Success has been a way to measure how well someone is doing in life. Everyone wants to be successful. Parents especially want their children to be successful. Ax a result, there are many different parenting styles that claim that their way will help make children more successful. The three main types of parenting styles are authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Authoritarian parenting has high demands and low responsiveness while permissive parenting has low demands and high responsiveness. Authoritative parenting has more of a balance of demand and responsiveness.
Research suggest that Asian-Americans have more of an authoritative parenting style. As a child of Asian-American parents, that was an interesting piece of information to learn about. I also partially agree with the statement. My parents have some level of demand, but it’s not as high of a level expected from the authoritarian parenting style. For example, they want me to well in school, but they are not managing my schoolwork. Parent intervention is important for success, and each of parenting style offers a different level of parental intervention.
Authoritarian parenting has a high level of parent intervention while permissive parenting has a low level of parent intervention. Authoritative parenting has a balance level of parent intervention. Some parents believe that if they are more involved in their children’s lives, then they will be more successful. Others believe that if they are not highly involved, the children can be more in control of their lives and become more successful. While the high and low level of parent intervention both provides many benefits for students, a balanced level of parent intervention has the most beneficial impact on student success.
The level of parent intervention has a mental impact. Abilash Gopal, an adolescent psychiatrist, stated how studies show that authoritarian or helicopter parenting has increased anxiety. Marsiglia et al. also state that children of authoritarian parents have higher levels of depression. High levels of anxiety and depressions have a negative impact on one’s health and daily life. This can cause problems for one’s success since they may become unable or not motivated enough to work for their goals. Marsiglia et al. shares how children of permissive and authoritative parents have a lower level of mental health problems.
While authoritarian parenting has a more negative mental impact, permissive and authoritative parenting has a more positive mental impact. Marsiglia et al. did an experiment to study the effect parenting style have on the locus of control. The term locus of control means how one views their control of events in their life. There are two types of locus of control. One type is internal and the other is external. People who have an internal locus of control believe they have control of their life while people who have an external locus of control believe they do not. For the experiment, if an individual receives a score higher than 8. 5, they have an external locus of control, and if they score lower than 8. 95, they have an internal locus of control. The results showed show authoritative parenting sourced an 8. 82 which an internal locus of control source. Permissive parenting received a 13. 40 and authoritarian parenting received a 12. 08. Both are an external locus of control scores.
The locus of control has a mental impact since it “may moderate psychological symptoms, feeling of stress, and the development of anxiety in children” and “[internal locus of control] may confer protection against the experience or threat of distress” (Marsiglia et al. . So, having an internal locus of control may help with anxiety. This also provides a reason why children of authoritative parent “have fewer mental health problems than children of permissive or authoritarian parents” (Marsiglia et al. ). As a result, having an internal locus of control is more beneficial for an individual. The level of parental support also impacts a child’s sense of autonomy or independence. Gopal explains how “overly involved parents have been impeding the development of autonomy in their child for years”.
The children don’t have the ability to control their own lives. The lack of control over the children’s own behavior may cause them to feel a lack of responsibility for what happens to them (Marsiglia et al. ). This supports the claim Gopal makes about how over parenting “has given birth to a generation of entitled victims”. Those kids “[complain] about the ways in which the world is keeping them down” since they are more likely to believe that they are not responsible for what happens to them (Gopal). This has an impact on an individual’s success.
If they are unable to take responsibility for their actions and are always complaining, they can’t learn from their mistake and improve themselves. Jessica Lahey’s youngest son once forgot to take his homework to school, and instead of returning the completed homework to school, she allowed her son to face the consequence of his action (44). This allowed the son to learn from his mistake and create a solution to prevent it from happening again in the future (Lahey 60). By allowing children to take control of their action, parents are allowing them to grow.
This growth allows them to become more accomplished, which helps with success. A more authoritative parenting style helps teach children responsibility. Jessica Lahey saw an increased level of responsibility in her kids when she stopped using the dependent parenting style (44). Her kids started to do tasks that did not require parental guidance themselves. Lahey shares “Kids who can redirect and stay engaged in tasks, even when they find those tasks difficult, become less and less dependent on guidance in order to focus, study, organize, and otherwise run their own lives” (48).
These are important traits to have for success. Everyone is responsible for running their own lives. One cannot depend on having their parents controlling their life for their whole life. Plus, some see it a success when a child grows up to be able to run their own life. The level of parental support also has an academic impact. Academics have a major impact on success. The level of academic success one has can affect the type of career they will attain, which will affect the quality of life they experience. Usually, those who do well in school go to college.
Those who go to college normally get a good job, and those that have a good job are usually successful. So, academic plays a vital role in success. Parent intervention has an effect on how well a student does in school. Benson et al. share 12 reasons why parents should be involved in their child’s school (55). There are many benefits listed. A few benefits are that students have a lower chance of having learning problems and behavior problems, repeating a grade, and being suspended or expelled (Benson et al. 55).
Marsiglia et al. also agrees that children that have parent support perform well in school and exhibit fewer behavior problems. All these factors allow the children to well in school. Plus, students with parents involved with school are more likely to get higher grades and test scores, and grades and test scores are usually how people tell if a child is doing well with school. The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way explores how certain countries became some of the world’s education superpowers.
The superpowers in education have really good test scores on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The PISA was created to measured the “advanced thinking and communication skills that people needed to thrive in the modern world” (15). As a result, those skills are also important to have in order to be successful in the world. Ripley shares how the level of parenting had an effect on test scores. Andreas Schleicher, a PISA scientist, did a survey with thirteen countries and regions that took the PISA, and the results showed what type of parent involvement helps a student’s test score.
His survey shows that reading to a child and having discussions yielded higher test scores while kids who had parents involved in extracurricular activities had on average worse test scores in reading (Ripley 108). Ripley also states parents could improve their children PISA scores by asking about their children’s day and showing interest in their schooling (112). The parents who are reading, having discussions, and showing interest with their kids are displaying some level of parent support. This shows that parental intervention has some positive effects on test scores.
Parent support also affects the student’s likelihood of going to college. Benson et al. shares that students with parent involvement are more likely to graduate and go on to college (55). A few of their reasonings show how those kids are more likely to enjoy school and continue their education. For example, if a kid is more likely to have learning problems, they probably find school more difficult and will not enjoy it. If students are not enjoying school, they are more likely to not go to attend college and continue their education.
Research: Kids with Supportive Parents More Likely to Succeed from the University of Washington College of Education also agrees that student with supportive parents are more likely to graduate and go to college: “Research demonstrates that students are 81% more likely to graduate from high school if their parents express high hopes for their future and solid expectations for their performance in school”, and “if [students] have a parent who will partner with them, encourage them in the pursuit of academic success, they are much more likely to be ready for college”.
If students are ready for college, then there is a greater chance that they will go to college. So parent intervention influences their children’s likelihood of going to college. To conclude, having a balanced level of parent intervention provides the most benefit for student success.
The authoritative parenting style provides more positive influences in the areas of mental, autonomy, and academic compared to the other two parenting style. These areas play an important part in student success. The beneficial impacts can help a student with success, which can impact the quality of life they could have since success can help indicate how well someone is doing in life.
