As a parent, you want your child to have a healthy social life, but you may wonder what you can do to help your child in this area. It can be more difficult to know how to help your child socially than it is to help with other important skills. However, parenting style has been found to impact children’s social skills. In this article, we will discuss four common parenting styles and how they can affect your child’s social skills.
Parenting Styles and Their Effects on Social Skills
Four common parenting styles are democratic, authoritative, permissive, and neglectful, with the democratic parenting style being the most common. Parents can have a mix of these parenting styles and can change their style over time.
Democratic Style
Parents who use a democratic style of parenting tend to openly show affection for their children. They also show concern for their children’s needs and give explanations for their demands. These parents tend to discuss things openly with their children, encourage the behavior they want in them, and explain any disciplinary actions they take. The environment in these homes is loving and democratic. The children of parents with this style of parenting tend to develop good social skills. They also tend to be motivated, happy, and reliable, have self-control, and be sociable in and out of the home.
Permissive Style
Parents with this style of parenting are generally not concerned about their children’s behavior, whether it’s good or bad. The parents typically do not punish misbehavior and are willing to accept whatever the children want to do without restrictions. Children who live in these homes generally do not develop good social skills. They often have low self-esteem and self-control. Additionally, the children do not tend to be emotionally stable or have good self-concept. These children also suffer from insecurity, have little respect for other people or rules, and have poor academic achievement.
Authoritative Style
This style of parenting involves establishing clear rules that children must follow and providing punishment to enforce expectations more often than praise for compliance. These parents often assert their authority, and there is little dialogue between the parents and children and little tolerance for mistakes. Children raised by parents with this parenting style do not have much independence and tend to lack self-confidence and creativity. They also are not as happy as children of parents with some other parenting styles, and have morals that are based on avoiding punishment. Additionally, these children generally have poor social skills.
Neglectful Style
Parents who have a neglectful or uninvolved style of parenting, as it is also called, do not show much interest in their children or provide much supervision. These parents show little affection toward their children and generally do not have any rules for them to follow. In fact, these parents tend to provide little more than the essentials of clothing, shelter, and food. Children of these parents generally lack commitment, motivation, and maturity. They also tend to be aggressive, impulsive, and have poor social skills.
Other Factors Affecting Social Skills
Although these parenting styles tend to cause certain effects or traits in children, these effects can vary. A child’s personal traits will help determine how a certain parenting style affects them. There is no definitively correct parenting style for raising a child to have good social skills. Additionally, parents need to consider how their parenting will affect a child’s other skills and qualities.
Furthermore, the effect a parenting style has may differ depending on a child’s culture and community, and social skills can be acquired at school and in other social situations as well, so these need to be considered when determining why a child does or does not have good social skills.
Conclusion
According to a study on the National Library of Medicine website, your parenting style has a significant effect on your child’s social skills. However, the study also states that social skills are acquired “through training, observation, imitation, trial and information.” So, your child will also learn these skills at school and through interactions in their other social groups. This means that if you feel your child’s social skills need improvement, you can get help. Online social skills classes can help your child improve their social skills along with other children in a supportive environment. We also have in-person social skills training available. If you need further help, be sure to reach out to our team via our contact page.