Influence of Parenting Style on Children’s Behaviour

This research determined the influence of parents and their parenting styles on children’s behavior. The author examined different parenting styles to understand which style leads the children to be juvenile delinquent, that ultimately makes the children low academic achievers. In this paper, the researcher attempts to bring an original contribution through the identification of what is missing in the literature thus offering recommendations for future research on the role of parents in shaping the future of their children. Much research has been done on the role of parents in shaping the future of their children; however, more comprehensive research needs to be conducted on the role of parents and different parenting styles on their children’s behavior. A qualitative paradigm was preffered using in-depth interviews with two mothers of children with delinquent behavior. The findings revealed that authoritarian parenting style leads the children to become rebellious and adopt problematic behavior due tomore than necessary power exercised on children by parents. In contrast, authoritative parenting style is effective for children, as it encourages moderate parenting style. There is a demonstrated need reported in the literature that parents who spend maximum time with their children reduce the probability of developing delinquent behavior among their children. Spending more time together with the adolescents reciprocate through


Introduction
Juvenile delinquency is one of the emerging concerns not only in Pakistan, but also across the entire world. According to Saleem (2011), youth in Karachi are largely kept in custody for snatching or stealing mobile phones, robberies and other petty crimes. In rural Sindh, youth is often involved in more serious crimes, including murder, rape, sodomy and tribal clashes. The majority of juvenile delinquents are male engaged in violent and illicit crimes including rape, murder, property crimes and many more. In the era of globalization, it has been indicated that the nature of offenses are becoming more violent (Siegel & Welsh, 2014). Since the widespread of juvenile delinquency has become a social problem, it has become extremely important to study this problem and to evaluate the influence of parenting styles as an underlying cause of this behavior.
According to Hoge (2001), the criminal act regarding youth can be defined as an action that violates an ordinance or law of jurisdiction in which that action is performed. In the light of a broader definition of youthful criminal act, juvenile delinquency refers to what juvenile court believes is supposed to be brought within its jurisdiction. In other words, juvenile delinquency refers to the law breaking acts committed by adolescents under the age of 18. Some of the common examples of major law breaking acts are rape, murder, theft, robbery and property crimes. On;. the other hand, minor law breaking acts can be considered as the acts of misconduct, underage drinking and truancy. From this perspective, Stahl et al (2005) point out that according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, adolescents are more often engaged in a variety of crimes that can be divided into three distinct categories: (a) violent crimes, (b) status offenses, and (c) drug violation (Silsby, 2012).
The following represents the delineated law breaking acts often committed by juveniles known as delinquent. Table 1 Categories of Law Breaking Acts In the light of Table 1, status offenses can be explained as illegal crimes for juveniles, also known as minors, while these status offenses are not illegal for adults. For instance, smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol is legal for adults but illegal for juveniles in many countries. In a Pakistani society, status offenses committed by juveniles are considered as serious crimes. Talpur, Pathan, and Shah (2012) state, "Status offences would not be called crime if committed by an adult, for example, running away from home, staying out late night, smoking cigarette and leaving the office early, but the same Sarwar acts if committed by a juvenile would be considered as delinquent acts in nature" (p. 37). Nevertheless, whether in Pakistani culture or in other cultures, juvenile delinquency is widely considered as an antisocial behavior displayed by children or adolescents. On the other hand, Fakhar (2014) points out that Pakistan can be counted as an unfortunate country, as the rate of juvenile delinquency in this country is relatively high. He believes that cultural, economic and social conditions existing in a country determine the severity and intensity of juvenile offences. It is clear in the light of academic research that family influence is one of the fundamental causes that leads the children to be delinquent (Farrington, 2010;Glueck & Glueck, 2013).
Parents play an influential role in molding and shaping the behavior of adolescents. From this perspective, Coste (2015) recognizes the work of Baumrind, a clinical as well as developmental psychologist best known for her work on parenting styles. Baumrind identified three parenting styles based on parental demandingness and responsiveness, which included authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, and permissive parenting. Juvenile delinquency is directly linked to the behavior of parents they adopt to treat their children (Coste, 2015). Howeve, et.al (2009) point out that young people's parents are more frequently blamed for the criminal or delinquent behavior displayed by their children. Some of the courts even penalize parents for the inconsiderate or antisocial conduct of their children.
Juvenile is a time in which youth looks for self-identity and autonomy. Some of them engage in activities that are illicit in nature, and thus their parents become worried about their well-being. Taking this into account, the purpose of this research study will be twofold: (a) understanding the relationship between the delineated parenting styles and delinquent behavior; and (b) examining the difference between parenting style of Pakistani people and the delinquent behavior among adolescents.
The research aims to understand and identify the relationship between different parenting styles and the juvenile delinquency. It will particularly focus on the authoritarian parenting style, as it is widely believed to be the cause of the juvenile delinquency. Over the years, delinquent behavior of males living in Pakistani culture has significantly increased; therefore, the research aims to understand the underlying factors resulting in the illicit behavior of Pakistani youth in the modern day society. From this perspective, the research question of the present study is: Question: How does parenting style lead children to be juvenile delinquent?

