4 Types of Parenting Styles (2025)

Parenting styles are the practices, behaviors, and attitudes parents use when responding to or interacting with children. Parenting styles include how parents discipline, communicate, make decisions, and socialize children. The 4 types of parenting styles used in studies are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved.

The first three parenting styles were identified by developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind at the University of California, Berkeley, in her 1967 study, “Child Care Practices Anteceding Three Patterns of Preschool Behavior.” The fourth parenting style, uninvolved or neglectful, was added by Eleanor Maccoby and John Martin at Stanford University in 1983. Maccoby and Martin also identified a conceptual structure combining different levels of demandingness and responsiveness to distinguish the 4 parenting styles in their 1983 book chapter “Socialization in the Context of the Family: Parent-Child Interaction” inside “Handbook of Child Psychology: Socialization, Personality and Social Development” (4th edition), edited by P.H. Mussen.

Baumrind is considered a pioneer of research into parenting styles. Her initial parenting typology and extensive parenting styles psychology studies laid the foundation for later research, according to a 2018 Belgium study, “Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known Concept,” conducted by Sofie Kuppens & Eva Ceulemans at KU Leuven and published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. The 4 types of parenting styles classified by different levels of demandingness and responsiveness are commonly called the Baumrind parenting styles due to her contribution.

What is the Importance of understanding parenting styles for the development of children?

The importance of understanding parenting styles for the development of children lies in recognizing how parents’ discipline and interaction with children affect their development and outcomes, including self-esteem, health, risky behavior, school performance, and well-being. Numerous studies have found these findings, including a 2011 UK study, “Parenting Style and Youth Outcomes in the UK,” by Tak Wing Chan and Anita Koo at Oxford University, published in European Sociological Review.

Recognizing the different parenting styles allows parents to make informed decisions when raising a child and avoid ineffective parenting. The parenting style framework enables policymakers to predict child outcomes, design interventions, and allocate resources to help parents.

1. Authoritative Parenting

Authoritative parenting uses high levels of control or demandingness. Authoritative parenting has high levels of warmth or responsiveness. Authoritative parents have high expectations of their children’s maturity. Parents set clear boundaries and explain the reasons behind family rules. Authoritative parents use positive discipline to teach values and independence rather than to punish.

Authoritative parents are warm, nurturing, and supportive. Parents encourage open communication, listen to children’s perspectives, offer praise, and promote prosocial behavior.

The authoritative parenting style is considered the most effective parenting style by psychologists. The biggest advantage of authoritative parenting is that children have the best outcomes, including adjustment, performance, and mental health. The biggest disadvantage of authoritative parenting is that significant time and energy are needed for parents to be consistently responsive, set clear expectations, and engage in open communication.

The effects of authoritative parenting on children include better self-esteem, emotional regulation, academic success, social competence, and problem-solving.

The authoritative parenting style impacts children’s well-being positively due to how parents assert the power to control children’s behavior, according to Baumrind’s 2012 study “Differentiating between Confrontive and Coercive Kinds of Parental Power-Assertive Disciplinary Practices”, published in Human Development. Baumrind believed that authoritative parents’ confrontive power assertion behavior was associated with competence and mental health in children.

2. Authoritarian Parenting

Authoritarian parenting uses high levels of control or demandingness. Authoritarian parenting involves low levels of warmth or responsiveness. Authoritarian parents have high expectations of conformity. They are highly controlling and intolerant of misbehavior. Authoritarian parents expect children to comply with strict rules without questions. Parents ignore children’s feedback and rely on “because I said so” to substantiate rules. Authoritarian parents use harsh punishment to discipline when children do not meet the “absolute standard” of conduct set by the “authority figure.” Authoritarian parents are cold and insensitive, not nurturing and unsupportive. Authoritarian parents tend to show little affection to their children and often equate children’s fear of punishment with respect.

The biggest advantage of the authoritarian parenting style is that parents often achieve immediate behavioral control in their presence, creating the illusion that their children are always well-behaved. The biggest disadvantage of the authoritarian parenting style is that children often suffer mentally. Children with authoritarian parents tend to have lower self-esteem and life satisfaction and grow up with inferior outcomes, according to a 2007 study, “Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles in Adolescents: Associations with Self-Esteem, Depression and Life-Satisfaction,” by Avidan Milevsky et al., published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies.

The effects of authoritarian parenting on children include low self-esteem, emotional regulation difficulty, behavioral issues, academic failure, and mental health issues.

Baumrind believed that verbal hostility and psychological control were among the most damaging aspects of authoritarian behaviors, leading to incompetence and maladjustment in adolescents, as detailed in her 2010 study, “Effects of Preschool Parents’ Power Assertive Patterns and Practices on Adolescent Development,” published in Science and Practice.

