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Is there an optimal style of parenting?

When one talks of parenting style' we tend to mean the ways in which parents vary in their styles of child-rearing. Since the 1950's there has been a major thrust of research into social development and in particular, processes that exist within the family. The main aim has been directed towards characterising the main types of parenting styles and investigating their consequences for child development. The concept is one that is universal and so is the research that surrounds it.

Firstly I will provide a brief outline of the main relevant theories and then I subsequently will be critically evaluating them in terms of their conceptual and empirical adequacy. I also will be critically evaluating evidential research in terms of its methodological adequacy and theoretical relevance. The evidential research will either support or unsupport the theories with some perhaps leading the way for alternative enquiry. This will be the method that I will adopt when attempting to determine the existence of an optimal' parenting style.

One of the most influential models has been that of Baumrind (1967, 1971, 1989) which were based on observational and interview studies. Baumrind identified three different patterns of parenting style: authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. This typology has proved to be the basis of the majority of studies concerning parenting styles in the last fifty years. In order to understand the evidential research to follow it is important to understand the main characteristics of each pattern. Authoritarian parents are generally defined as parents who have strict ideas about discipline and behaviour. They tend not to be open to discussion. Authoritative parents tend to have ideas about behaviour and discipline which they are willing to explain and discuss with their children. They tend to be more flexible and more open to adaptation. Permissive parents however are parents who tend to have very relaxed ideas about behaviour and discipline. Baumrind's theory has been supported by a wide range of research that has predominantly favoured the authoritative parenting style as beneficial in social development. Firstly, these studies will be explored followed by the smaller body of research favouring the authoritarian or permissive parenting styles.

Studies that have used the categories proposed by Baumrind (1967, 1971, 1989) have been extensive but have tended to focus on the use of questionnaires as a measurement

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