Working Papers
Parenting styles shape children's development. Yet little is known about how adults perceive the returns to these styles for children's developmental outcomes, in particular for mental health. I study this question in an online survey of 400 German adults, with quotas on gender and region, using hypothetical scenarios based on the four parenting styles of Baumrind (1967) and Maccoby and Martin (1983), extended by an abusive authoritarian scenario. Highly responsive styles, authoritative and permissive parenting, are perceived as most beneficial across educational achievement, mental health, and self-worth. Uninvolved parenting, low in responsiveness and demandingness, is expected to be worst for grades. The abusive authoritarian scenario is expected to be worst for mental health and self-worth. Men expect authoritarian parenting to be less damaging for mental health and self-worth than women do. Older respondents expect more harm to grades and self-worth from this style than younger ones. These expectations predict which parenting style respondents would choose for their own children. So does their own upbringing: having experienced a particular parenting style raises the probability of choosing it by 26 percentage points.
Work in Progress
Whose Rules? Correcting Parental Misperceptions of Adolescent Preferences over Smartphone Use.Â
Actual and Perceived Approval of Public Smartphone/Social Media Policies: Evidence from Seven Countries. With Mara Barschkett, Teodora Boneva, and Alessia Pulvirenti.