3. Permissive Parenting

Permissive parenting (indulgent parenting) involves low levels of control or demandingness and high levels of warmth or responsiveness. Permissive parents have minimal expectations of children’s behavior and set few rules. Permissive parents are reluctant to punish when boundaries are crossed. Indulgent parents are warm, open, and nurturing. Indulgent parents promote open communication and children are free to explore and express opinions.

The biggest advantage of the permissive parenting style is that children have high self-confidence, according to a 1991 study, “Patterns of competence and adjustment among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families,” published in Child Development. The biggest disadvantage of permissive parenting is that children have lower self-control and are more prone to drug abuse.

The effects of permissive parenting on children include impulsivity, lack of self-discipline, poor decision-making, academic underachievement, and entitlement.

Baumrind’s research shows that permissive parents are low on behavioral control and household management, two kinds of demanding practices expected to have beneficial effects on children. Baumrind believes that unconstrained freedom of choice results in indeterminacy and groundlessness rather than empowerment and self-sufficiency. Adolescents from permissive families had significantly lower cognitive competence than those from either authoritative or democratic families, according to Baumrind’s 2010 study, “Effects of Preschool Parents’ Power Assertive Patterns and Practices on Adolescent Development,” published in Parenting: Science and Practice.

4. Uninvolved Parenting

Uninvolved parenting (neglectful parenting) involves low levels of control or demandingness and low levels of warmth or responsiveness. Uninvolved parents are minimally involved in their children’s lives. Parents rarely communicate with children and provide little physical or emotional needs, guidance, or discipline. Children are expected to raise themselves. Uninvolved parents are neglectful, cold, and uncaring and do not respond to their children’s needs.

The biggest advantage of uninvolved parenting is that it requires little effort and allows parents to focus on their needs. The biggest disadvantage of uninvolved parenting is that children have the worst outcomes in self-regulation, achievement, and psychological well-being.

The effects of uninvolved parenting on children include low self-esteem, emotional detachment, difficulty with emotional regulation, poor social skills, and mental health disorders.

Baumrind believes that uninvolved parents are disengaged parents who are not committed. Baumrind expects children from uninvolved families to have the worst outcomes and lowest competence among the four parenting types.

What is a Parenting Style?

Parenting style is a consistent set of strategies for raising children. Parenting style defines a global climate in the home and influences children’s development and well-being.

The styles of parenting are categorized differently by different researchers, often into three, four, or five types. The construct most often used in psychology research is the four parenting styles proposed by Diana Baumrind at the University of California, Berkeley, and refined by Eleanor Maccoby and John Martin at Stanford University. The four types of parenting styles are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved.

What is Parenting?

Parenting is the process of raising and nurturing children from infancy to adulthood. Parenting involves providing emotional, social, and physical support to ensure a child’s well-being and development. Parenting activities include teaching, disciplining, and caring for children.

What are the Factors Affecting Parenting Styles?

Factors influencing parenting styles include family upbringing, parenting knowledge, cultural background, socio-economic status, personal characteristics, psychological factors, stress, goals, and expectations. The factors affecting parenting styles are listed below.

1. Family Upbringing: The way a parent was brought up in their childhood affects their parenting styles, according to a 2015 study in Canada titled, “Parenting begets parenting: A neurobiological perspective on early adversity and the transmission of parenting styles across generations,” by Clyde Hertzman, Alison S. Fleming et al., published in Neuroscience. The study details how one generation’s parenting styles are neurobiologically transmitted to the next generation through life experiences. For example, a child raised by an authoritarian parenting style tends to become an authoritarian parent.
2. Parenting Knowledge: When parents lack accurate information on child development, effective parenting, and family dynamics, they adopt familiar parenting styles. For most parents, this familiar style is the one they experienced during their upbringing. For example, parents raised by authoritarian parents may not realize that being firm and kind is possible. Their experience is limited to a firm and harsh parenting style, leaving them unaware of alternative approaches.
3. Cultural Backgrounds: Parenting styles are influenced by cultural backgrounds that share specific values, beliefs, customs, and practices. For example, in collectivist cultures emphasizing obedience and conformity, parents tend to adopt a more authoritarian parenting style.
4. Socio-economic Status (SES): Socio-economic status varies in income, education, occupation, and social status. SES significantly affects parenting style by affecting family resources and opportunities. For example, limited resources in lower-income families experience more stress, resulting in more authoritarian or neglectful parenting styles.
5. Personal Characteristics: Individual personality traits, behaviors, and temperaments define a parent’s characteristics. These characteristics influence the parent’s actions and decisions. For example, agreeable parents are more supportive. Agreeable parents tend to be authoritative, according to a 2010 research in the Netherlands titled “Personality and parenting style in parents of adolescents,” by Rutger CME Engels et al., published in the Journal of Adolescence.
6. Psychological Factors: Parents and children’s mental and emotional states influence their interactions. For example, parents with low self-efficacy tend to give up easily when faced with parental difficulties and, therefore, adopt an authoritarian style to control using harsh discipline, according to a 2022 study in China titled “Impact of Parenting Style on Early Childhood Learning: Mediating Role of Parental Self-Efficacy” by Kong, Chuibin and Fakhra Yasmin, published in Frontiers in Psychology.
7. Parenting Stress: Parental stress affects parenting style by impacting how parents interact with their children and manage daily challenges. Elevated stress levels lead to less patience, irritability, and inconsistent disciplinary practices. A stressed parent often reacts more harshly to minor misbehavior or struggles to provide the emotional support their child needs.
8. Parental Goals and Expectations: Parental goals and expectations shape parents’ strategies and behaviors. For example, some parents with high academic expectations adopt a more authoritative or structured parenting style, emphasizing discipline and routine to ensure academic success.

