Every parent is different, and every child is raised differently. However, almost all parents tend to raise their children in one parenting style over another. At the most basic level, there are three styles of parenting, which were determined by psychologist Diana Baumrind in the mid-1900s. To begin, Baumrind’s three basic types of parenting styles were as follows:

• Authoritarian. This style of parenting usually includes overly harsh and critical parents that demand too much of their children. They usually control almost all aspects of a child’s life, can be abusive and not always responsive to a child’s needs.
• Authoritative. This parenting style is considered the healthiest. These parents can be firm when need be, but also allow children to be independent and make their own choices. They are both loving and disciplinary.
• Permissive. Permissive parents usually ask very little of their children, instead catering to the child’s whims. These parents are considered ‘push-overs’ that never enforce rules, establish authority or maintain control over their child.

These three parenting styles proved to have vastly different implications on a child’s self-esteem. The effects of these styles on self-esteem are as follows:

• Authoritarian: Kids with authoritarian parents usually suffer from extremely low self-esteem. This is most likely due to a feeling of rejection. Kids from authoritarian homes often feel they are disappointments or ‘not good enough,’ since they cannot always meet the demands of their parents. This can also lead to anxiety and social problems, which will further plummet a child’s self-esteem. Unneeded or over-the-top disciplinary strategies can also cause these children to become fearful and lack the self-esteem to stand up for themselves.
• Authoritative: Authoritative parents are proven to have children with the best self-esteem levels of the parenting styles. Providing children with adequate direction, but also allowing them independence seems to foster good values and practices that lead children to have better self-esteem. These kids often know they have the direction, as well as the love, of their parents, which aids their self-esteem tremendously.
• Permissive: Children from permissive families often have better self-esteem that those from authoritative; however, they do still suffer from self-esteem problems. Children with permissive parents may feel uncared for because parents may not show interest in their activities. They may also be confronted with blows to self-esteem later on, when they do not receive the lavished attention and affection from others as they did with their parents.

Children with the healthiest levels of self-esteem achieve the appropriate mix of discipline and love often found in authoritative parenting. The other parenting styles tend to damage self-esteem instead of improve it.