Running head: Parenting Style
1
The Breakfast Club
Parenting Style
Syeda Fatima Fizza Qasmi
Ivy Tech Community College
Parenting Style
2
INTASC Standard, Description and Rationale
Standard# 1 Learner Development
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of
learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social,
emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and
challenging learning experiences.
Name of Artifact: The Breakfast Club- Parenting Style
Date: May 4, 2014
Course: EDUC 121
Brief Description:
For this assignment I watched a movie, “The Breakfast Club” to observe and learn about
different parenting style. How students turned out to be with which parenting style. Overall
movie was based on 5 students which get detention due to some mistakes they made. Their
characters express the parenting style they were raised with. The movie basically showed the
negative side of each parenting style as all of them did something bad.
Rationale:
To document my understanding of Standard# 1, Learner Development, in this
assignment I learned about different parenting style as I read about it in the book. I compared
each movie character with a certain parenting style. The project helped me better understand the
parenting concept, and pro and cons of each parenting style.
Parenting Style
3
Introduction:
Researchers have tried to identify styles of parenting associated with positive
developmental outcomes. Diana Baumrind described four basic styles of interaction between
parents and their children. The parenting styles include authoritative, authoritarian, permissive,
and neglectful parenting. These parenting style refer to the broad overall pattern of parental
actions, rather than to a single act. The following paper will discuss a movie and its five main
characters (students). Paper will compare different parenting style by observing the students in
the movie and their behaviors. Their mistakes and attitude will manifest their parents’ behavior
with them. Moreover, all student behaviors were the cons of each parenting style.
Overview:
The plot follows five students at fictional Shermer High School in the widely used John
Hughes setting of Shermer, Illinois as they report for Saturday detention on March 24, 1984.
While not complete strangers, the five were all from different cliques or social groups:
John Bender (Judd Nelson) "The Criminal";
Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) "The Princess";
Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) "The Brain";
Andrew Clark (Emilio Estévez) "The Athlete";
Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy) "The Basket Case".
The school's disciplinary principal, Mr. Vernon, gave them all an assignment; an essay
about "who you think you are" and the violations they committed to end up in Saturday
detention. All in all, five high school students, all different stereotypes, meet in detention, where
they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than
they thought.
Parenting Style
They pass the hours in a variety of ways: they dance, harass each other, tell stories, fight, smoke
marijuana, and talk about a variety of subjects. Gradually they opened up to each other and
reveal their secrets, for example, Allison was a compulsive liar and Brian, whereas, Claire were
ashamed of their virginity, and Andy got in trouble because of his overbearing father. They also
discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the
same mistakes as the adults around them (IMDb, 2014).
Parenting Styles:

Authoritarian parenting is a strict punitive style. The authoritarian parent family limits
and control’s the child with little verbal exchange. Children of authoritarian parents sometimes
lack social skills, show poor initiative, and compare themselves with others. Generally lead to
children who are obedient and proficient, but they rank lower in happiness, social competence
and self-esteem (Kail, 2009).
Brian Johnson: “The Brain’s” parents are authoritarian parents because when Brian’s mother
was dropping off him to the school she didn’t bother to listen to his excuse, but warned him
instead that, “This is the first time and the last time you do this” and shouted at him telling him
to go and use the time to his advantage. He had no say in front of his mother which is described
above that children of authoritarian parents are obedient and proficient as he was very good at
studies but had lacked social and communication skills.

Authoritative parents encourage the child to be independent but still places limits and
controls on behavior. This parenting style is more collaborative. Extensive verbal give and take
is allowed, and parents are warm and nurturing toward the child. Children of authorities parents
tend to be socially competent, self-resilient, and socially responsible (Kail, 2009).
4
Parenting Style
5
Claire Standish: The Princess’s dad put his arm around Claire in a comforting way and told her
to go inside the school and she listened to him. He did not scream or yelled on her but ask her in
his very low tone and she actually listened to him. She was as a princess which shows her
confidence and outstanding personality.
Andrew Clark: The athletic boy parents are authoritative. I identified this by looking at the first
scene when Andrew’s dad dropped him off saying that it’s Ok to get in trouble and you should
go inside the school and face the situation, but when he argued a little his dad warned him with
taking away his privileges by saying that, “Do you want to a match and the ball game” and thus
this warning made him stepped out of the car and inside the school.

Permissive parenting places few limits on the child’s behavior. A permissive parent lets
the child do what he or she wants. Children of permissive parents typically rate poorly in social
competence, they often fail to learn respect for others, expect to get their own way, and have
difficulty controlling their behavior. Often results in children who rank low in happiness and
self-regulation. These children are more likely to experience problems with authority and tend to
perform poorly in school (Kail, 2009).
John Bender: "The Criminal’s" parents sounds to be permissive as he just walked to the school
by himself, whereas, all other students were dropped off by someone. He seemed to me that he
doesn’t care. He misbehaved with the Teacher and thus failed to learn respect. He chose his own
way and yet ended up to become a criminal by placing a fake gun in his locker.

Neglectful parenting is distinguished by a lack of parental involvement in the child’s
life. Children of neglectful parents might develop sense that others aspect of the parents’ lives
are more important than they are. These children tend to be less competent socially, handle
Parenting Style
6
independence poorly, rank lowest across all life domains, and these children tend to lack selfcontrol (Kail, 2009).
Allison Reynolds: "The Basket Case’s" parents are neglectful because she did not say anything
on her behalf. She thought of herself as no body. She got off the car without saying anything nor
did they showed her parents which clearly manifests that her parents did not care about her and
she had a strong feeling that other people and their lives are more important than her’s. She did
not say anything to clarify her side as she sat quiet the whole time. Allison’s appearance is the
biggest example that manifests her parents’ role in her life.
Conclusion:
In the end, it is stated that parenting styles are associated with different child outcomes
and as stated in the book, the authoritative style is generally linked to positive behaviors such as
strong self-esteem and self-competence. However, other important factors including culture,
children's perceptions of parental treatment, and social influences also play an important role in
children's behavior. As in the end letter that was written, illustrated changes the students undergo
during the course of the day; their attitudes and perspectives changed and they were completely
different. The movie ends as the characters leave detention. The final shot shows Bender walking
near the goal post of the football field, freezing as he raises his hand triumphantly and fading to a
dark frame as the credits roll. Claire emerges as a natural leader. Bender develops a softer
attitude and becomes friendlier with everyone. Claire even kisses him and it seems the two will
try a romantic relationship. Andrew becomes interested in Allison after she allows Claire to give
her a makeover. Each student first illustrated the outcomes of different parenting, due to which
they all got detention, but after spending hours with each other they decided not to repeat the
same mistake their parents made and that they all turned out to be good.
Parenting Style
7
References
IMDb. (2014). The breakfast club. Retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088847/synopsis
Kail, V. R. (2009). Children and their development. Prentice Hall.