The Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Child Behaviour
Background
Adequate early childhood care is of immense importance as it acts as the foundation for the further growth of the child in his adolescence as well as adulthood. Although it is hoped that every child has a normal growth, but there are cases when children also have certain behavioural problems due to reasons like ineffective parenting, parenting stress, excessive screen exposure, etc. These problems if not addressed properly at the right time puts a significant risk to the child’s social and emotional development (Kirby, 2019).
Challenging behaviors like aggression, anxiety, social isolation, etc. are a huge roadblock in a child’s social and mental development. Through the means of already available studies, this research’s purpose is to analyse the possible reasons for such behavioural challenges among children and thereafter come up with the possible solutions that parents and caregivers can adopt to prevent and cope up with such behavior.
This research report will involve a thorough discussion on four major topics i.e., parenting styles and parent-child relationship, environment & communities, parenting stress & well-being and screen time. All these factors are closely associated with the behaviour and overall development of the child. The scope of this research is limited as it has used secondary method of collecting data, and hence might have certain variations with the current ground situation.
This research has used some secondary sources like books, peer reviewed journal articles, etc. Although this certainly comes up with some limitations, but since these works are relevant to this research and also have been authored by prominent researchers, hence they are very much reliable as well as credible. Some of these sources are, “The Relationship Between Parenting Styles, Parental Reading Involvement, Child Behavior Outcomes, Child Classroom Competence, and Early Childhood Literacy” by Kristal Lea Sommer (2007, “New Directions and Challenges in Preventing Conduct Problems in Early Childhood” by Daniel S. Shaw and Lindsay E. Taraban
The health and mental experts do not have any standard universally accepted definition of “challenging behaviour”. In simple terms challenging behaviour is a term that encompasses several behaviours that are often considered disruptive for the child in the process of learning and his growth. This challenging behaviour can be due to experiences of physical, emotional or sexual abuse or negligence in parenting. These are generally termed as Disruptive Behaviour Disorders (DBD), this further consists three disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) (Sönmez & Kayaalp, 2018). Depending upon the study, criteria and methodology used for the estimation of mental health disorder it was found that serious emotional and behavioural difficulties were prevalent in about 5% to 26% of the children (Grazuleviciene, Andrusaityte, Petraviciene, & Balseviciene, 2017). There are numerous inter-related causes that have influence on the child’s social and emotional well-being, thereby affecting his/her behaviour (Grazuleviciene, Andrusaityte, Petraviciene, & Balseviciene, 2017).
Parenting style plays a very crucial role in the growth and development of a child, because the way parents interact with their child has a great influence on the child’s development for rest of his life. Initially Schafer in 1965 made the attempted to organise parenting behaviors, further Baumrind in 1968 and then in 1971 organised different parenting behaviors and conceptualised seven categories, that is authoritative, directive, authoritarian, permissive, democratic, good enough and disengaged (Brosnan, Kolubinski, & Spada, 2020). Directive and authoritarian parenting mainly comes under the category of directorial parenting, here parents are generally very high demanding but they are moderately responsive. Democratic and permissive parenting falls under the category of lenient parenting, these parents support high level of autonomy, are generally moderately demanding and highly responsive. Good enough parents are the ones that support autonomy and are responsive as well as demanding. Disengaged parents are very less demanding as well as least committed (Breiner, Ford, & Gadsden, 2016).
The Influence of Environment and Communities on Child Behaviour
Determining the influence of parenting practices on child behaviour is a very complex activity, because in general there are an enormous number of varying parenting behaviours as well as child behaviours. Some researchers acknowledge that parenting does have a great impact on children’s outcomes, while others do not see any significant impact of parent’s behavior on children’s outcomes, the later finding was mainly related the families living in poverty (Thompson & Robinson, 2019). Studies suggest that the three main parenting styles, authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting does not have a direct link with the classroom competence, but the bhavioral problems that are associated with these styles are directly linked to the children’s outcomes. It has also been found that authoritarian and permissive parenting styles tends to bring ineffective discipline amongst the children (Zeltser, 2021). According to one study involving 177 boys, it was found that a reciprocal relationship exists between parenting behaviours (involvement, communication, timid discipline, harsh punishment, and supervision) and child disruptive disorders (ADHD, ODD and CD). Hence, it can be effectively said the parent child relationship is an inter-dependent one. As improper parenting has detrimental effect on child behaviour, annoying chid behaviour too puts an unnecessary pressure on parents and they stop engaging with their child in proper discipline (Burke, Pardini, & Loeber, 2008).
