The literatures identifies three parenting "styles" - authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive.
As the name suggests, the authoritarian style is one where parents demand obedience from their children and exercise strict control; this style is often associated with corporal punishment. Permissive parents, in contrast, follow a laissez-faire approach and let children make their own choices. The authoritative style is one where parents attempt to influence their children’s choices, but they do so by reasoning with them and by shaping their values.The authors find in more economically equal nations, the permissive style is more common. In societies with a high degree of economic inequality, and a high return on education, permissiveness is uncommon. Interestingly, so is the authoritarian style, for the following reason:
From the economic perspective, the advantage of the authoritative approach is that the children, once successfully indoctrinated, no longer need to be monitored to do the right thing – they will implement the parent’s preferred choices on their own accord.Their findings lead them to the following predictions:
The crucial phase of education is now often the college or post-graduate level rather than elementary or secondary school. Once off to university, children are no longer under the direct control of their parents, and they will succeed only if the appropriate values (such as valuing hard work and academic success) have already been instilled in them.
Given that the spread of higher education is unlikely to reverse, our theory predicts that authoritarian parenting will continue its current decline. (snip) Regarding permissive versus authoritative parenting, the evolution of the return to education is what matters. If the march towards higher inequality continues, the current era will mark the beginning of a sustained trend towards ever pushier parenting.