What are the Impacts of Parenting Styles on Children?

Impacts of parenting styles on children include the child’s academic success, mental well-being, self-esteem, behavior, emotional intelligence, parent-child relationship, social skills, and future relationships. Below are 8 key impacts of parenting styles on child development.

• Academics: Parenting style affects children’s school performance and overall learning through the level of support provided. For example, authoritative parents, who are supportive and set high expectations, tend to have children who achieve higher academically.
• Mental Health: Parenting style influences the mental well-being of children by creating an emotional climate at home. For example, nurturing authoritative parents raise kids with better mental health, while harsh authoritarian parents create a hostile environment, leading to anxiety in children.
• Self-Esteem: Parenting style shapes a child’s sense of self-worth and confidence through daily interactions. Warm and nurturing parents foster higher self-confidence in their children, whereas neglectful and uninvolved parents can cause children to feel unworthy of love, resulting in low self-esteem.
• Behavioral Outcomes: Parenting style affects children’s behavior through the standards set for conduct and the discipline and guidance provided. For example, permissive parenting may result in behavioral issues due to a lack of boundaries.
• Emotional Intelligence: Parenting style can influence a child’s ability to understand and manage emotions. For example, authoritative parenting enhances emotional intelligence by modeling and teaching empathy and emotional regulation.
• Parent-Child Relationships: Parenting style directly impacts the parent-child relationship. For example, authoritative parenting fosters strong, positive relationships through open communication and mutual respect, while authoritarian parenting can strain relationships due to fear and lack of trust.
• Social Skills: Different parenting styles affect children’s social skills by modeling human interactions and helping them develop emotional regulation. For example, permissive parenting may lead to difficulties in peer interactions due to a lack of discipline and regulation. In contrast, authoritative parenting promotes healthy social relationships by teaching social skills and empathy.
• Adult Relationships: Parenting style models interaction and communication with others, preparing children for adult relationships. For example, authoritarian parenting may result in difficulties due to poor conflict resolution skills, whereas adults raised by authoritative parents often form more stable and satisfying relationships.

Is the Authoritative Parenting Style Considered the Best Parenting Style in Child Psychology?

Yes, the authoritative parenting style is considered the best parenting style in child psychology. Authoritative parenting is consistently associated with the best outcomes in children’s outcomes, including social competence, academic achievement, mental health, physical health, behavior, and adjustment, according to a 2014 study, “Consequences of Parenting on Adolescent Outcomes,” conducted by Donna Hancock Hoskins of Bridgewater College and published in Societies.

What is the Unhealthiest Parenting Style for a Child?

The unhealthiest parenting style for a child is generally considered to be the uninvolved parenting style because it leaves the child without the basic necessities and emotional support they need to develop into healthy adults. Uninvolved or neglectful parenting style is linked most frequently to more serious delinquency trajectories in adolescent boys, according to a 2008 study, “Trajectories of Delinquency and Parenting Styles,” by Machteld Hoeve, Judith Semon Dubas, Rolf Loeber, et al., published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

However, other studies have found that the authoritarian parenting style is just as detrimental as the uninvolved parenting style in some aspects. For example, both authoritarian parenting and uninvolved parenting are associated with the lowest levels of self-esteem and psychosocial maturity and the highest levels of emotional maladjustment, according to a 2019 study titled “Raising Children with Poor School Performance: Parenting Styles and Short- and Long-Term Consequences for Adolescent and
Adult Development,” by Oscar F. Garcia and Emilia Serra of the University of Valencia, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Can Two Parents Have Different Parenting Styles?

