Parents discipline and respond to their children in several different ways. The parenting style you incorporate when dealing with your children will affect every aspect of their life, as well as their future. Delinquency is a common result of adolescents acting out as a response to ineffective parenting techniques and can result in adult criminality.
Authoritarian
Parents who follow this form of extremely structured discipline have high expectations, expect their children to follow rules without question and may be unresponsive to the adolescent’s desires. This parenting style features frequent punishment for disobeying. Delinquency associated with this parenting style results from a lack of freedom and the need to defy rules. Being susceptible to negative peer pressure also is a common result of authoritarian parenting, as adolescents may learn to not stand up for themselves and may simply follow the crowd.
Authoritative
An authoritative parenting technique -- like an authoritarian style -- promotes rules and discipline, but that is where the similarities between the two styles end. This parenting style focuses on attempting to understand and reason with your child while setting boundaries. Researchers at the University of Georgia -- studying how parenting styles and community factors influence children's unruly behavior -- found that, often, parents who are understanding but firm with their children promote good behavior in their kids.
Permissive
Parents who try to be more of a friend than parent to their children practice permissive parenting. Few rules or punishments are associated with this parenting style, but there may be a greater degree of nurturing. Permissive parents demand less maturity of their children and have lower expectations. Since this is such a lenient form of parenting, delinquency may result from rare punishment, as the child may believe he can do anything without being reprimanded.
Uninvolved
With single-parent households and families with two working parents, there may be an increase in uninvolved parenting. Though they sometimes set rules, uninvolved parents may not pay enough attention to their children or may not be around their kids enough to enforce the guidelines. In a study on single-parent households, parenting style and delinquency, published in the "Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency," Stephen Demuth and colleagues found a positive relationship between delinquency and low levels of supervision, involvement, monitoring and closeness.
References
- "The Developing Child"; Helen Bee; 2000
- National Institute of Mental Health; Collective Efficacy, Parenting Styles and Delinquency -- A Longitudinal Test Integrating Community and Family-Level Processes; Ronald L. Simons, et al.;
- "Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency"; Family Structure, Family Processes and Adolescent Delinquency; Stephen DeMuth, et al.; 2004
