Poster #100 - What is Gentle Parenting? Beyond the magazines, blogs, and Google

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Gentle Parenting (GP; sometimes called Respectful Parenting), has become popular in the United States and western Europe: Examples can be seen on various social media accounts (e.g., TikTok’s @lauralove5514 with over 7.5million followers, or Instagram’s @biglittlefeelings with over 2.7million followers). Sarah Ockwell-Smith has published mainstream books to help parents sleep-train (2015) discipline (2017) and potty-train their children (2017) all from the GP perspective. Despite its popularity in mainstream media and literature however, little academic literature exists on this form of parenting. In these mainstream sources (e.g., Ockwell-Smith's website, Parenting, The New York Times) we find some common characteristics for how GP is described: Unlike Authoritarian parents who see themselves as the superior figure over their less-capable children (Maccoby & Martin, 1983), Gentle Parents see their children as whole, capable human beings and aim to promote children’s self-regulation skills. Also (and unlike Authoritarian parents who might implement spanking or time-outs for unwanted behavior) Gentle parents promote natural consequences for unwanted or dangerous behavior (e.g., explaining the naturally occurring consequences of touching a hot stove –this can be physically harmful—rather than spanking a child when she reaches for it) because indeed, parents cannot always be there to spank a child when she performs these unwanted behaviors. Because parents cannot always be there, Gentle Parents are also said not to praise children for desirable behavior (unlike Authoritative and Permissive parents who do). Given that descriptions of GP exist primarily in mainstream sources, however, for our study we venture to operationalize this form of parenting using both quantitative and qualitive empirical methods. Given the many comparisons we have seen between Authoritative and GP, we too include in our assessment questions that assess Demandingness and Responsiveness (Maccoby & Martin, 1983) and predict that Gentle parents will score high on these dimensions. Additionally, we include survey items to account for traits popular (in mainstream literature) for GP: questions that will assess whether and how parents discipline using natural consequences, and also a third dimension in which we account for whether parents promote children’s emotional intelligence and self-regulation.
Our survey will consist of 60 Likert-Scale items (assessing Demandingness, Responsiveness, and Promotion of Emotional Intelligence) and 10 open-ended questions where parents will expand on their scale responses. We will survey at least 20 self-identified Gentle Parents and identify patterns in their responses. We predict two potential outcomes: we might find patterns in parent’s responses that are consistent with mainstream literature descriptions about GP, but will now be able to base our GP criteria on empirical methods. Alternatively, we might find inconsistencies in parent’s responses and mainstream descriptions of GP. This second potential outcome would further support our argument that there is a pressing need to study (and operationalize) GP using empirical methods, especially given its growing popularity. In coming closer to operationalizing GP, we hope this will allow future researchers to assess this form of parenting and its impact on various outcomes (e.g., academic performance, self-regulation skills) just as psychologists have assessed Maccoby and Martin’s parenting styles.

Authors

• Jocelyn Valles, Mount Saint Mary’s University

• Ana Paula Munoz Constantino, Mount Saint Mary’s University

• Dolly Rojo, Mount Saint Mary’s University
  Presenting Author