A Parent-Child Relationship is of immense importance, it ensures healthy development of a child not just during the early childhood but in the later phase of life as well. This relationship also acts as the foundation of the child’s character, his decisions as well as his overall behaviour. A healthy parent-child relationship generally involves warm and loving interactions, involvement of both the parents for their respective responsibilities towards child. Although there are certain boundaries as well as consequences but parents do listen to their child’s opinion and empathise with him (Grazuleviciene, Andrusaityte, Petraviciene, & Balseviciene, 2017).
Studies suggests that the children who grow in a secure and healthy relationship with their parents generally have a better chance to develop good relations with others as well. Also, it was found that the father’s and mother’s roles are complementary towards each other, both the parents contribute in their own unique manner which can be considered over and above the contribution of the other parent. On the other hand, improper parent-child relationship generally results into challenging behaviour in the child as well as coercion from the parent’s side. It is generally caused due to wide-varying reasons, for example family conflicts, marital conflicts, extremely tight parental control, overprotection, etc. To effectively manage a parent-child relationship it is necessary to take an approach that is family focused, parental education, family counselling and therapy can also prove to be of great help (Grazuleviciene, Andrusaityte, Petraviciene, & Balseviciene, 2017).
The environment and communities play a critical role in a child’s well-being. Ensuring a healthy, safe, and conductive environment at home and in the community is of utmost importance as it helps in ensuring a heathy development trajectory of a child. A person’s social environment and the social relationships he makes within that environment have a lasting impact on the quality of parenting he can offer to his child. This in turn affects the child’s mental development, his behaviour, and his future achievements. Studies suggests that an environment that is inclusive in nature, generally supports the parents and hence they enhance capacity of parents to care for their children and thereby it helps in healthy child development (Goldfeld, et al., 2015).
Parenting Stress and Parental Well-being
Social environment encompasses three components, that is a person’s physical surroundings, social relationships, and community resources. Physical Surrounding here typically include housing, health care, education facilities, employment, and recreational facilities. The quality of these physical surroundings can have great impact on the parenting quality, which affects the children behaviour, this in turn affects the physical and mental well-being of the children. Social relationships refer to the various relations that individuals or groups develop consciously or unconsciously in the society to achieve their goals. These relationships based upon their expectations, obligations trust and norms help an individual to develop “social capital”. These social relationships are jointly called as social network, which helps in enforcing a healthy social environment. Community resources generally refers to factors like community structures and organisations, support, and knowledge in the community. The availability of these resources in the community greatly affects the physical and mental well-being of the individuals living in it. A community that is underdeveloped or is socio-economically deprived, generally have a detrimental effect on the child development (Breiner, Ford, & Gadsden, 2016).
Existence of more unfavourable neighbourhood conditions can either have its own detrimental effect or have the capability of further compounding the adverse impacts of harmful environment at home on behaviour of children and adolescents. Moreover, global conditions like discrimination, economic inequality, poverty, inadequate housing conditions, ill-equipped education institutes, etc. directly or indirectly affects the child’s development, his health and the child’s ability of self-regulation of behaviour (Ferguson, Cassells, MacAllister, & Evans, 2013). Poor child development along with a reduced number of supporting adults, risky peer influences and perception of danger can also be due to some other interpersonal as well as individual level features of an external environment. These conditions are associated with mental health, social incompetency and mental health disorders in children. Both home as well as neighbourhood environment through their influence on brain development makes the children vulnerable to behavioural dysregulation and cognitive deficits. Multiple studies have reaffirmed these links, especially for the children who grow up in substandard conditions or low-income families or the ones who have suffered maltreatment (Nores & Fernandez, 2018).