Role of parenting style and delinquency
Delinquent behavior is one of the most distressful problems during the period when people are considered adolescents, that is, between the age of 13 and 18. According to Griffin et al (2000), Elliott, Huizinga and Menard (2012), the list of delinquent activities include refusal to adhere to the parental demands, alcohol use and drug addiction, stealing, property destruction, theft and rape. It is a fact that opinion regarding the causes of delinquent behavior vary, but it is generally agreed that delinquent behavior in adolescent Sarwar years is more common than in the group of people of other age.
Furthermore, it is also argued that males are more likely to commit offenses than females (Griffin et al., 2000). Nevertheless, Moitra and Mukherjee (2012) argue that there is a noteworthy role of parents in shaping the delinquent behavior of adolescents. For example, they point out that home is the place where a normal and healthy development of any child starts and the family constitutes the backbone of an individual. From this perspective, family is considered to be a basic ecology in which the behavior of children is manifested in their childhood by way of negative or positive reinforcement. Talib, Abdullah, and Mansor (2011) argue that the family of a child is a socio-cultural-economic arrangement that has a significant influence on not only the behavior of the children, but also on the development of their characters. Therefore, ignorance in their parenting can lead them towards unwanted damaging effects that ultimately create behavioral problems in children. Baumrind (1966) believes that parenting is a compound activity of many particular behaviors working individually or together that affect on the behavior of children. It would not be wrong to state that adolescent delinquency is more concerned with parenting styles. As the literature suggests, the term juvenile delinquency can be defined as a law-breaking act committed by a minor, below the age of 18. This law-breaking act can result in the incarceration in detention centers, rather than prisons or correctional centers (Berger, 2000). Tompsett and Toro (2010) point out that the risk of adolescent's development of delinquent behavior is often headed by parenting style. Authoritarian parental style particularly plays an influential role in developing the delinquent behavior among adolescents that eventually results in negative outcomes (Kerr, Stattin & Ozdemir, 2012). Therefore, it is accurate to state that indifferent parenting styles negatively affects the children in terms of psychological and behavior context. For instance, Hoskins (2014) finds that authoritarian parenting has deep connection with more negative behavioral outcomes.

Conceptualizing parenting styles/typologies
Diana Baumrind is widely considered to be the pioneer of introducing parental style and control -authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. From this perspective, Cherry (2015) points out that the psychologist Diana Baumrind during the early 1960s, conducted a study on children studying in preschool using parental interviews, naturalistic observation and other research methods. As a result, Baumrind identified four imperative dimensions of parenting including expectations of adulthood and control, communication styles, nurturance and warmth and disciplinary strategies. Based on the above mentioned dimensions, Cherry (2015) and Baumrind (1966) suggest that a majority of parents exhibit one of three mentioned parenting styles. Darling (1999) argues that there are four parenting styles including indulgent, authoritative, authoritarian, and uninvolved. This categorization is in accordance with their lowness or highness on parental responsiveness and demanding behavior.
Darling also describes the viewpoints of Baumrind by stating that all of these four parenting styles reflect on different naturally occurring patterns of parental practices, behaviors and values and a different balance of demandingness and responsiveness. From this perspective, different parenting styles can be separated into two categories such as demandingness and responsiveness.
According to Baumrind (1966), the term demandingness refers to claims in which parents are supposed to be integrated into community and family by their maturity expectations, disciplinary Sarwar efforts, supervision and willingness to confront a disruptive child.
In the same way, Simons, Simons, and Wallace (2004) argue that demandingness parenting can be judged through the level of well-defined monitoring techniques, direct confrontation and discipline patterns utilized by parents. Therefore, it would be justified to state that parents with higher level of discipline patterns, confrontation and monitoring are demanding, whereas parents with lower level of confrontation, inconsistent discipline and monitoring are characterized as not demanding.
The term responsiveness is defined by Baumrind (1966) as the ratio of fostering self-assertion and individuality by parents being attuned, acquiescent and supportive to the demands and needs of children. In addition, Baumrind (1966) argues that the level of responsiveness can be measured through the level of communication, reciprocity, and warmth displayed by parents while dealing with adolescents. From this perspective, parents emphasizing on higher level of reciprocal behavior, warmth and communication are considered to be highly responsive, whereas low levels of delineated factors represent low responsiveness. Maccoby and Martin (1983) argue that higher level of responsiveness can be found in permissive and/or authoritative parenting style. On the other hand, Simons, Simons, and Wallace (2004) demonstrate that low level of responsiveness is reflected through neglecting and/or authoritarian parenting style.

