Parenting and the Authority / Authoritiveness Dimension

Discussion

Luke Conway:

"The distinction between good and bad authority can be seen in remarkable work on parenting by Cal Berkeley professor Diana Baumrind.

This work suggests there are two primary dimensions of parenting: Responsiveness/Warmth and Authority/Control.

How parents score on these two dimensions defines their parenting style. Parents who are low on both responsiveness and authority are Neglectful parents who basically don’t attend to their children at all. Parents who score high on responsiveness but low on authority are Indulgent parents who spoil their kids.

It is the contrast of the two high-authority parent types that is most relevant here. Parents who score high on authority but low on responsiveness are Authoritarian parents who are strict, dogmatic, and uncaring. However, parents who score high on authority but also score high on responsiveness are Authoritative. They expect obedience but they listen to their children and show warmth to them.

In my experience, it occasionally surprises some Americans that lots of research suggests kids have the best outcomes under Authoritative parents. Indulgent and Neglectful parents tend to raise unhappy and unsuccessful kids. So parents with no authority at all don’t do very well. Parents who have nothing but authority—cold authoritarians—also don’t do well. But parents with a combination of authority and responsiveness raise successful kids at very high rates."

(https://www.pressermag.com/september-2024/the-left-has-an-authoritarian-problem)