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Parenting Styles: What Works Best?

There are three main parenting styles: permissive, authoritative, and assertive.
- Permissive: Children largely drive the household decisions; parents are lenientnt.
- Authoritative: Parents strictly control rules and decisions; often “my way or the highway.”
- Assertive: A middle ground; parents balance empathy and firmness, allowing for collaborative decision-making.
Research shows that children from assertive households tend to have fewer anxiety and depression issues and develop better social competence.
No single parenting style is universally “wrong”; effectiveness depends on child-specific needs (goodness-of-fit principle).
Assertive parenting generally yields the best overall outcomes, combining structure with emotional support.

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