Authoritative parenting style
Baumrind first introduced the concept of authoritative parenting style. According to Baumrind (1966), the authoritative parents provide guidance to their children on issue oriented and rational manner. Since the level of demandingness is higher in this parenting style, parents usually welcome effective communication as well as effective relationship between them (Piko & Balazs, 2012). Hoskins (2014) points out that authoritative parents display more demandingness and responsiveness by exhibiting more supportive towards harsh behavior. These parents encourage verbal give-andtake, express reasoning behind rules and use power, reason, and shaping to strengthen objectives. This style of parenting is more associated with positive adolescent outcomes. As a result, it is found as most beneficial and effective style of parenting among most of the families. In other words, authoritative parenting style fosters positive well-being of adolescents. For parents to be classified as authoritative, they should fulfill the criterion proposed by Baumrind; however, for parents to be categorized as authoritative, they should have low score in terms of passive acceptant. Sarwar Nijhof and Engels (2007) have a firm belief that authoritative parenting style plays an influential role in the development of healthy adolescent psychologically and socially. This is particularly because authoritative parenting style helps the children to develop higher level of self-reliance, self-esteem and ability to employ effective coping strategies, while developing positive self-image (Parker & Benson, 2004).

Authoritarian parenting style
The authoritarian parents attempt to evaluate, shape and control the attitudes as well as behavior of their children in line with set standards of conduct, known as absolute standard. In the light of this absolute standard, children are supposed to follow very strict rules defined by their parents. In case the children fail to comply with such rules they are punished. Cherry (2015) points out that authoritarian parents usually fail to come up with reasoning behind such rules.
According to Hoskins (2014), authoritarian parents exhibit low responsiveness and they are highly demanding. In this style of parenting, parents emphasize on conformity and obedience and thus expect that they are obeyed without explanation in a less warm environment. Furthermore, authoritarian parents display low level of engagement and trust toward their children. They most often discourage open communication and make strict control of a child's behaviour. In other words, it is widely believed that an authoritarian parent is forceful, punitive and believes that a child should adhere to work in accordance to ethics and should be obedient. In the authoritarian parenting style, parents are more concerned with the traditional family structure; therefore, they limit the child's autonomy along with the parent-child relationship. Since the foremost concern of this parenting style rests within the traditional family structure, the child is demanded to adhere to parent's orders without any questions; therefore, it can be argued that authoritarian parenting style tends to rely on rules that are considered as concrete.
According to Nijhof and Engels (2007), the authoritarian parenting style is related with the lower level of ability and self-confidence to employ coping mechanisms among adolescents and thus restricts a child to explore his/her capabilities and social interactions, eventually resulting in the child's dependence on parental guidance and direction.