Parenting stress is generally defined by psychologists as the distress that parents generally experience when they feel that they are not able to cope with demands of caring for a child. Recent studies have shown that child behavior is adversely affected due to high level of parenting stress. Moreover, it was found that high levels of parenting stresses are generally corelated with both internalizing as well as externalizing behavior problems among children. According to the general psychological stress theory the process of stress includes mainly four components, an external event or agent, determination of the event or agent whether it is unpleasant through cognitive appraisal, mechanisms to cope with and reduce the unpleasant effect, and the final effects or stress reactions. Child behavioral problems is considered to be the agent of stress, hence through the above theory it can be directly linked to the level of stress in parents (Baker, et al., 2003).
The Impact of Screen Time on Child Behaviour
Two main issues associated to parenting stress demands more attention. First, even though stress in parents is generally considered to be linked to the developmental delays in the child or due to the higher demands arising from the support needs of the child, the effects of the behavioral problems seem to have been grossly underestimated. In families of children having Intellectual Disability, it has been observed that parenting stress was at highest during the childhood years and it diminished as the individual grew older (Baker, et al., 2003). According to a study it was observed that level of stress among parents generally fluctuates as per the demands and developmental stages of the child. In some of the recent studies related to specific genetic disorders, it was observed that child behavioral problems are significantly related to parenting stress. Secondly, there remains a constant question related to direction of effect. Since in some genetic disorders the behavioral problems are part of the phenotype of that disorder, and hence, they are unlikely to be the result of the family factors, whereas in majority of children and in most behavioral problems there are high chances that these factors do matter. Hence, Parents having high level of stress may show parenting behaviors that can be less growth promoting (Baker, et al., 2003).
According to a study involving 205 pre-school children, with delays as well as without delays. It was observed that stress in parents was higher in case of delayed group, and this stress was mainly due to behavioral problems rather than development delays. It was observed that with time, the relationship between behavioral problems and parenting stress is found to be very much related with a transactional model (Baker, et al., 2003). With increased parenting stress it was observed that there were aggravated child behavioral problems. Similarly, with increased child behavioral problems there was an increase in the stress among parents. Higher parenting risk is a crucial factor of environmental risk. It has been found to be connected with many unwanted outcomes, for example parent depression, poor physical health, marital conflicts, ineffective parenting and an increased child behavioral problem. It has also been observed that children with delayed development have more chances of having a family with higher parenting stress. There are also evidences that suggests that the parenting stress experienced by these children is chronic in nature, also there is a very well-defined variation in the growth trajectory of the child due to these stresses (Majdandži?, de Vente, & Bögels, 2016).
Screen time can be broadly defined as digital media used by the child on television, smart phones, computers, PS4 games, etc. Popularity of television is certainly more among the children but in recent years smart phones and tablets are speedily becoming a top priority of children. Time and again it has been observed that children generally do not get involved in the evaluation process when the television is on or they have smart phones or tablets in their hands. Also, when the television is turned off or if the smartphone and tablets are taken back, children generally tend to get frustrated. Furthermore, it has been found that there are numerous misunderstandings in the society that whether screen time benefits or harms a child’s overall development. Most parents are unaware about the effects of increased screen media activities on the child’s development (Granic, Morita, & Scholten, 2020).
As per one study the presence of a background television generally leads to distraction and has an adverse impact on a child’s learning process from his own real-life experiences (Dau, 2016). Background television generally refer to programs that are not meant for children, and are out of their knowledge sphere and hence they prevent play and exploration among children. This study also found that due to background television, there is disruption as well as reduction in play activities, also both the quality as well as quantity of parent-child interaction declines resulting into adverse impact on child’s social and emotional development. In another study involving 60 children with both genders, it was observed that children aged 4 years having high exposure of adult-directed television, generally had low level of executive functioning skills as compared to the children having less or moderate exposure to adult-directed television (Dau, 2016).
