Roland Kim’s proposed 5-Stage Model (2021a) doubts Baumrind’s claim that authoritative parenting is the best approach to real-world situations.
Most children who need extra discipline at home or school may benefit from a more advanced approach, such as empathic understanding with boundary setting by parents and disciplinarians, as it has been employed as the most effective tool in psychotherapy in dealing with clients with emotional injury.
With the proposed 5-stage model introduced by Kim (2021a), possible revisions for Baumrind’s dimensions can be considered. For example, the addition of firm boundaries to demandingness and the replacement of responsiveness with the emotional spectrum, facets of projective identification, sympathy, and empathy are suggested, depending on the parent’s or the authority’s level of emotional capacity or readiness to support.
In many families, children feel misunderstood, unfairly treated, and emotionally neglected, but parents have not acknowledged their pain for various reasons.
The parents or authorities must first use empathy in communication to understand the child’s emotions behind their behaviors.
This parenting style can be the best for helping children who may have been trauma survivors.
For example, children who need extra discipline at home or school are those who display acting-out behaviors.
The best approach parents or educational institutions can take to help them will be an empathic approach with appropriate boundary setting.
It is the empathic parenting of Stage 5 supported by the authoritative parenting of Stage 4 according to my 5 Stage theory (Kim, 2021a).
The success of this approach can be witnessed in various Stage 5 countries’ education systems, such as those in Nordic countries.
References
Kim, R. (2021A). The five stages of civilization: An integrated psychological and psychoanalytic perspective: A personality development. Living Free Publishing Co.
Kim, R. (2022). New Parenting Approach for Generations Y, Z, and Alpha. Living Free Publishing Co.