Income's Affect on Parenting Styles by Liz Pechous

Adolescents grow up in many different households. Adolescents from lower income families are often considered underprivileged. Poverty is a horrible fate for many adolescents. Poverty may also be related to the fact that college is highly emphasized. It is much harder to find a steady job without a college degree. However, for many adolescents college isn’t an option. Since getting a college degree is now deemed as important in our society, the measurement of grades is often the only way we evaluate adolescents’ success. If adolescents don’t go to college they may be looked down upon in our society. The adolescents’ parents or guardians may also be going through the same dilemma. The parents or guardians may raise their children differently based on their income status. Parents and guardians may be more concerned about getting food on the table instead of their adolescents’ needs. Other adolescents may come from wealthy families, but what happens if both parents put their career over their adolescents’ needs. It seems that the adolescent’s fate may mostly be based upon their parent’s choices.

The different ways parents raise their adolescents are called parenting styles. There are different types of parenting styles. Some of the sources I found say there are only three, however, others say there are four. The four classifications of parenting styles are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. These four classifications have paralleling affects on adolescents. Authoritative parenting balances responsiveness and demands. It is a give-and-take parenting style. For example, parents may talk to their adolescents about why their actions may be inappropriate. These parents are also considered warm and caring. Authoritarian parents are much different. They are considered high demanding and not caring about the adolescents needs. They expect the adolescents to follow strict rules. They may also use abuse on their adolescents. Some sources include neglectful in the permissive parenting style. However, I feel that they are very different. The permissive, or in other words, indulgent parenting style is when parents are moderately involved with their adolescents. They may try to give their adolescents everything the adolescent thinks they want. However, these parents don’t have any rules or expectations for their adolescents. In a way, adolescents can do anything they want and not have to worry about the consequences. Neglectful parenting is when parents pay little attention to their adolescent at all.

Before I talk about research on the effects of the different parenting styles, think about your family situation and what kind of parents you had. Do you consider yourself successful and happy? Which parenting style would you personally say is the most successful? Do you think there is a trend between parenting style and income?

            Research shows that adolescents benefit from certain things. For starts, “Researchers have found a strong positive relationship between parent- initiated involvement practices and school outcomes” (Spera). This means parents are involved with their adolescents’ lives. Parent’s involvement also helps social development. Adolescents also benefit from warmth and feeling like their parents care about them. This gives them more of a self-worth sensation. There are many other factors with the parenting styles that effect adolescents’ outcome, but I will only mention one more. Adolescents will be more successful if there are certain rules or expectations put in place. “The return to pushing children hard consists of the increased likelihood that they will do well later in life” (Doepke and Zilibotti). After reading this would you change your thoughts on what parenting style seems the most successful?

            Let’s think about the way adolescents live. Parenting style is a huge effect on them because it influences the way they act. Without strict rules, adolescents may spend a large amount of time watching TV instead of going to the library or participating in school activities. Without parent involvement, adolescents may never eat dinner as a family. “A supportive home learning environment is positively associated with children’s early achievements and wellbeing and influences social mobility” (ESRC). This quote is talking about children’s early achievements, but this is the start of anyone’s development. By the time the children reaches adolescence, they may be significantly behind in social skills since they didn’t spend a large amount of time socializing with their family. As you can see, parenting style impacts all of this. The authoritative parenting style is the most successful parenting style when it comes to cognitive development. It also yields the higher GPA and increases social development. As I mentioned before, the success of most adolescences is based upon grades. Do you think measuring people’s success should be based on mostly grades? Adolescents from lower income families may not have the chance to finish school because of their money problems. Do you consider this adolescent a failure?

            I will now talk about the different parenting styles and their relationship to income levels. In the past, getting a college degree wasn’t one of the only ways to get a steady job. Unfortunately, today that isn’t the case. Adolescents are highly impacted by their parents. Parents that wait later to have kids often focus on their career first giving their children an advantage. Parents who have children much earlier like when they are adolescents often don’t have a steady job to support their family. Research shows that adolescents born into families where both parents work often are more successful. Adolescents who had parents with higher education, often had higher grades and attended college themselves. Adolescents born into single or two-parent homes where no one works are often more depressed. Research says that adolescents living in higher-income families often have better home lives.

            I will now talk about the some interesting data I found on the ways the different parenting styles are implicated. Just the mother or father implicating a parenting style can make a difference. In the authoritative parenting style fathers who used this style raised children with higher cognitive scores while mother had a bigger impact on the socioeconomic status. Fathers who used the authoritarian parenting style didn’t affect an adolescent’s outcome too much. However, mothers who use this style cause their adolescents to have lower cognitive scores. If parents raise their adolescents permissively or neglectfully, it causes the adolescents to have a less likelihood of going to college. It also results in lower cognitive scores

            Let’s now really think about this. Think about the four different parenting styles and what styles are linked to the parents’ income. There is data out there that supports many different theories. Is one of the reasons children from different income groups have an achievement gap because different income group means different parenting style? This is a questions that a large amount of researchers have wanted to answer. Generally, authoritative parenting has grown greatly in the last thirty years. Parents who have a greater income are associated with this parenting style than other income groups. This may be because they have a greater amount of access to information than other parents. They also feel that their children need to work hard. Surprisingly, authoritarian parenting styles were found in lower income families. Neglectful and permissive parenting didn’t seem to fall into a specific category. Most research focused more so on authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles. However, I feel neglectful parenting can be found in either income group.

            I mentioned before how working parents has a positive affect on adolescents. However, working parents may put their careers over their adolescents. They may neglect their children by never being around for them. They may also be permissive in order for their children to leave them alone since they may be very busy or tried by their work. Lower income parents may want to be with and provide for their child. Adolescents might develop a strong relationship with their family. The adolescent may put school on the back burner or drop out in order to help their family.

            How do you feel about parenting styles affect on adolescents? Do you think it has a relationship to income levels?

            Works Cited

Doepke, Matthias, and Fabrizio Zilibotti. "Tiger Moms and Helicopter Parents: The Economics

of Parenting Style." The Economics of Parenting. VOX CEPR's Policy Portal, 11 Oct.

2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

Greenwood, Beth. "How Parenting Styles Affect Children's Cognitive Growth." Everyday Life.

Globalpost, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

"Parenting Style Influences Child Development and Social Mobility." ESRC (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

17 Nov. 2014.

Santrock, John W. Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. Print.

Spera, Christopher. "A Review of the Relationship Among Parenting Practices, Parenting Styles,

and Adolescent School Achievement." Educational Psychology Review 17.2 (2005): 125-

46. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

Tiller, Amy E., B.S., Betsy Garrison, PH.D., Elizabeth B. Block, MPH, Kathryn Cramer, M.S.,

and Vicky Tiller, M.S. "The Influence of Parenting Styles on Children's Cognitive Development." (n.d.): n. pag. Louisiana State University AgCenter. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.