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Current literature presents four primary parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. These styles provide an important shortcut for a constellation of parenting behaviors that have been characterized as consisting of warmth, demandingness, and autonomy granting. Empirically, only warmth and demandingness are typically measured. Research reporting on parenting styles in Latino samples has been equivocal leading to questions about conceptualization and measurement of parenting styles in this ethnic/cultural group. This lack of consensus may result from the chasm between concepts (e.g., authoritarian parenting) and observable parenting behaviors (e.g., warmth) in this ethnic group. The present research aimed to examine parenting styles and dimensions in a sample of Latino parents using the two usual dimensions (warmth, demandingness) and adding autonomy granting. Traditional parenting styles categories were examined, as well as additional categorizations that resulted from adding autonomy granting. Fifty first-generation Latino parents and their child (aged 4-9) participated. Parent-child interactions were coded with the Parenting Style Observation Rating Scale (P-SOS). In this sample, the four traditional parenting categories did not capture Latino families well. The combination of characteristics resulted in eight possible parenting styles. Our data showed the majority (61%) of Latino parents as "protective parents." Further, while mothers and fathers were similar in their parenting styles, expectations were different for male and female children. The additional dimensions and implications are discussed. The importance of considering the cultural context in understanding parenting in Latino families is emphasized, along with directions for future research.
Keywords: Latino; Hispanic; Parenting Style; Parenting Dimensions; Parent-Child Interactions
Fam Proc 48:195-210, 2009
Over 40 years ago, Diana Baumrind (1966) set the stage for major shifts in research and practice in the area of parenting by presenting three primary parenting styles that could be used as a shortcut to describe a wide-ranging constellation of parent behaviors and childrearing goals. A couple of decades later Maccoby and Martin (1983) added a conceptual fourth style, neglectful, for which Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, and Dornbusch (1991) provided empirical support. These parenting labels - authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and neglectful - have permeated research, practice, and popular culture. These parenting style labels provide an important framework for a constellation of parenting behaviors and childrearing goals and have been primarily characterized as consisting of varied combinations of warmth,...