Yes, it is common for two parents to have different parenting styles, according to a 2020 systematic review of 31 studies from more than 15 countries with a total 20,359 sample size. This study, titled “Systematic review of the differences between mothers and fathers in parenting styles and practices,” is conducted by Yosi Yaffe in the Faculty of Education, Ohalo Academic College, and published in Current Psychology. The findings reveal that the children perceive mothers to be more accepting, responsive, supportive, and more behaviorally controlling, demanding, and autonomy-granting than fathers. Mothers are more authoritative than fathers, and fathers are more authoritarian than mothers, according to parents and children in the studies.

Can a Parent Change their Parenting Style?

Yes, parents can change their parenting style over time. Over half (53.6%) of adolescents experienced shifts in parenting styles in a 2014 Denmark study, “Parenting Style Transitions and Delinquency,” by Ryan D. Schroeder and Thomas J. Mowen, published in Youth & Society. The most common shift was from authoritative to permissive parenting. The shifts were likely driven by a combination of factors, including parents’ ongoing personal development, stressful life events (such as divorce or job loss), the child’s evolving behavior and needs, the inherently tumultuous nature of adolescence, and normal developmental processes as children age and require different levels of parental supervision and control.

Is Mixing Parenting Style a Good Idea?

Yes, mixing parenting styles is a good idea if at least one of the styles is the authoritative type. Multiple studies have shown that families with at least one authoritative parent have better outcomes than those without authoritative parents. Having two authoritative parents is optimal, while having two neglectful parents leads to the worst consequences, according to a 2011 study in the Netherlands titled “Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles: Unique and Combined Links to Adolescent and Early Adult Delinquency” by Hoeve, Machteld, Judith Semon Dubas, et al., published in the Journal of Adolescence. Therefore, mixing parenting styles is beneficial when one or both styles are authoritative.

Can Narcissistic Parenting Have a Negative Impact on Child Development?

Yes, narcissistic parenting can negatively impact child development. Children of narcissistic parents tend to suffer from developmental trauma in adulthood, according to a 2016 study, “Narcissism, Parenting, Complex Trauma: The Emotional Consequences Created for Children by Narcissistic Parents,” conducted by Donna M. Mahoney at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology/Schaumburg, and published in The Practitioner Scholar: Journal of the International Trauma Training Institute.

Narcissistic people are characterized by grandiosity, self-centeredness, and a lack of empathy, resulting in troubled interpersonal relationships with partners and children. Narcissistic parenting is a non-authoritative parenting style, according to a 2017 UK study, “The children of narcissus: Insights into narcissists’ parenting styles.” by Hart, Claire M. et al. of the University of Southampton and the University of Surrey, published in Personality and Individual Differences. The study has found that narcissists’ low empathy predicts unresponsive caregiving towards children, resulting in a non-optimal (authoritative) parenting style.

What are other Factors that Affect Child Growth and Development?

Other factors that affect child growth and development include genetics, attachment styles, family dynamics, nutrition, socioeconomic status, environment, and culture. Seven factors that affect children’s growth and development are listed below.

1. Genetics: Genetics influences a child’s physical attributes, susceptibility to certain diseases, and potential for cognitive abilities. Genetics also affect a child’s temperament and interactions with the environment.
2. Attachment Style: A secure attachment fosters emotional stability and confidence, while an insecure attachment can lead to emotional and social difficulties.
3. Family Dynamics: Positive family dynamics provide emotional support and stability, whereas negative dynamics can lead to stress and behavioral issues.
4. Nutrition: Proper nutrition is crucial for physical growth, brain development, and overall health; malnutrition can lead to developmental delays and health problems.
5. Socioeconomic status (SES): Higher SES often provides better access to education, healthcare, and enrichment activities, whereas lower SES can limit these opportunities and increase stress.
6. Environment: A stimulating and safe environment encourages exploration and learning, while a deprived or unsafe environment can hinder development.
7. Culture: Cultural values and practices shape social behaviors, learning styles, and developmental expectations, influencing a child’s growth and development trajectory.

How Does Parenting Style Influence Attachment Style in Children?

Parenting style influences children’s attachment styles by shaping their perceptions of themselves, the world, and their relationships. Through parenting practices and interactions, children form attachment styles that reflect their self-worth. Responsive parenting causes secure attachment, while unresponsive parenting leads to insecure attachment, according to a 2006 study, “Responsive Parenting: Establishing Early Foundations for Social, Communication, and Independent Problem-Solving Skills,” by Susan H. Landry et al., published in Developmental Psychology.

Authoritative and permissive parents are responsive, warm, and nurturing. Therefore, authoritative and permissive parenting styles tend to result in secure attachment styles in children. Authoritarian and uninvolved parents are unresponsive, cold, and distant. Authoritarian and uninvolved parenting styles likely result in insecure attachment styles, such as ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized attachment styles.