Thesis Topics for Parenting Styles

Graduate programs typically require students to write a master's thesis on original research they conduct. One area on which graduate students can conduct research is parenting styles. Parenting styles are the typical ways in which parents interact with children and have a major impact on child's attitudes, behaviors and achievement. The way parenting styles influence children provides many topics for a thesis.

  1. Demandingness and Responsiveness

    • One important element of parenting is demandingness, which refers to the control parents exert over children and the requirements they have for children. A good topic for a thesis might be the effect of different levels of demandingness on the social behavior of the children. Another element of parenting is responsiveness, which refers to the warmth and supportiveness of parents toward children. A researcher might look at how the responsiveness of parents relates to the children's level of independence.

    Indulgent

    • Indulgent parents tend to be permissive and nondirective, generally not placing requirements on children. These parents are inconsistent in responses to a child's behavior and do not set limits or provide guidelines for a child's behavior. A topic for a thesis might be to relate this style of parenting to how well children obey teachers in classroom situations.

    Authoritarian Versus Authoritative Parenting

    • Authoritarian parents are highly directive in interactions with children but are not warm and supportive. The parents expect obedience, but do not give reasons for the directions and use threats to get children to behave. Thesis research might be conducted to determine whether children with this type of parenting are more or less adapt at problem-solving and the level of aggressiveness. In contrast, authoritative parents are demanding, but warm and supportive as well. These parents supervise children closely and give explanations for directions, but are not punitive. Thesis research might compare how well children comply with requests from authoritarian parents versus authoritative parents.

    Uninvolved

    • Uninvolved parents are neither responsive nor demanding, do not have expectations for a child's behavior and do not respond. These parents typically ignore children. A thesis research project might look at the relationship between the level of involvement of parents to how secure children feel about parents' love.

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