Literature Review

Everyone has an opinion on which way is the best when it comes to raising a child. Popular concepts emerging today in the media are gender neutral parenting or free-range parenting. Different parenting styles can have a major impact on how a child is raised and their view of the world. Psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study and discovered the four different parenting styles are authoritarian parenting, authoritative parenting, permissive parenting, and uninvolved parenting CITATION Bau66 l 1033 (Baumrind, 1966). Within the authoritarian parenting style, the child is expected to follow strict rules created by the parents. If the child is noncompliant, the results could be firm punishments. Example, the “because I said so” or “no nonsense” type of parent. The authoritative parenting style is like authoritarian parenting style; rules are created, and the child is expected to follow them, but the difference is that it with this style, the line of communication is open to the child.

The permissive parenting style requires very little from the child. Permissive parents can be seen taking on the role of a friend to their child. An uninvolved parenting style has very low requirements. The parent is detached from the child’s needs and regret all things to do with the child. Each parenting style can also lead to different attachment styles which can follow the child into adulthood this is an important topic because doing the research could show that the specific parenting styles and negative and positive effects on children also effects carry over into adult behavior. The parenting styles do tend to differ when you look at different races and social classes. The small but important text that does exist on middle-class black families suggests that the experience of being black and middle class is different than that of the black working-class and poor. Middle class black families face a problem whereas the disadvantages of being black and the advantages of being middle class are combined shaping a complex multidimensional middle class black identity. My hypothesis is that the parenting styles will differ once you go higher in the socioeconomic classes. If the African American families in a lower income area, their parenting style will mostly resemble authoritarian parenting style.

Research questions:

Do African American parenting styles vary by social class?

Is there evidence to suggest that African American and white parenting styles differ?

Are African American families or communities characterized by one of the four parenting styles?

Source 1.

Studies that find African American parenting practices to be more authoritarian and parent- focused than those used by middle-class whites are now interpreted from a cultural and contextual perspective The sample included 156 6- to 9-year-old African American children living in single-mother-headed households in rural areas, 82% of whom lived in poverty. The distal variables of maternal education, maternal religiosity, and adequacy of financial resources were linked with the proximal variables of “no nonsense” parenting, mother-child relationship quality, and maternal involvement in the child’s school activities. The proximal variables were, in turn, indirectly linked with children’s cognitive competence, social competence, and internalizing problems through their association with the children’s development of self-regulation.

CITATION Gen98 l 1033 (Brody & Flor, 1998)Source 2

how different styles of parenting may indirectly influence the addiction susceptibility of children through the mediators of attachment style and self-regulation. They ended up using a random cluster of adolescent high school student. The students were between 14-19. The results showed that authoritative and permissive parenting styles were associated with secure attachment whereas authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles were associated with insecure attachment. The findings of present study suggest the authoritative and permissive parenting styles as the most efficient styles and authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles as the most inefficient styles in terms of addiction susceptibility (Khouzestan Science and Research Branch)

Source 3

The differences between parenting types on the criterion measures were not as large as reported in Baumrind’s study, and significant effects were predominantly due to the poor scores from children with Unengaged and Authoritarian-Directive parents. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the Authoritative parenting type, the utility of using a typology, and areas for future research. CITATION Lau96 l 1033 (Weiss & Schwarz, 1996)Source 4

In this article a study was conducted where adolescents were, on average, 13.14 years of age at Time 1 and 15.05 years of age at Time 2. Nearly all adolescents and parents affirmed parents’ legitimate authority to regulate (and children’s obligation to comply with) rules regarding moral, conventional, prudential, friendship, and multifaceted issues, but they were more equivocal in their judgments regarding personal issues. With age, adolescents increasingly judged personal issues to be beyond the bounds of legitimate parental authority, but judgments differed by family income. Adolescents from upper income families rejected parents’ legitimate authority to regulate personal issues more at Time 1 than did adolescents from middle income families, but no differences were found at Time 2. With adolescents’ increasing age, African American families became less restrictive in regulating prudential, friendship, multifaceted, and personal issues. CITATION Sme00 l 1033 (Smetana, 2000)Source 5

Authoritative parenting practices have been found to be more effective in supporting middle-class European American youth. In contrast, more “no nonsense” and directive parenting practices have been shown to be more effective than authoritative or democratic parenting practices for supporting a wide range of positive youth outcomes in ethnic minority families. This study examined the paths of parental involvement across middle and high school, and how these trajectories related to adolescents’ academic, behavioral, and emotional adjustment. In addition, ethnic and socioeconomic status differences in longitudinal associations and the potential moderating role of parental warmth were assessed. 

CITATION Wan14 l 1033 (Wang, Hill, & Hofkens, 2014)Source 6

In this article, the highlight was how middle-class black parents used extracurriculars as a crutch to the nurturing and supporting of their children. Race does differentiate priorities, actions, and values. Many families in this study sought out high status cultural activities for their children such as music lessons or public speaking and pressed children to excel in their activities. When the children had free time outside of their schooling, it was filled with individual tutors and additional classes. CITATION Vin13 l 1033 (Vincent, Rollock, Ball, & Gillborn, 2013)Source 7

Disciplinary style is especially important to address. Some African American mothers have been described as expecting unyielding obedience to parental authority with little concern for the child’s input. This pattern has been contrasted with more responsive and child-oriented approach usually associated with white middle class mothers. From the traditional race- comparative perspective, the parent-oriented approach of African American mothers has been regarded as problematic for child development. The characterization of African American mothers as parent oriented has been based on examinations of lower-income mothers. A study showed that upper-middle class African American mothers gave more orientation to the tsk, were more likely to reinforce correct response. Some similarities were discovered which was that both lower and middle-class minority mothers emphasized on obedience; however middle- income mothers more likely to promote obedience through internal controls, whereas lower income mothers employed more power assertive techniques.

CITATION Kel93 l 1033 (Kelley, Sanchez-Hucles, & Walker, 1993)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Brody, G. H., & Flor, D. L. (1998). Maternal Resources, Parenting Practices, and Child Competence in Rural, Single-Parent African American Families. 14.

Carolan, B. V., & Wasserman, S. J. (2015). Does Parenting Style Matter? Concerted Cultivation, Educational Expectations, and the Transmission of Educational Advantage. Sage Publications, Inc., 19.

Kelley, M. L., Sanchez-Hucles, J., & Walker, R. R. (1993). Correlates of Disciplinary Practices in Working- to Middle-Class African-American Mothers. Wayne State University Press, 252-264.

Khouzestan Science and Research Branch. (2011, September 11). The mediational pathway among parenting styles, attachment styles and self-regulation with addiction susceptibility of adolescents.

Smetana, J. G. (2000). Middle-Class African American Adolescents’ and Parents’ Conceptions of Parental Authority and Parenting Practices: A Longitudinal Investigation. Wiley, 1672-1686.

Vincent, C., Rollock, N., Ball, S., & Gillborn, D. (2013). Raising Middle-class Black Children: Parenting Priorities, Actions and Strategies. Sage Publications, Inc., 427-442.

Wang, M.-T., Hill, N. E., & Hofkens, T. (2014). Parental Involvement and African American and European American Adolescents’ Academic, Behavioral, and Emotional Development in Secondary School. Wiley, 2151-2168.

Weiss, L. H., & Schwarz, J. C. (1996). The Relationship between Parenting Types and Older Adolescents’ Personality, Academic Achievement, Adjustment, and Substance Use. Child Development, 14.