Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PARENTING STYLES ON COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT

The Effects of Parenting Styles on Cognitive Development

Katie Morgan
The University of Memphis

Parenting Styles and Cognitive Development

The Effects of Parenting Styles on Cognitive Development

There is constant debate on what makes a good parent. How should a parent raise his
or her child? Diana Baumrind describes three different types of parenting styles: authoritative,
authoritarian and permissive. About fifteen years later, Maccoby and Martin adds a fourth
parenting style: neglectful. According to Windsor, Murrell, and Mabel-Jackson (2015), each
parenting style affects a child differently. Childrens actions and behavior reflect his or her
parents parenting style, so what is the best parenting style for cognitive development?
First, it is important to understand the four different types of parenting styles.
Authoritative parents demand a lot from their child, and they provide the necessary support for
the child to succeed. Authoritarian parents also demand a lot from their children; however, they
do not provide any support for their child. On the other hand, permissive parents do not demand
a lot out of their child, but they provide tons of support. Neglectful parents are never around the
child; therefore, they do not demand anything, nor do they provide any support. (Windsor,
Murrell, & Mabel-Jackson, 2015).
On the other hand, Windsor, Murrell, and Mabel-Jackson (2015) say that the cognitive
school of thought focuses on how people think, reason, and make sense of their world (p. 6).
Therefore, cognitive development focuses on how a childs mind develops. According to
Georgias Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) (2015), cognitive development
refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of his or her world. Cognitive
development includes intelligence, information processing, language development, memory, and
reasoning. One major component of cognitive development is a persons thought process: how a
person makes decision, remembers, and solves problems. (DECAL, 2015).

Parenting Styles and Cognitive Development

Starting from birth, cognitive development begins and hopefully increases as a person
gets older. So, it is extremely crucial that a parent provides the necessary support for the childs
brain to fully develop. Within the first four years of a childs life, the childs brain increasingly
develops from not knowing anything to expressing his or her thoughts and feelings with other
people (DECAL, 2015). According to DECAL (2015), at birth, babies begin to actively learn.
They become aware of their environment and start exploring and understand the world they live
in. They gather, sort, and process information from around them, using the data to develop
perception and thinking skills (DECAL, 2015). By the time the child is one-year-old, they are
in the act of discovering the world. They enthusiastically use their senses to explore everything
they can. They also enjoy sharing interesting learning experiences with adults, and they may use
gestures and simple sounds or speech to ask adults questions (DECAL, 2015). Two-year-olds
continue to explore the world and begin solving simple problems by trial and error. They
practice an activity numerous times hoping to solve it (DECAL). DECAL (2015) says that their
budding language skills and desire to learn prompt many why', what' and how' questions. By
age three, children know what they want and express their preferences (DECAL, 2015).
Therefore, it is extremely important that a parent in actively involved in a childs life from the
beginning. It is crucial that a parent answers any questions a child asks because parents are the
primary source of a childs information. Children enter this world as helpless humans and depend
on their parents to guide them through lifes journeys as they grow and develop.
As a result, permissive and neglectful parents are not involved in the childs life as often
as they should be. Therefore, these types of parents do not have any positive effects on a childs
cognitive development. A childs mind does not grow and develop like it should with permissive
and neglectful parents. Authoritarian parents do not respond to their child; these parents set the

Parenting Styles and Cognitive Development

rules and do not allow the child to challenge the status quo. The child must accept the rules as
they are and cannot interact with his or her parents way of discipline. Authoritarian parents
discourage verbal skills and do not give any opportunities for the childs mind to grow and
develop. Since authoritarian parents rarely engage with the child except for disciplining the
child, the child is not given many chances to express his or her own thoughts and feelings.
Therefore, he or she is less likely to reach the higher stages of cognitive and moral
development because the child lacks verbal skills and confidence in challenging the status
quo (Windsor, Murrell, & Mabel-Jackson, 2015).
On the contrary, in a research article by Lucia Tramonte, Anne H. Gauthier, and J.
Douglass Willms (2015) titled Engagement and Guidance: The Effects of Maternal Parenting
Practices on Childrens Development, The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth
observed the parenting practices of the biological mothers of approximatively 10,000 children
aged six to eleven years old from intact families (Tramonte, Gauthier, & Willms, 2015).
Tramonte et al. says that in children six years old, there was a positive correlation between
engagement and guidance for cognitive development (2015). According to Tremonte et al., high
parent engagement helps a child to be more self-regulated, have more self-confidence, and have
better social skills (2015). Since authoritative parents highly engage in their child while setting
high standards, the child with authoritative parents is usually equipped with good verbal
skills [and is] likely to excel in school as well as...advance to the higher stages of cognitive
and moral development (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987 as cited in
Windsor, Murrell, & Mabel-Jackson, 2015). Authoritative parents give their child an opportunity
to challenge the status quo by encouraging verbal skills and independent thinking. So, cognitive
development matures better with parents who greatly engage in their children.

