The style of parental education as a social and psychological concept refers to a set of ways and means of communication in relation to the partner. There are general, characteristic and specific styles of communication. As the determinants of the style of communication are the direction of personality as a generalized, relatively stable motivational trend, the position taken in relation to the partner of communication, and the parameters of the situation of communication.
Parental style is a generalized, characteristic, situational-unspecific way of communication of a given parent with a given child, it is a way of action in relation to a child.
V.S. Mukhina described several styles of education.
Liberal style implies permissiveness in relation to children. The source is excessive parental love. Children grow up undisciplined, irresponsible.
The democratic style is characterized by flexibility. Parents, motivating their deeds and requirements, listen to the opinion of children, respect their position, develop independence of judgments. As a result, children better understand their parents, grow up intelligently obedient, initiative, with a developed sense of self-esteem. They see in parents a model of citizenship, diligence, honesty and desire to raise children as they are.
Authoritarian style. According to the stereotypes, the same strict requirements for teenagers as in childhood continue to apply. Usually, if it was accepted earlier, here continue to apply physical punishment. In an authoritarian family, a teenager is just as lonely, unhappy and insecure as in childhood. However, the trends of his character development are already clearly visible: he becomes a carrier of an authoritarian way of interaction with people or, on the contrary, demonstrates a humiliated inadequate loyalty, passivity, behind which there is a high neurotization of an insecure teenager. The authoritarian family can also limit the teenager's possibilities in development.
A condescending style. In such a family continues to dominate the principle of permissiveness: the child has long been manipulating parents. Selfishness and accompanying conflict are the main characteristics of the nature of children from such families. Here the child is unhappy twice: the age itself is already a crisis of personal development + still disadvantages, formed in his personal position by the relations of permissiveness, that he will never offer real life. A teenager from a family with a condescending style of attitude towards him usually does not assimilate positive forms of communication: adequate loyalty to him is not known. He relies on those ways of influencing others who have successfully nourished his egoism all the years of his life in the family - aggression (which is expressed in unjustified intolerable exactingness and nihilism). A condescending family deprives a teenager of the possibility to realize the laws of social relations and makes him/her insolvent in real relations with others.
Authoritative style of parental behavior according to Bomrind - a way of action of parents, which is characterized by firm control over children and at the same time encouraging communication and discussion within the family of the rules of behavior established for the child. Parents' decisions and actions do not seem arbitrary or unfair to children, and therefore they easily agree with them. Thus, a high level of control is combined with a warm relationship in the family. Board pointed out that children are perfectly adapted, self-confident, have developed self-control and social skills, study well at school and have high self-esteem.
The indifferent style of parenting by McCoby and Martin is characterized by low control over children's behavior and lack of warmth and heart in their relationships with them. Parents with indifferent behavior do not impose restrictions on their children, either because of a lack of interest and attention to children or because the hardships of daily life do not leave them with the time and energy to raise their children. If the indifference of parents is combined with hostility (as in the case of rejecting parents), the child is not held back by anything to let go of his or her most destructive impulses and to show a tendency to delinquent behavior.
The described styles of attitudes towards the child demonstrate only trends in the conditions of personality development in adolescence. Real-life can be softer, more prosperous, but also tougher, more horrible, and incomprehensible. There can be many different styles of communication in a family at the same time, due to the heterogeneity of cultural levels of its members (grandparents, parents, and other relatives).