Permissive and neglecting parenting styles
According to Baumrind (1966), permissive parents attempt to behave in acceptant, affirmative and non-punitive manner toward their children's impulses, actions and desires. Considering the definition proposed by Baumrind that this parenting style tends to have a higher level of responsiveness, it implies that a responsive parent is more likely to define and determine rules associated with family, while encouraging the adolescents to consider it as a resource (Johnson & Kelley, 2011). Neglecting parents are those that show very low level of involvement as well as strictness with their child (Kremers, Brug, de Vries, & Engels, 2003). According to Hoskins (2014), permissive parents can be characterized as exhibiting low level of demandingness and high level of responsiveness, whereas neglecting parents are neither responsive nor demanding. They behave in a manner that is more affirmative toward the impulses, actions and desires of adolescent while consulting with them about family decisions. In addition, they tend to avoid engaging in behavioral control, do not set rules and set a small number of behavioral expectations for their adolescents. From this perspective, it Sarwar can be stated that permissive parents actually allow the adolescents to actively participate without being concerned for their actions.
Nevertheless, it is widely believed that the delinquent behavior in most of the juveniles is the result of parenting styles.
For example, Poduthase (2012) argues that adolescents can be led towards delinquent behavior when they are exposed to lack of intimacy, lack of guidance, lack of parental involvement, lack of parental attachment, anger and blaming. It would therefore not be wrong to state that there is a significant link between the parental styles and individual's tendency to engage in delinquent or violent behavior. In other words, lack of parental involvement and interaction results in increased risk of violence, primarily in male juveniles (Brook et al, 2014).

Research design
Qualitative research design using a case study approach was used where the primary data were collected through in-depth interviews from the mothers who had experienced juvenile delinquency in term of their own children. Generally, the methodology of qualitative research is used when the researchers are intended to explore the why or how type questions. Yin (2013) also explains that in this methodology, the researchers have no control over the events and the major focus of the researchers is on "a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context" (p.1). One of the purposes of qualitative research is to look into phenomenon that people have themselves experienced; and in this case the authoritarian behavior of fathers in bringing up their children and later mothers facing problems due to the negative behavior of their children.

Qualitative method of interviewing was considered
where the primary data have been collected through two in-depth interviews conducted with each of the two mothers who have experienced juvenile delinquency. Mother A had a 17-years-old son, who has been arrested by local police three times, while Mother B had a 15-year old son, who had attempted several times to run away from home. The primary data is that which was specifically sought for the purposes of the research, for example interview data and discussion board messages" (Hramiak, 2005, pp. 82-83). For data collection, this paper has also utilized secondary data from various sources including online libraries and topic books.

Data Analysis
In order to analyze the primary data, this paper used the method of coding (Driscoll, 2011). The term primary data refers to the material "which is used empirically, that is, analysis of this data leading directly to particular themes or conclusions. Similarly, coding in the qualitative research is a word or phrase that "symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/ or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data" (Saldana, 2012, p. 3).
The researcher was able to code using the codes indicated used in the literature review. Words such as beating, anger, cursing define authoritarian style whereas words such as understand, ask, and discuss show authoritative parenting style. On the other hand, words like lenient, say nothing, and neglect ect.

Findings and Discussion
In the light of the interviews conducted as well as literature reviewed, it was relvealed that mothers of the the two youth do not all support authoritarian parenting style and are in support of authoritative parenting style; whereas, permissive and the neglecting parenting styles are not considered at all. According to the literature reviewed, authoritarian parenting style is more appropriate for young children to prevent them from being delinquent. For example, the reviewed literature suggests that the authoritarian parent is forceful, disciplined and believes that a child should adhere to work in accordance with ethics and should be obedient. This is particularly because parents are more concerned with the authoritarian parenting style in traditional family structure. From this perspective, parents limit their children's autonomy along with the parent-child relationship.
Authoritarian parenting style is related with the lower level of ability and self-confidence to employ coping mechanisms among adolescents (Darling, 1999); therefore, it restricts a child to explore his/her capabilities and social interactions, eventually resulting in the child's dependence on parental guidance and direction (Nijhof & Engels 2007). In contrast, either authoritarian parenting or permissive and neglecting parenting usually leads children to be delinquent. About the permissive parenting style mother A points out that,

"Permissive parenting is again the repetition of child is involved in a criminal activity and his father knows nothing."
Then she elobarated and added, "Or maybe, it is one step above then authoritarian parenting because in this parenting father knows or has the idea about the criminal activity of his child but he doesn't care about it and thus it encourages his child to do more." Also, mother B was not in favor of permissive or neglecting parenting, as she claimed, "As far as permissive parenting is concerned, it also puts negative impact on the behavior of children. Parents should never be such lenient with their children that they ignore every act, whether good or bad." She then went on to give an example of her friend who was a permissive parent and sometimes even neglecting parent and Therefore, parents should make a conscious effort to make sure that their parenting style helps their children to become mature and confident. As mentioned by mother B while discussing the arrest of her child: When probed further and asked if the change in the behavior of her son was due to police punishment, mother B replied: Nevertheless, authoritative parents are more likely to define and determine certain rules associated with their family, while encouraging the adolescents to consider as a resource.
Two themes were extracterd from the interviews that were conducted: authoritarian parenting style and authoritative parenting style.

