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Should the pediatrician advise parents to be strict or permissive? This article presents a discussion of the effects of permissiveness, rigidity, and punitiveness on the child and suggestions for improving the quality and quantity of positive contact.
Should the primary-care physician advise parents to be strict or permissive? Is it harmful or beneficial to spank children? What are the common types of child-rearing styles found in this country? How do the child-training practices of Americans compare with those of other cultures? Can parents be trained to raise socially and cognitively competent children just as they can be trained to cook or sew? When should a pediatrician try to change a parent's child-rearing style? Such questions as these lead to heated debates among professionals as well as among lay persons over the virtues of different approaches to child rearing, with each defending vigorously his favorite ideology and methods.
The purpose of this article is to review some of the information we have on child-rearing styles and their effects on child behavior in terms of these questions and to discuss what implications these findings have for the advice given by pediatricians to new mothers.
COMMON CHILD-REARING STYLES IN UNITED STATES
In a review of the child-rearing literature some years ago, two main ideologies about family life and child rearing were identified; these are still prominent in the lay literature today.1 They are outlined in Table 1.
In general, the "authoritarian," "strict," or "directive" approach emphasizes a sharp dichotomy of parental roles and unquestioning obethence to parental authority by the children. The parents see the child as having a tendency to develop bad habits that will get out of control unless they suppress them and keep the child headed in the right direction.
The "egalitarian," "accommodative," or "permissive" ideology emphasizes overlapping parental roles and a child-rearing approach whose goal is to help each child "develop his full potential." The child is seen as having the basic capacity to learn and mature without excessive pressure or protection, and the parents see their main role as one of guidance and encouragement.
These ideologies become translated into different child-rearing styles according to how the parents respond to common behavioral situations arising with their young children. The "authoritarian" or "strict" parent...