One of the most robust approaches to researching parents' influence on children's social competence is the study of what has been called "parenting style." Parenting style captures two important elements of parenting: parental responsiveness and parental demandingness. Categorizing parents according to whether they are high or low on parental demandingness and responsiveness creates a typology of four parenting styles: indulgent, authoritarian, authoritative, and uninvolved. Parenting style has been found to predict child well-being in the domains of social competence, academic performance, psychosocial development, and problem behavior. Authoritative parenting, which balances clear, high parental demands with emotional responsiveness and recognition of child autonomy, is one of the most consistent family predictors of competence from early childhood through adolescence. (Contains 11 references.) (LPP)