Parenting Styles, Discipline, and Child Development

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing core terms and concepts from the lecture on parenting styles, discipline practices, family contexts, and child outcomes.

Authoritative Parenting

A high-warmth, high-control style using adaptive guidance, setting clear limits while encouraging autonomy.

Authoritarian Parenting

A low-warmth, high-control style that relies on coercive demands and restricts child autonomy.

Permissive Parenting

A high-warmth, low-control style that allows children excessive autonomy and few limits.

Uninvolved Parenting

A low-warmth, low-control style marked by indifference to the child’s needs and autonomy.

Adaptive Control

Discipline aimed at teaching and guiding the child toward appropriate, independent behavior.

Coercive Control

Discipline aimed at forcing obedience to parental will, often through threats or punishment.

Autonomy (in parenting)

The degree to which parents allow children to think and act independently.

Dyadic Parenting

Both parents consistently using the same parenting style—often amplifying its effects on the child.

Positive Parenting

A framework emphasizing teaching moments, reduced misbehavior opportunities, explanations for rules, collaboration, and praise.

Transgression as Teaching Opportunity

Using a child’s misbehavior to discuss motives, consequences, and better choices.

Corporal Punishment

The use of physical force, such as spanking, to discipline a child.

Spanking

A form of corporal punishment involving light swats, linked to negative behavioral and mental-health outcomes.

Child Maltreatment

Any act endangering a child’s physical or emotional well-being, including abuse and neglect.

Physical Abuse

Bodily injury that leaves marks or bruises, ranging from over-zealous spanking to severe battery.

Neglect

Failure to provide adequate supervision, nutrition, medical care, or schooling for a child.

Emotional Abuse

Chronic shaming, terrorizing, or exploiting a child, damaging self-worth and mental health.

Sexual Abuse

Any sexual act imposed on a child, from fondling to rape or exhibitionism.

Hostile Attribution Bias

The tendency to interpret ambiguous child behavior as intentionally antagonistic, common in abusive adults.

Resilient Child

A youngster who overcomes early trauma to achieve healthy, successful adult functioning.

Self-Efficacy

A person’s belief in their ability to succeed; high levels bolster resilience.

Sibling Relationship Quality

The degree of warmth or conflict between brothers and sisters, influenced by temperament and parental treatment.

Birth-Order Effects

Typical personality and behavior differences associated with being a firstborn versus laterborn child.

Empathy Development

The growth of the capacity to understand others’ feelings, fostered by supportive parenting and sibling interaction.

Post-Divorce Socioeconomic Status

A family’s financial position after divorce, a key predictor of child academic and social outcomes.

Human Capital (parental)

Knowledge, skills, and social resources parents transmit to children to navigate the world.

Poverty Threshold

Government-defined income level below which basic needs are hard to meet; linked to developmental risks.

Head Start Program

A U.S. early-education initiative aimed at offsetting developmental delays in children from low-income families.

Externalizing Behavior

Outward-directed problems such as aggression and rule-breaking, often linked to harsh discipline.

Internalizing Behavior

Inward-focused problems like anxiety, withdrawal, or depression, sometimes associated with corporal punishment.

Positive Reinforcement

Rewarding desired behavior to increase its likelihood, shown to be more effective than punishment in discipline.