Authoritarian parents likelier to raise disrespectful, delinquent kids

Children of authoritarian parents whose child-rearing style can be summed up as “it’s my way or the highway” are more likely to grow with disrespectful and delinquent behaviour than their peers of authoritative parents who listen to their children and gain their respect and trust, say researchers.

These kids also do not see their controlling parents as legitimate authority figures, according to a new research from the University of New Hampshire.

“When children consider their parents to be legitimate authority figures, they trust the parent and feel they have an obligation to do what their parents tell them to do. This is an important attribute for any authority figure to possess, as the parent does not have to rely on a system of rewards and punishments to control behaviour, and the child is more likely to follow the rules when the parent is not physically present,” said Rick Trinkner, a doctoral candidate at UNH and the lead researcher.

This is the first study to look at whether parenting styles influence adolescents’ beliefs about the legitimacy of parent authority and if those perceptions affect delinquent behaviour.

For the study, the researchers relied on data from the New Hampshire Youth Study, an ongoing, longitudinal survey of middle school and high school students examining the psychological, sociological, developmental, and legal factors that influence adolescent delinquency.

Analyses reported are based on data collected over an 18-month period beginning in the fall of 2007.

“The style that parents used to rear their children had a direct influence on whether those children perceived their parents as legitimate authority figures. Adolescents who perceived parents as legitimate were then less likely to engage in delinquent behaviour. Thus, authoritative parenting may be more effective than the other styles because this style makes adolescents more willing to accept their parents’ attempts to socialise them and subsequently follow their rules,” Trinkner said.

“Conversely, authoritarian parents have the opposite effect in that they actually reduce the likelihood of their children perceiving their authority as legitimate. Adolescents from authoritarian parents are more likely to resist their parents’ attempts at socialisation,” he said.

While the children of permissive parents were less likely to respect their parents as authority figures, the researchers found they were no more or no less likely to engage in delinquent behaviour.

According to the researchers, the results show that fostering and creating parental legitimacy is one technique for parents to exert control over their children. Additionally, parents are more likely to be viewed as legitimate authorities if they utilise authoritative parenting practices rather than authoritarian or permissive practices, which tend to undermine parental authority.

The results are presented in the February issue of the Journal of Adolescence.