Essay Sample on How Much Freedom Should Parents Give to Their Children?

This study assesses the importance of parental relationships to the growth of the child. The authors focus on five important growth attributes of the child referred to as the big five personality aspects. These include; extraversion aspects, benevolence, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and imagination. According to the findings of the study, it is common for a child who fully develops positive personality traits in the big five categories to have had the influence of good family setup, especially a stable relationship with both parents. Parents play a role in the overall character development of the child and can influence the growth outcomes of the child based on the existential relationships they create at home. The study also encourages a parental sense of involvement in the child's life and competence in child growth responsibilities. The authors conclude that proper parenting and effective concern of the child results in proper personality growth in the child.

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In order to test the hypothesis that parental involvement in a child's life has an impact on the personality of the child, the study applied mediation analysis on a sample of three different data segments; the first tier of 11-12-year-old children that targeted 274 children, 51.1% of who were girls. The second tier focused on 209 mothers and 195 fathers, while the third tier of the data collection exercise focused on children's ratings of their mothers and fathers, where194 mothers and 190 fathers were rated by their children (those who participated in tiers 1 and 2). The outcome from the study was that there was no significant difference in the perceived parenting of either the father or the mother. There was however a relationship between perceived parental warmth and childhood development in late childhood years (11-12). ). The relevant population is the children under the age of 13, but there is a bias towards the opinion of the girl child.

This study is important to the research on parental freedom as it focuses on primary data, from the findings of a survey on perceived parental control or warmth as it relates to the childhood development in their late years of childhood. The research addresses key personality aspects of the child that are important indicators of the psychological impact of the parenting these children are exposed to over the course of their development. The study is also cross-sectional, and not only correlates parental competence perspectives to child development but also reverses the correlation to gain an understanding of the child's perceptions of either parent. The fact that the study presents no significant difference between maternal and paternal parenting perspectives implies that there is a significant role played equally by both parents in the development of the child. The study hence presents the argument that both parents need to participate in child responsibilities, which is a significant argument for child development professionals.

The article by Horowitz focuses on a very sensitive issue, 'children with disabilities.' The central focus of his thesis is to assess the level of control in terms of deprivation that parents who manage children with disabilities should be allowed to protect them. His thesis statement is that there is a concern over the level of deprivation many children with disabilities have, due to the protection and inhibition from their homes. Parental control should not inhibit the growth of the dreams of the child owing to physical or even mental disabilities. His article is very informative and well researched. He focuses on Article 5 of the British constitution, which discusses the rights of the child. The relevant issue is the assertions based on constitutional provisions. The study, however, maintains a biased perspective towards parental rights on their children.

Horowitz applies the doctrinal methodology in his study approach. He first assesses the provisions of British law pertaining to the protection of the child, parental rights as well as the rights of the child. He then compares the British law on protection of children to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This analysis is then used to develop a conceptual design for the study, as reviewed in the literature. Using the doctrinal comparison, he discusses the findings that traverse all laws. Some of his findings include; the involvement of parental consent in issues concerning deprivation of liberties for children with disabilities up to the time they reach the age of 17. He also stresses the sovereignty of parental consent, especially in issues regarding the child vs. state. The article hence defends the role and purpose of a parent in aiding the growth and development of the child, as well as the social decisions they make.

This article is relevant to any study on parental freedom as it explores the importance of parental decisions to a child. Horowitz approaches his discussion from a legal perspective, thus developing a strong thesis based on the provisions of chapter 5 of British law. For any researcher using his article, it would be very informative on legal provisions relating to child management and protection. It would also be an important reference on matters relating to the rights of the child given by the state and how governments especially the United Kingdom and the European Union ensure the protection of children rights. The article is quite recent and would form a good source of material for academic and professional research work on the protection of children rights. It is thus an article that would be recommended for studies that include legal provisions as well.

