Research: Parenting styles result in different outcomes for kids

Recent US research published in the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage has summarised the effects of differing parenting styles on outcomes for children:

• • Across all parenting styles, children of authoritative parents have the best emotional adjustment. They have lower amounts of aggression and depression and higher self-esteem.

• • Children who had at least one authoritative parent, did significantly better than children with any other parenting style combinations except when both parents were authoritative.

• • Children of absent/disengaged parents had significantly more depression and aggression and lower self-esteem than all the other groups.

• • Children with permissive parents rated themselves as more depressed than those children who had at least one authoritative parent.

• • Children whose parents were both absent exhibited the highest levels of aggression.
    Only 17% of the children rated both of their parents as being authoritative. However, 40% rated their mothers as authoritative and their fathers as permissive.

• In cases of divorce, the parent with whom the child lived with the most was more likely to be authoritative.

A summary of the research can be found here.