A different study found that 60% or more television programs show violence, this results into children initiating aggression whenever they are exposed to any form of violence or aggression in their real life (Dau, 2016). Another study involving 70 children of pre-schools, found that children who spent more time watching television are more likely to show verbal and physical aggression (Dau, 2016). According to a meta-analytical review it was found that around 10% of the children in the age group of 2-18 years played video games for at least 1 hour daily (Dau, 2016). Further observations in this review says that violent content in television shows, movies and video games have a detrimental impact on the child’s behavior, substantially increasing his aggression. In order to analyze the effects of screen time on sleep of children, a study was conducted on 612 children in the age group of 3-5 years (Dau, 2016). Out of these around 10% of the children had television in their bedroom. The most common sleeping problem that was encountered among children was the onset of sleep. It was found that children who had the habit of watching television before going to sleep were likely to face more difficulty in falling asleep (Dau, 2016). As per one study of 2017, it has been observed that screen time dominates the play time of kids in US, this can be better understood by the below graph.
Figure 1U.S. children’s average free-time hours per week, by activity type (Armstrong, 2017)
Well renowned author in the field of pediatrics, Nicholas Kardaras has conducted numerous studies on detrimental effects of screen time on child behavior. He specifies that a small amount of dopamine is released when children experience thrill and excitement when they are engaged into media usage. This results into an addictive behavior amongst children, also during this time their pituitary gland too gets activated through hypothalamus. This biological activity pushes the child into thinking of “fight or flight”. Continued adrenal stress results into deteriorated health as well as behavioral problems. Children’s immune system might get compromised, there might be issue of elevated blood pressure or they might face issues of irritability, aggression and lose sleep (Kardaras, 2016).
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 years of age should not be allowed to television, and also for children in the age group of 2-3 years television watching should be limited. Furthermore, it also suggested that parents should limit the time for which children watch television to just 1-2 hours per day and that too only for watching quality programs. According to a study it was found that only 32% of parents having children younger than 2 years were following the recommendations given by AAP. Furthermore, it encouraged parents to spend quality time with their children by engaging into interactive activities like playing sports, reading books, singing, etc. (KidsHealth, 2022).
A thorough analysis of children’s challenging behaviors and the risk they pose to the social and emotional development of a child, has been carried out. Although there are wide varying factors responsible for children behavior and their development, according to this research it can be suggested that quality parenting is of utmost importance. In this regard, it can be recommended that parents adopt a parenting style that is highly responsive and moderately demanding, for example permissive and democratic form of parenting (Brosnan, Kolubinski, & Spada, 2020).
In order to become highly responsive and moderately demanding, it is recommended that parents show unconditional love and affection towards their child, this can be done in five ways: time, words, gifts, touch and acts. Further, it is recommended that parents share their convictions firmly, simultaneously ensuring that they are not unnecessary rigid. Moreover, it is also necessary that parents appraise their children for their good deeds like kindness, faithfulness, love, peace, joy, self-control, etc. and simultaneously ensuring to avoid punitive discipline as far as possible (Brosnan, Kolubinski, & Spada, 2020).
Conclusion
A detailed analysis of challenging behavior among children and the consequential risk that these behaviors pose on child’s overall wellbeing has been done.
Parenting Style & Parent-Child Relationship – Parenting style and parent-child relationship form the foundation in child’s development. It is necessary to adopt democratic and permissive parenting to ensure children get due freedom to express and learn problem solving.
Environment and Communities – The social and physical environment of the family as well as communities greatly alters a child’s behavior. An inclusive environment and community support the parents, thereby ensuring healthy overall development of the child.
Impact of Stress and Well-being – Relation between parenting stress and child’s challenging behavior follows a transactional model, where any developmental delays or challenging behavior in child aggravates the stress among parents and vice versa.
Impact of Screen Time – Increased use of digital media among children increases aggression issues among them and greatly reduces their learning outcomes.
References
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