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The base of one's childhood is built upon one's parents or caregivers, who help from world views, shape a child's attitude towards personal achievement, teach how to approach difficulties in life and satisfy their needs be they psychological and physiological. A parenting style is understood as a set of approaches and behaviors aparent elicits towards a child, therefore building an emotional environment in which the child is brought up in. Mental health of children depends on the way parents interact with them. The seed of good mental health is planted as early as childhood. Parents happen to be the most powerful catalysts in promoting good mental health in their children's lives. Parents' upbringing and child rearing styles are the important factors in changing and stabilizing the behavioral problems of children, similarly foundation of self-esteem is laid early in life. Present study reviews the relationship between parenting style and children's mental health and self-esteem that how different parenting styles (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, permissive & uninvolved) affect the children's mental health and self-esteem.
Keywords: parenting style, mental health and self-esteem
Parenting style On a study with over 100 pre-school age children, Baumrind (1967) identified four important dimensions of parenting, by naturalistic observation, parental interviews and other research method: Disciplinary strategies:
* Warmth and nurturance
* Communication styles
* Expectations of maturity and control
On the basis of these dimensions, Baumrind suggested that, one of three distinct parenting styles is exhibited by the majority of parents. Fourth parenting style was added by Maccoby and Martin (1983) later in their research. The parenting styles as follows:
Authoritarian parenting: In this style of parenting, it is expected to follow the strict commands established by the parents to the children. Consequences of such failures resulted in the form of reprimands . Authoritarian parents fail to clarify the reasoning behind such rules. Such parents are not approachable to their children and have great demands. These parents are obedience- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be obeyed without explanation.
Authoritative parenting: Authoritarian and authoritative parents are almost similar in their way of behaving towards children, only the difference is, authoritative parents are more nurturing and forgiving rather than reprimanding, if their children fail to act up to their expectations. Baumrind acclaims...