Parenting Styles and Cognitive Development

Similarly, in another research article by Dr. Benjamin G. Gibbs and Dr. Renata Forste, a
nationally longitudinal research survey of early aged children examined how breastfeeding
practices, the early introduction of solid foods, and putting an infant to bed with a bottle were
associated with cognitive development across early childhood. [The research survey] also
explored whether this link can be explained by parenting behaviors and maternal education
(2014). This research showed that children who were breastfed for three or more months had
better reading skills than children who were not breastfed for three or more months. However,
the mothers who breastfed their children were all more supporting mothers and/or more educated
women, but there was not a connection between more educated mothers and cognitive
development (Gibbs & Forste, 2014). In other words, even though there is not a correlation
between more educated mothers who breastfeed and cognitive development, there is a
relationship between mothers who breastfeed in general and cognitive development. Mothers
who breastfeed in general seem to be more supporting mothers than mothers who do not
breastfeed. A mother does not have to be well educated or have a doctrine to help childs mind
grow and develop; a mother simply needs to involved in the childs life. The mother needs to be
supportive and encouraging. For instance, Gibbs and Forste found that reading to a child every
day and being sensitive to a child's development are significant predictors of math and reading
readiness outcomes (2014).
Gibbs and Forste (2014) agree with Tramonte, Gauthier, and Willms by saying that
parenting styles have a direct impact on child development. Gibbs and Forste (2014) say that
parenting indicators such as sensitivity, cognitive stimulation, and warmth have been linked to
child intellectual development. When parents are more sensitive to a childs cues, emotions, and
abilities, the child feels like someone cares about them. The parent promotes learning when he or

Parenting Styles and Cognitive Development

she is actively involved in the childs life. Active parents commonly read with their child, tell
stories to their child, and even sometimes use technology with the child; all of these activities
stimulate cognitive development in children (Gibbs & Forste, 2014).
So in conclusion, research has found that authoritative parents promote the best cognitive
development because they are the most involved in their childs life. Even though permissive
parents provide lot of support for their child, they do not put any demands on their child.
Therefore, their child does not have any expectations to live up to; the child can basically do as
he or she pleases. Authoritarian parents set high expectations, but they do not engage with their
child. They expect the child to accept rules and discipline exactly as the parents set them and not
question anything. Neglectful parents are basically out of the childs life all together. They are
not involved in the childs life enough to set any demands nor provide any support. However,
authoritative parents place high demands on their child and provide him or her the support and
guidance to achieve those demands. Authoritative parents are all around more involved in their
childs life. Starting from birth, authoritative parents actively engage in the childs life and that
has shown to help the childs brain develop more and help the child on achievement tests. A child
with authoritative parents learns to analyze and understand many different situations, and the
parent helps the child with any problems he or she encounters. Authoritative parents promote
challenging the status quo and helps the child develop better verbal skills. So according to Lucia
Tramonte, Anne H. Gauthier, J. Douglass Willms, Dr. Benjamin G. Gibbs, and Dr. Renata Forste,
the best parenting style for cognitive development is the authoritative parenting style.

Parenting Styles and Cognitive Development

References
Barber, B. K., Stolz, H. E., & Olsen, J. A. (2005). Parental support, psychological control, and
behavioral control: Assessing relevance across time, culture, and method. Monographs of
the Society for Research in Child Development.
Georgias Department of Early Care and Learning. (2015). Cognitive development. Retrieved
from http://www.decal.ga.gov/ChildCareServices/CognitiveDevelopment.aspx.
Gibbs, B. G., & Forste, R. (2014). Breastfeeding, parenting, and early cognitive development.
The Journal of Pediatrics, 164(3), 487-493. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.10.015.
Morrison, F. J. (2009). Parenting and Academic Development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 55(3),
361-372. Wayne State University Press.
Tramonte, L., Gauthier, A. H., & Willms, J. D. (2015). Engagement and guidance: The effects of
maternal parenting practices on childrens development. Journal of Family Issues, 36(3),
396-420. doi:10.1177/0192513X13489959.
Windsor, D. L., Murrell, V.S., & Mabel-Jackson, S. (2015). Lifespan developed: An educational
psychology perspective. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.