GA511

CHILDREN’S SOCIAL EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Class Activity

Read the article by blogger and answer the question:

http://cilisos.my/6-types-of-malaysian-parents

1. Do you agree with these classifications of Malaysia parenting types?

As it is asserted and accepted in current theories of parenting, there are four types of parenting
(child-rearing) when it involves parent-child relationship ; Assortative, authoritarian, permissive and
uninvolved. I do agree with the Malaysian parenting style discussed in this article, as in my view they
are reflecting the subscales of the formerly mentioned styles in details. Furthermore, the role of
audience when providing a specific information should not be neglected. This article has been
published in a blog (not a scholarly article) therefore, it is expected that parents seeking
improvements in their child-rearing styles or handful of interested readers with no or limited
background of child and adolescents’ psychology will be identified as the participants. Hence, it is
vital to retain the content in a practical yet simple fashion for better appreciation of the described
facets in the article.

In other perspective, it is not irrelevant to pinpoint the considerable amount of parenting examples
that is observable in everyday experiences and interaction. Walking in a shopping mall or going to a
restaurant, for instance, can be considered a valid source, consistent with the indicated parenting
styles in Malaysia.

2. To what extent these six types of parenting match or differ from Baumrind’s
parenting styles? Justify your answer.
It is known that 6 parenting styles in Malaysia can outnumber the parenting styles based on
Baumrind’s parenting styles. In my perspective, they shouldn’t be considered detached from each
other as they are presenting two separate pararell fashion. “Nurturing parents”, for instance,
designates “authoritative parents” in Baumrind’s category of parenting since they both considered
to be high in acceptance and involvement, making reasonable demands based on child’s
development and always reason about their expectations and demands with the children. Moreover,
they believe in gradual autonomy granting on the basis of the child’s readiness.

Similarly, “Tiger parents” and “Rotan parents” reflect the “Authoritarian parenting” in the beginning
and the end of a continuum. Authoritarian parents in Baumrind’s point of view are the ones with
low acceptance and involvement and extremely high on controlling their children and therefore low
in autonomy granting. The reason I classified them in a beginning and end of a continuum was due
to their level of control satisfaction. To clarify more, when these group of parents do not encounter
any resistance from the child, yelling, commanding, criticizing and threating behaviors will be
demonstrated. Which virtually presents the “Tiger parent” perspective. However, when the face
with the child’s resistance, their behavior might be redirected to force and punishment which
exhibits “Rotan parents”.

In addition, in my view, while “overindulgent” displays “permissive child-rearing”; however, “cool

beans” and “clueless aunty and uncle” can be combination of both “permissive” and “uninvolved”.
“Permissive” parenting is high in acceptance and involvement, makes no or few demands and high in
autonomy granting while “uninvolved” is low in acceptance and involvement, control and autonomy
granting. Furthermore, an interesting point that has been overlooked in Malaysian parenting, in my
opinion, is the characteristics of “uninvolved” parents which can be described as being emotionally
detached and often depressed. This is highly observable in parents with uninvolved child-rearing and
usually involves with neglect as a form of child maltreatment and this has been disregarded in
parenting styles in Malaysia.

3. If you are a parent of a preschooler (5 years old), which parenting style would
you prefer, and what positive socioemotional outcomes would you expect to
observe in your child if you practice this parenting style? Give examples of how
would you practice the chosen style in daily life.
What is noticeable in all the discussed parenting style is the mutual goal of parents in nurturing and
educating their children to be successful and competent individuals in the society in every aspect.
The problem, however, is the lack of knowledge or false beliefs or values about nurturing their child
due to the cultural biases or the type of rearing they have been brought up with previously.

On the other hand, “Nurturing parenting style” or “authoritative child-rearing” would seem the most
practical and reasonable type of parenting although fulfilling the essential criteria to be addressed as
one, seems to be hard work yet accessible. Authoritative parents are known to be high in acceptance
and involvement and exerting adaptable control techniques. Moreover, they tend to grant
appropriate autonomy when the child readiness to take responsibility for a specific activity is clear.

It is proved that children with authoritative parents are more likely to encounter an upbeat mood
and gain more and self-control, social and moral maturity and favourable school performance.

Some examples of authoritative in daily life might be as follows:

1. When the child has a problem with opening the lid of the jar the authoritative parents would
react: “a jar can be hard to open. Sometimes it helps if you tap the lid with a spoon”

2. When the child is bothering a cat, authoritative parents first would ask the child to stop
bugging the cat. Most likely they will face with the child asking the reason of not doing the
act. Authoritative parents would reply with “listen, sweetheart, when you bug the cat, you
hurt him. How about we get an activity we can both do together?”. In this example, the
parent provided the child with explanations of why she should not do such a behavior and
tried to redirect the unfavorable child’s behavior into an interacting and constructive
activity.
4. What is the current parenting trend in Malaysia?
In collectivist societies such as Malaysia, people accept and follow collectivist values.
Therefore, most of the Malaysian parents tend to have an authoritarian child-rearing
while it is considered as a normative parenting style among parents and do not
designate a negative parenting style in the society. On the contrary, in western and
industrialized countries it is considered as a negative child-rearing. This might be due
to individualistic values and the culture’s normative data.

In addition, authoritarian prospective is constructed with the ultimate goal of

achieving an optimal development in children, which conveys the parents’ concerns
for the child and their competency in the future.

Roshanak zarei