The Influence of Parenting Styles on Children’s Cognitive Development

Based on a larger longitudinal project of family stress and children’s development, the primary objective of the current study was to investigate the relationships between parenting styles and children’s cognitive ability in families with young elementary school-aged children. Parents completed a self-administered survey on family experiences, including parenting styles. Children were interviewed at their schools where the Brief Intellectual Ability portion of the Woodcock-Johnson III was administered. The findings of the current study indicate that parenting styles are not better predictors of children’s cognitive ability than family socioeconomic-demographic characteristics. The Influence of Parenting Styles on Children’s Cognitive Development A great deal of literature published before the 1990s examined the effects of parenting styles on children’s outcomes, particularly establishing the benefits to children of authoritative parenting as opposed to the negative outcomes produced by authoritarian and permissive parenting (Demo & Cox, 2000). The age group included in the present study has been understudied, however. Most of the existing studies that examine the relationship between parenting styles and children’s cognitive development are comprised of families with adolescent