of self-confidence but they don't really know how to follow rules. When they break rules, they don't really understand why they are in trouble. Children from this type of parenting are most likely to participate in substance abuse. Children also don't do well in a school environment due to the lack of structure in the child's life.
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NeglectfulA parent that practices this type of parenting style demand almost nothing of the child and responds to almost none of their needs. Since the child is not getting what they need at home, they act out at school or other places. They also have a thirst for control so they will try to control anything and everything and try to gain power at other individual's expenses.
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