Authoritarian parenting style
In the light of findings of the present study, it can deduced  (2010), the risk of adolescent's development of delinquent behavior is often headed by parenting style. In the same way, it is generally believed that parenting style plays an influential role in developing the delinquent behavior among adolescents that eventually results in negative outcomes (Kerr, Stattin & Ozdemir, 2012). Both mothers outrightly denounced authoritarian style.
Mother A pointed out that: " When parents adopt authoritarian style, they actually pose negative impact upon the behavior of their children." Mother A also narrates her experience and says: "I know of a child who is a student of fourth standard having Since the foremost concern of this parenting style rests within the traditional family structure, the child is demanded to adhere to parent's orders without any questions. Therefore, it can be argued that authoritarian parenting style tends to rely on rules, which are considered as concrete. mother B shared: "Authoritarian parenting style or very strict behavior of parents leads the children to be delinquent, as they become rebellious. They contradict and retaliateto allguidance given by the parents." In the light of interviews conducted as well as literature reviewed, it can be stated that authoritarian parenting style is more appropriate for young children to prevent them being delinquent. For example, the reviewed literature suggests that the authoritarian parent is believes that a child should adhere to work in accordance to ethics and should be obedient. This is particularly because parents are more concerned in the authoritarian parenting From this perspective, parents limit their children's autonomy along with the parent-child relationship. Authoritarian parenting style is related with the lower level of ability and selfconfidence to employ coping mechanisms among adolescents.
Therefore, it restricts a child to explore his/her capabilities and social interactions, eventually resulting in the child's dependence on parental guidance and direction (Nijhof & Engels 2007). As in both the cases mentioned above, the fathers authoritarian behavior had negative affect on their children.

Authoritative parenting
Authoritative parenting was favoured by both mothers. Authoritative parents are more likely to define and determine rules associated with family, while encouraging the adolescents to consider them as a resource. Such parenting style is responsible for bringing up children who are self-regulated, and self-asserted (Darling, 1999). Additionally, authoritative parents discourage their children from following the standards and rules of the society. As explained by Johnson and Kelley (2011), authoritative parents are more likely to define and determine rules associated with family, Therefore, parents should be patient." Since the level of demandingness is higher in this parenting style, the parents welcome effective communication and effective relationship between them. Apart from strong parent-child relationship, the authoritative parents explain the child with certain rules and regulations to assure independency. Even though this parenting style encourages open-minded personality, parents can use power and exert firm control on the child without any hesitation. In other words, the exertion of control and use of power is to set standards for the child's future behavior and to assure that the child would not rely on delinquent behavior. Authoritative parents, on the one hand, provide guidance to their children in issue oriented and rational manner (Larzelere, Morris & Harrist, 2013). Since the level of demandingness is higher in this parenting style, parents usually welcome effective communication as well as effective relationship between them. It was clear from the interviews that both mothers knew that authoritative not authoritarian is the right type of parenting style, yet it seemed that the fathers were more authoritarian in nature.
This style of fathers' parenting had forced the fathers to re think their and change their attitude due to the negative consequences and reaction of their children.

Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion, the research aims to expand the understanding how the authoritarian parenting style leads the children to be juvenile delinquent. From this perspective, the findings of this study reveal that the authoritarian parenting style causes the adolescents to be delinquent, as the extraordinary strictness displayed by their parents makes them rebellious. From this perspective, good parenting is authoritative in which parents keep eyes on their children and try to understand the mindset of their children. Authoritarian parents tend to control and exercise more than enough power for the future development of their children, but juveniles perceive it negatively perceive as their actions are restricted. The following recommendations are put forward in accordance with the results of the study: 1. Parents should opt for authoritative rather than authoritarian parenting style.