Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media

Parenting Styles

This article written by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett (2007) illustrated different kinds of parenting

techniques and distinction of parents from one kind to another. Furthermore, Arnett indicated

various effects of these parenting styles to a childs social and cognitive development. He also

included how parents involvement and management in television shows affect how their

children assess these shows as well. In the article, popular opinion holds that medias effect on

children is a matter of the quality of parenting. This is divided into two different concepts in the

research of parenting: (1) parenting practices, a concept which is designed for child-rearing

goals like punishing or rewarding children based on their behaviour, and (2) parenting styles,

more stable set of attitudes and promote non-violent context in parenting.

According to the article, Diana Baumrind created a typology of parenting styles. First is

authoritative parenting, which emphasizes responsiveness, high level of nurturance and parent-

involvement, sensitivity and control. Authoritarian parents stress obedience and great discipline

towards children. Permissive parents are the ones opposing the former for the embrace warmth

of acceptance and tolerance towards their children, but have lesser involvement than the

authoritarian parents. Neglectful parents, the fourth category, are worst parents who are not hands

on with their children even in smallest levels and dont understand nor care with childrens needs

and behaviors.

On the article, there are no studies linking parenting styles to childrens media use.

However, there is a similar concept called, family communication patterns which refers to the

communication between a parent and the child. This pattern has two dimensions: (1)
communication orientation emphasizes a mutual understanding of thoughts, feelings and

opinions; and (2) conformity orientation, stresses parental authority on which there is a need of

common idea to pursue understanding. According to studies, communication-oriented parents are

more likely to critically discus television content with children and instead of dictating they

rather guide students on how they perceive these shows as either positive or negative.On the

other side, according to Arnett, control oriented children are more likely to watch shows which

are preferred or mandated by their parents. Mothers of these children use more direct commands

and comments that children should or should not watch a particular show and imply to them on

how they interpret televisions. Arnett believes that all of these have implications on how children

interpret violent contents. Communication-oriented children were more likely to judge violence

based on the violent characters motivation like character physically hitting the other character of

the show.