On the other hand, the lack of support and encouragement from parents, as in neglectful or authoritarian families, could result in the children's low perception of self, or low self-esteem.
In other words, children of authoritative parents feel seen and valued for who they are. They know that they matter to important others. Therefore, they matter to themselves. This is the foundation of self-esteem.
Because permissive parenting involves a lack of demands and expectations, children raised by parents with this style tend to grow up without a strong sense of self-discipline. They may be more unruly in school due to the lack of boundaries in the home and may be less academically motivated than many of their peers.
Studies have found that authoritative parents are more likely to raise confident kids who achieve academic success, have better social skills and are more capable at problem-solving.
A child's self-esteem is guided by their parents. When parents foster positive, healthy, and nurturing relationships with their children, they feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, some children can also develop poor self-esteem at an early age when parents do not feel good about themselves.
Research shows that most people think strict parenting produces better-behaved kids. However, research studies on discipline consistently show that strict, or authoritarian, child-raising actually produces kids with lower self esteem who behave worse than other kids -- and therefore get punished more!
Parents and/or caregivers' ways of upbringing determines the way a child builds their idea of themselves. Overinvolved and neglectful parents both play a key role in child's self-esteem. Harsh and strict parenting conditions a child to believe that they are not good enough.
Uninvolved parenting is the worst style of parenting among the four types because children raised with this parenting style tend to fare the worse. Neglectful parenting can affect a child's well being and outcomes in development severely5.
Authoritarian (Too Hard): the authoritarian parenting style is characterized by high demandingness with low responsiveness. The authoritarian parent is rigid, harsh, and demanding. Abusive parents usually fall in this category (although Baumrind is careful to emphasize that not all authoritarian parents are abusive).
A positive parenting style is conducive to the development of self-esteem, while a negative parenting style is not conducive to the development of self-esteem (Rohner et al., 2005; Bowen and Kerr, 2009).
Authoritarian Parenting (Disciplinarian)
These strict parents demand blind obedience from their children without explanation. They use reasons such as “because I said so.” The authoritarian parenting style is also known as the disciplinarian parenting style.
Some parenting types help kids be mentally healthy as they grow and develop while others can create stress and mental health problems. The authoritative parenting style is accepted as the healthiest, most positive of all the styles. It is child-centered and responsive.
Authoritarian parents believe kids should follow the rules without exception. Children of authoritarian parents are at a higher risk of developing self-esteem problems because their opinions aren't valued.
Permissive parents tend to be warm, nurturing and usually have minimal or no expectations. They impose limited rules on their children. Communication remains open, but parents allow their children to figure things out for themselves. These low levels of expectation usually result in rare uses of discipline.
Analyzing the parenting style of mothers and fathers, authoritative was the most common parenting style and permissive was the least common parenting style. A study conducted by Bamhart et al.
Authoritative Parenting Style
They take the time to explain to their children why the rules are the way they are and encourage them to understand. They enforce boundaries and hold their children accountable but execute this in a compassionate and caring manner. The general outcome for these kids is positive.
Repeated exposure to overly harsh and critical parenting may condition children to overreact to their mistakes, thereby increasing risk for anxiety disorders.
Uninvolved These parents are “do nothing and say nothing” parents. Parents permit the children to do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it, without any rewards or consequences for their behavior. In extreme cases, this parenting style can develop into neglect or rejection of the children.
In the most severe cases, the cause of low self-esteem can be childhood trauma such as sexual or physical abuse, disasters, severe illness or bereavement. All of these experiences send a message to the child that the world around them is not safe. Nothing can be trusted.
Their self-esteem grows when parents pay attention, let a child try, give smiles, and show they're proud. As kids grow, self-esteem can grow too. Any time kids try things, do things, and learn things can be a chance for self-esteem to grow.
A child's self-esteem begins to be formed very early, and continues being created day by day. Self-esteem comes from learning to accept who we are by seeing the insufficiencies and still choosing to like ourselves. Every child's self-esteem grows with each experience of successful interactions through positive words.
The results are quite clear: Parents who "overvalue" children during this developmental stage, telling them they are superior to others and entitled to special treatment, are more likely to produce narcissistic children -- who can grow up to become narcissistic adults, unless something is done about it.
In sum, overprotective parenting may limit the learning experiences for children and young adults, which may foster entitlement and negative self-beliefs about impaired autonomy, which in turn may make individuals more prone to develop elevated narcissistic traits.
While strict and responsive parenting style (authoritative) produces the best outcomes in children, strict and unresponsive parenting style (authoritarian) produces adverse outcomes including behavior problems, low self-esteem, self-control issues, and mental health problems.