The issue of Mobile Phone Dependency (MPD) as a factor in parent-child relationships is discussed in the context of South Korea. The researcher presents the thesis that mobile phone relationships that children have often affect the relationships they have with their parents. As such, children are not able to pay attention to their parents or even create time for them as they spend a lot of time on their phones. The study is centered on a survey of 2378 Korean children. Of this population, 52.2% were boys. The researchers sought to test the hypothesis that psychological control by parents was more likely to increase MPD and disrupt school life, unlike the popular notion by parents that control over children's use of mobile phones would. The study maintains a relevant context of Korean children's social influences. The bias is however on the opinion of the male children at the expense of girls.

The study by Lee et al. assesses how Confucianism in ancient Asia was a social factor that propelled many dynasties and created a social order that continued to exist pre-technology. The advancements of technology have led to a generation of Korean children who are guided by both Confucian beliefs and the desire for technology. The analysis of data from the sample was done using hierarchical logistical regression to examine the mediational model applied by the children. The results indicated that there was a significant adverse influence of parental psychological control on MPD. Mobile phone dependency cases thus seemed to increase as parents developed stronger supervision of their children, and they sought to take refuge in the virtual technology world away from the parents that seemed not to understand them. The study called on Korean parents to be lenient in their control of the children's psychological anatomy.

The importance of this research work is that it develops an understanding of the psychology of the child based on parental rule. Parents who develop a strong control and present an environment full of restrictions to their children eventually end up affecting them psychologically and distorting the relationship between the parent and child, as well as the academic concentration of the child. The research focuses on a region that is well adept with Confucianism and hence can present an understudy of other regions in Asia such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and China that have similar cultures as those of the Korean context. The study is also important to the understanding of parental freedom, in assessing the impact of stringent parental control on the psychological development of the child. This article thus presents a good reference for the article on the extent to which parents should control the child's behavior and preferences.

This article discusses the concept of parental control based on the distinguishing parental roles of the father and the mother. Murray et al. assess the father-child relationship as it pertains to the growth of the child and conversely assesses the parallel mother-child relationship that affects the development of the child. The study involves a survey of 163 adolescents, of which 49% were female. The study thus had a marginal bias on the male child. The majority of the respondents were White and Asian adolescents, who were aged between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. The research was designed to ensure that the responder did not present bias responses based on the outcome they sought from the researchers. The validity of research instruments was determined by the use of standard psychological tests to measure common adolescent issues such as aggression and truancy. The study maintains a bias of responses from boys, by having a study population with more boys than girls. The relevant issue is, however, the perspectives of adolescent growth as it relates to parental upbringing.

The respondents were quizzed on the relationships they had with each of their parents separately, as well as how they felt growing up, owing to the nature of the relationships they had with their parents. The respondents also took tests that exposed measures of parental psychological control, the quality of the relationship that existed between the parents and the children from the perspective of the child, as well as the level of aggressive behavior they had. The outcome of the research is that aggressive behavior related to children has a bearing on poor relationships between the children and their mothers. The article also presents the findings that paternal and maternal psychological control predicted an aggressive behavior when either of the parents was missing from the relationship with the child or that they had an estranged relationship.

References

Annotated Bibliography Egberts, M. R., Prinzie, P., Dekovic, M., de Haan, A. D., & van den Akker, A. L. (2015). The prospective relationship between child personality and perceived parenting: Mediation by parental sense of competence. Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 193-198. Retrieved from http://novintarjome.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/The-prospective-relationship-betwecccen-child7d4f5ddaasdddf.pdf

Horowicz, E. M. (2017). The zone of parental control, the "gilded cage" and the deprivation of a child's liberty: getting around Article 5. Tizard Learning Disability Review, 22(1), 2-9. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/TLDR-05-2016-0014

Lee, S., Lee, K., Yi, S. H., Park, H. J., Hong, Y. J., & Cho, H. (2016). Effects of parental psychological control on child's school life: Mobile phone dependency as mediator. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(2), 407-418. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-015-0251-2

Murray, K. W., Dwyer, K. M., Rubin, K. H., Knighton-Wisor, S., & Booth-LaForce, C. (2014). Parent-child relationships, parental psychological control, and aggression: Maternal and paternal relationships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(8), 1361-1373. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-013-0019-1