ABSTRACT
Parenting education is an important adjunct to the treatment of child and adolescent disorders because parenting style contributes to, moderates, maintains, and affects the emotional, behavioral, and psychological functioning of teens and children. When considering the impact of parent involvement in the treatment of youth, it is important to recognize the unique parent factors contributing to the dynamics of the parent–child relationship, such as the parent’s philosophy on parenting, communication style, disciplinary style, level of affection, experiences with their own parents, and beliefs about themselves as parents. Three parenting patterns that are differentiated by relative level of demandingness and warmth—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—have been identified and studied in the literature and found to contribute to different patterns of child behavior (Baumrind, 1968). Before outlining the components of a cognitive-behavioral therapy model of group intervention for parents, these parenting styles and the ways in which ineffective parenting is facilitated by the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning of parents will be briefly reviewed for their impact on the functioning of children and adolescents.
