The Need to Bridge the Gap between Research on Children’s Rights and Parenting Styles: Authoritative/Democratic Style as an Acultural Model for the Child’s Well-Being

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child contains specific provisions on parent–child relations and parenting, but these provisions can be described as elusive. Furthermore, the Convention does not explicitly specify a children’s rights-friendly parenting style. On the other hand, there is a disconnect between research on children’s rights and parenting styles. Based on the insights of the meta-theoretical critical realist approach, this paper argues that universal human flourishing is inconceivable without the development of a children’s rights-friendly parenting style. It is argued that the Convention’s provisions on parent–child relations can be adapted to the perceptions of average parents, especially living in paternalistic societies, by adapting the conceptualizations of parenting styles developed by Baumrind and Lakoff. Overall, research on children’s rights, supported by literature on children’s rights-friendly parenting, can show that children’s rights do not alienate parental rights and responsibilities. Instead, children’s rights give appropriate direction to parental authority and responsibility to realize the child’s well-being.