Socialization and the Role of Power Assertion Commentary on Baumrind

摘要

Very little research has had as long-lasting and significant an impact on the field of developmental psychology as Diana Baumrind's work on parenting styles. Indeed the number of citations of that work [Baumrind, 1967, 1971, 1991] stretches into the 1,000s. The distinction between authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting, which was such an important breakthrough in thinking 40 or more years ago, continues to be accepted as a meaningful way of conceptualizing different ways of parenting and the different outcomes associated with them. Common to these styles is the notion of control (or, in the case of permissive parenting, lack of control). And it is to control that Baumrind [this issue] has addressed an essay that forms a starting point for the present commentary.