Parenting Styles
The home is the first and major agent of socialization for every child. It plays a great role in moulding and grooming the child. Oftentimes, the outcome of a child’s personality is traced to his/her home.
Although a child is affected by peers, the school and the society, the home has a greater influence on him/her.
Therefore, parenting style has a huge impact on the child in various aspects. Parents’ parenting style is often evident in a child’s moral and psychological training, familiarization with rules and norms of the society, development of children’s talents, and academic performance i.e study habits.
While some parents may want their children to follow their instructions to the latter, others may want to be more liberal. Some parents often have strong views on ethics while others might have a lighter take on these matters.
These differences in parenting action usually affect the child’s development including his/her study habits.
Ready to learn about the effects of parenting style on children’s study habits? Continue reading this review.
Parenting Styles; Effects on Children’s Study Habits
Authoritative Parenting Style
The authoritative parents tend to display high control, responsiveness and warmth to their children. They often set clear expectations, and have strict rules guiding their homes.
These parents are highly disciplined and raise their kids in the same manner. The authoritative parents are born teachers.
They do not only set rules but also explain the reason for every disciplinary action. Children who have authoritative parents usually have high self-esteem and self-control.
The authoritative parenting style has more positive effects on the child’s study habits. It contains all the factors necessary for positive parenting including warmth, affection, dialogue, monitoring, control, shelter, love, etc.
These factors form a solid foundation for building a good academic structure for a child. They are a strong levelled ground for promoting better study habits in children.
Children who have authoritative parents often earn good grades. These parents permit their children to express their views.
This helps to build up their question-asking capability. Such children are often bold to ask questions in class, make contributions and compete with other children.
This develops their study culture, thereby boosting their academic performance.
Authoritarian Parenting Style
The authoritarian parents combine high levels of control with low levels of warmth and care. These parents have strong command over their children.
Children who have authoritarian parents are hardly allowed to air their views or opinions. The communication pattern in such homes is one-way.
Parents give instructions and the child has no choice but to obey. The authoritarian parents are strict disciplinarians.
They enforce corrections using emotional and physical punishment. These parents have high expectations from their children.
They show little or no involvement, support or emotional commitment to their child. This parenting style instills fear in children.
Such children are often scared to express themselves in a class setting. They often have low self-esteem.
They would hardly compete with other children in school. These children view themselves as ‘never-do-wells’.
They are never willing to attempt to learn because they believe they will fail. Children from authoritarian parents usually have a failure mentality.
They do not believe in themselves. This failure mindset emanates from excess punishment and corrections given to children by authoritarian parents.
This parenting style harms a child’s study habits.
See Also Importance of Varying Parenting Styles in Child Grooming
Uninvolved Parenting Style
Sometimes referred to as Neglectful Parenting, the Uninvolved Parents indeed neglect their parental role. These parents provide little or no supervision to their children.
They rarely communicate with them. The uninvolved parents are emotionally distant from their kids. They show little care, warmth and love towards them.
These parents hardly attend their children’s school events or parent-teacher conferences. Children who have such parents often misbehave because they come from homes where boundaries are not set.
These children perform poorly in almost every area including their studies. Since they have parents who care less about their academics, they tend to be unserious with their studies.
While some of these children perform poorly in school, others drop out of school.
Permissive Parenting Style
Parents who exhibit a permissive style of parenting have little or no control over their children. They display great warmth and affection towards them.
The permissive parents are non-demanding. They have little expectations from their children in terms of responsibility, academics or maturity.
There is a close level of relationship between the permissive parents and their kids. There is often high parental support from the permissive parents toward their children.
See Also Effects of Mental Health on your Child’s Learning
These parents have no set rules guiding their home. Children from such parents exercise the freedom to do their will, whether right or wrong without any form of restriction, rebuke or correction.
This kind of Parenting Style often produces children who are badly behaved. Such children do not attach value to education.
They are often unserious as regards their studies. This is due to laxity on the part of these parents.
Children who have permissive parents usually perform poorly in academics.
Since such children come from homes where there are no laid down rules, they would hardly adhere to instructions from teachers. They rarely perform assignments, do class work or read their books.
As such, they develop negative study habits.
Conclusion
Children’s academic future depends on many factors including parenting style. If a child would have a sound education, a solid foundation needs to be laid.
The family is the first educational structure for the child, and the parents are the first teachers. Therefore, the best parenting style needs to be in place so that the child would develop the right study habits.