THREE ESSENTIAL PARENTING PRINCIPLES By Craig H. Hart, '80
Parenting with love, limits, and latitude can have far-reaching
effects on children. YOU hear the all-too familiar squealing and
aren't surprised when you find your 2-year-old daughter and
4-year-old son in a tug-of-war match over a coveted toy. It has
already happened several times today, and you're beginning to
feel frustrated. How do you respond? How parents handle such
situations affects more than just the level of chaos in their
home. Research has shown that parenting style can also affect
children's social development. Over the past 20 years, I have
collaborated in studies of parents in several parts of the
United States and in Australia, China, and Russia, where we have
found surprising similarity in parenting styles and their
effects on children's social skills. Around the world most
parental behavior can be classified into one of three general
parenting stylescoercive, permissive, and authoritative. Our
research suggests that authoritative st