Every parent hopes that one day their child will be the one to change the world or make the newest supercomputer, and most parents believe that the way they take care of their children will ultimately be the best for their child and prepare them for life; however, that may not always be true. Most parents fall into one of four parenting styles: neglectful, permissive, authoritarian, or authoritative. Each unique parenting style can have different psychological effects on children, both positive and negative, leading to the next billionaire or just any other person. Ultimately to give a child a better chance at success, Authoritative parenting can lower or decrease the likelihood of anxiety, build the necessary confidence to go out in the world, and lead to better performance in school, all ultimately building the foundations for a successful child to grow into a successful person.
While it may not be shocking, parenting does play a large role in how children grow and develop into who they will be. According to researchers such as Grace Branjerporn and others, there is great importance in the relationship between parent and child since it gives children their initial working models. With these early interactions being negative or overly positive, they can later affect how parents will continue to parent and how their parenting will affect their child. According to Kaisa Aunola and her colleagues, Families that value the importance of “trust and parental engagement” give children a better understanding of how to function in the real world. Without a properly functioning family life, children are more susceptible to fall into issues later in life. Ballantine concludes from her studies and other research that, the way parents take care of their children genuinely leads to different outcomes for those children such as, “children’s psychological well-being, their school achievement, and other aspects of their social and psychological adjustment.” When children do not feel that they can go to their parents when something terrible has happened, they tend to rely on outside sources that could lead children down paths to further problems in life. Examples of these issues would be the kids who are filled with so much anger about how their homelife is that they punch kids on the playground or end up doing drugs just to get attention from their parents .(Ballantine). One of the most important relationships people have is with their parents. If that relationship is in trouble, especially in a child’s youth, there tend to be more damaging psychological downsides in the future. 
The best way to imagine authoritative parenting is like Goldilocks. These parents are not overly demanding, but they still challenge their children to push themselves to do their best by including “high parental involvement, interest, and active participation in the child’s life; open communication; trust and acceptance; encouragement of psychological autonomy; and awareness of where children are, with whom, and what they are doing.” Some parents are either overly demanding (authoritarian) or lenient (permissive). While parents must do what will ultimately benefit their child, authoritative parenting yields the most beneficial outcomes that will help children succeed. “The authoritative parenting style sends several messages to the child. It says: We trust you to make good decisions, we are behind you, we will be there if you need us, you can talk to us about difficult situations, we will help you as you learn, and we expect you to do your best.” This parenting style allows these children to rely on their parents and grow into their people, which helps them later in life (Ballantine). An easy way to imagine these parents is on their way to and from school. They may have conversations with their child about what assignments they have, what is going on in their social life, what classes they may be struggling in. These parents check in on their kids frequently to make sure all is well in their lives and make sure that they receive it if they need help.
While it is not shocking that modern teenagers’ anxiety levels have risen with how fast the world is changing, parents can play a role in how they affect a child’s anxiety levels. Parents who are strict and expect near perfection from their children tend to increase these already high anxiety levels because they feel they have to be perfect to win their parent’s approval, which is vital for a child’s success. These are the parents that even though their child got a 98 on their hardest exam, they aren't happy and expect a perfect score. Then there are the parents who place no boundaries on their children. 
While it may seem that in contrast to the incredibly demanding parent that this parenting style would decrease stress levels, they have also been shown to increase them. Children of these parents try to deal with problems independently since their parents do not have a relationship built on respect. However, the worst way to help children with anxiety is to try and protect them from it entirely, according to some doctors such as Michel Liebowitz. “Parents who allow their children to deal with life’s day-to-day troubles help them develop more resiliency and better-coping strategies.” These kids can go to their parents when a more extensive issue arises but are equipped with the proper tools to manage smaller problems independently. These kids feel that when there may be an unfair situation at school they can get advice from their parents but can deal with the situation on their own but will get their parents to step in when they feel overwhelmed. As these coping skills develop, they will continue to get better at tackling their issues in life. Liebowitz, the head of Columbia University’s Panic Disorders Unit, said that “an unusually high proportion of panic patients report having had overprotective parenting in childhood,” which is further evidence that parents who do not give their children the space to grow while helping them when they need it, like authoritative parents, tend to lead to higher anxiety levels in their children (“The Age of Anxiety”).
Especially during some of the most formative years of a human being’s life, the idea of confidence is something that varies among individuals but tends to be at much lower levels. During these times, parents’ job is to help build that confidence such as supporting them when they make mistakes; however, that is not how things tend to go in non-authoritative households. Children that are raised in permissive settings have statistically shown, “a lower level of parental control and engagement” which leads to kids having to raise themselves more than having their parents being their child’s biggest supporter. Aunola and others’s study shows that authoritative parents can help their children by simply monitoring what goes on in their life without smothering their children. Children who are left to fight all of their fights alone become more self-conscious to protect themselves and can lead to further mental illness down the road that is the exact antithesis of what is beneficial for success (Aunola et al.).
It is common knowledge that doing well in school will help in doing well in life, and with a parent’s involvement in their child’s scholarly advancement, their chances increase further. In studies done by Lawrence Steinberg and his colleagues, they found “that students who describe their parents as authoritative-warm, firm, and democratic-report better school performance and stronger school engagement than their peers.” His work showed that there were connections with how non-authoritative parenting can also negatively affect children’s success. “Children raised in authoritative families generally do well in school, benefiting from parental interest and active involvement from an early age. These children are used to seeing their parents attending sports events, music recitals, and school conferences,” according to Ballantine, and they know that their parents believe in them. They want to see them succeed and support them when problems arise. Children from these households also benefit from the lower levels of anxiety and higher confidence levels associated with the authoritative parenting style, giving them many more chances to succeed in school. 
There are many benefits to authoritative parenting that can help increase a child’s success, but the most critical part of being a parent is to advocate for their child and meet their needs. Growing up in a family that makes a child feel loved, supported, challenged, and understood is the best way to help them live a stable, confident, anxiety-free, and achievement filled life that can make them feel like a success. Without some form of authoritative parenting being present in the house, the chance of a child developing psychological issues later in life can increase in unforeseen ways. There will always be challenges to being an authoritative parent, but the point is to do it, not because it is easy, but because it will make each child’s world a better place.