Bullying could be caused by parenting style
Categories: In the news, Environment
A University of Cincinnati research student recent reviewed studies on bullying from several different countries. What she found (and what she reported to the American Sociological Association) is that certain parenting styles may predict bullying behavior.Elizabeth Sweeney found that children of parents who use an authoritarian parenting style -- demanding yet unresponsive -- are more likely exhibit bullying behavior. Her theory is an obvious one; kids who learn to be aggressive or dominating at home are more likely to repeat that behavior in the schoolyard. Interestingly, she found that kids from middle incomes are less likely to bully than those from low or high socioeconomic groups.
Psychologists divide parenting styles into four different categories -- permissive, authoritative, authoritarian, and uninvolved. Research has shown that kids thrive in an authoritative environment, though I think we all might fall in and out of those four different parenting methods, depending on our own emotional well-being at the moment.
If your child finds himself or herself being bullied, either physically, emotionally, or even though email or the internet, Mayo Clinic has some tips for stopping the problem before it gets out of hand.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
pbhj 8-05-2008 @ 4:18PM
The four different classes in the linked study start with "Indulgent parents" ... I'm guessing that's you and you don't like that tag?
You don't call the "authoritarians" strong, you don't call the "authoratative" supportive (they are clear, narrow definitions)?
Gah!
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Kitten 8-05-2008 @ 11:49PM
The study itself uses the phrase "permissive":
"Indulgent parents (also referred to as "permissive" or "nondirective")"
It means almost the exact same thing within this study. If this blogger had really wanted to soften the first grouping, I would have thought she'd use 'nondirective' which has the least negative meaning to me.
Bethany Sanders 8-05-2008 @ 11:54PM
Pbjh --
Permissive and indulgent are the same thing, in developmental psychology, anyway. Just spewing back what I learned in Child Development 101 (where they used the term permissive).
Sorry, no Freudian insights into my parenting style here.
Jenni 8-06-2008 @ 2:22PM
When I saw the title to this entry, the first thing that ran through my head was: "DUH!"
After I read the article, I still say, "DUH!"
There was no insight for me. Of course parenting style is going to be relative to a bullying behavior!
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Carrie 8-06-2008 @ 11:08PM
This doesn't surprise me at all. Authoritarian and permissive parenting are two sides of the same coin. Both of them are fear based. Authoritarian parents fear that their kids will turn into brats or axe murderers if they don't have total control. Permissive parents fear losing their kid's affection if they set boundaries. Neither one works well and creates emotional difficulties in the kid.
http://www.naturalmomstalkradio.com/blog
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