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For years, gentle parenting has dominated the world of parenting styles. Parents decided that the best choice for their families was to treat their children with kindness and respect and not be so quick to punish them. Some feel like this has worked well and built better parent-child relationships, while others think it’s too soft an approach and doesn’t get the job done.

Now, Gen Z is growing up and starting families of their own. As Gen Z becomes parents, people are interested in how they will tackle parenting and what style they will adopt. It seems that the generation is now moving away from gentle parenting and trying something different.

New research revealed that Gen Z is leaning into a different parenting style called cycle-breaking.

Talker Research conducted a survey on behalf of Kiddie Academy in which they polled 2,000 parents with children 6 years old and under. The survey found that gentle parenting, or “emphasizing empathy and understanding rather than punishment,” is still the most popular parenting style, with 38% of parents surveyed saying they used it.

Gustavo Fring | Pexels

However, Gen Z parents are zeroing in on what was found to be the second most popular parenting style, cycle-breaking, which came very close to gentle parenting at 37%. This style “focuses on healing generational trauma and avoiding repeating harmful family patterns or behaviors.” 41% of Gen Z parents use cycle-breaking parenting, as opposed to just 32% who use gentle parenting.

It makes sense that cycle-breaking parenting would be so popular with Gen Z when the generation is so focused on ending generational trauma and dealing with the ways it has affected them personally. Many Gen Zers look at their own parents and only see the problems they caused and the patterns they reinforced in their children’s lives. They want something better for their own children.

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Cycle-breaking parenting and gentle parenting aren’t completely different.

Therapist Sarah Epstein, LMFT, explained, “A cycle-breaker is somebody who sees an unhealthy cycle of behavior in their family of origin (meaning the family they grew up in) and intentionally works to break that cycle.” So, cycle-breaking parents pick up on these unhealthy patterns cycling through the generations of their family and decide it is time to put a stop to them.

This is a different approach from gentle parenting, but not the complete opposite. Parenting coach and podcast host Danielle Sullivan shared, “Gentle parenting, also known as collaborative parenting, is a style of parenting where parents do not compel children to behave by means of punishment or control, but rather use connection, communication, and other democratic methods to make decisions together as a family.”

As you can see, cycle-breaking parenting and gentle parenting do share some similarities. They have different focuses and goals, but both use an empathetic approach to create the best possible life for the children involved.

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Cycle-breaking and gentle parenting could be used in tandem, and it seems like some parents probably do this.

Really, instead of consigning each parent to one single style of parenting, it would be more realistic to say that each works with a combination of several different styles. Indeed, 38% of Gen Z parents said they thought that there are certain times when it’s appropriate to use gentle parenting, but 39% thought it should be used in conjunction with other styles.

Leeloo The First | Pexels

It’s easy to see how cycle-breaking parenting and gentle parenting could overlap. For example, if harsh punishments were a big part of Gen Z parents’ childhoods, they may choose to break this cycle by showing their own children more understanding instead of automatically acting with disciplinary action. This would mean combining both cycle-breaking and gentle parenting, whether it was intentional or not.

At the end of the day, Gen Z parents are all about creating better, more stable lives for their children. Often, this means employing a cycle-breaking parenting style, but it doesn’t mean other styles, including gentle parenting, are completely off the table.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.