A Third Emerging Stage for the Current Digital Society? Optimal Parenting Styles in Spain, the United States, Germany, and Brazil.

Fernando Garcia,Oscar Garcia,Edie Cruise,Emilia Serra,Isabel Martinez

doi:10.3390/ijerph16132333

Abstract

We propose a new paradigm with three historical stages for an optimal parenting style (i.e., indulgent parenting style), which extends the traditional paradigm of only two stages (i.e., authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles). The three stages concur, at the same time, in different environments, context, and cultures. We studied the third stage for optimal parent–child relationships through the offspring’s personal and social well-being, with four adolescent samples from 11 to 19 years old (52.2% girls) from Spain (n = 689), the United States (n = 488), Germany (n = 606), and Brazil (n = 672). The offspring’s personal well-being was measured through self-esteem (academic, social, emotional, family, and physical), while social well-being was measured with the internalization of self-transcendence (universalism and benevolence) and conservation values (security, conformity, and tradition). The parent–child parenting style was measured through parental warmth and strictness, and the adolescents’ parents were classified into one of four groups (indulgent, authoritarian, authoritative, and neglectful). Remarkably, the greatest personal well-being was found for adolescents raised with higher parental warmth and lower parental strictness (i.e., indulgent), and the greatest social well-being was found for adolescents raised with higher parental warmth (i.e., indulgent and authoritative; p < 0.05 for all countries). Consistently, poorer personal well-being and social well-being were associated with less parental warmth (i.e., authoritarian and neglectful). Findings suggest that the parent–child relationships analyzed have a common pattern associated with personal and social well-being that coincide with a proposed third stage.

Highlights

Parents raise their children within a specific time and cultural environment
The present study examines theassociation association between between parenting styles with the the social competence examines the parenting styles with social competence pattern and adjustment of Spanish, North American, German, and Brazilian adolescents from pattern and adjustment of Spanish, North American, German, and Brazilian adolescents from middle-class families through a two-dimensional four-typology model of parenting styles in a large middle-class families through a two-dimensional four-typology model of parenting styles in a large sample
In order to capture social competence and adjustment among adolescents, we examined sample

Summary

Introduction

Parents raise their children within a specific time and cultural environment. Parenting literature has traditionally suggested two different historical stages of optimal parenting styles over the past century or so. In the last century, in a first stage, for example, John B. Warned parents about spoiling their children with superfluous displays of affection and warmth, while recommending strictness—imposing regular habits on them in order to instill self-discipline, following an authoritarian style. In the historical second stage, considering an industrial society perspective and unclear parenting research evidence, Laurence Steinberg (2001) [2] strengthened the idea that parental warmth and parental strictness, characterizing the authoritative style, are both key to children’s well-being in “contemporary, industrialized societies” Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2333; doi:10.3390/ijerph16132333 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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