Vetriswaran is the only son of Dhayalan and Malar. His mother triestried to be an authoritarian parent at first but due to the male dominance of her husband, Dhayalan, her parenting attitude isstyle was suppressed. Vetriswaran experiences permissive parenting from his father. Permissive parenting is a type of parenting style where any one or both of the parents are friendly with their children. Permissive parenting is also called an indulgent parenting style. Permissive parents ‘‘attempt"attempt to behave in a non-punitive, acceptant, and affirmative manner towards the child’s impulses, desires, and actions. They make few demands for household responsibility and orderly behavior. They allow the child to regulate his own activities as much as possible, avoid the exercise of control, and do not encourage him to obey externally defined standards’’standards." (Baumrind 1971)
Since Vetriswaran was emotionally supported and well guided by his father in all possible ways, it iswas easy for him to establish his identity status.
Marcia (1966) described identity formation during adolescence as involving both exploration (crisis) and commitment. Marcia categorized identity status into four types: identity achievement, identity foreclosure, identity moratorium and identity diffusion. . These four categories differ from each other in presence or absence of crisis and commitment. Crisis is Marcia's term for a period of conscious decision making related to identity formation. Commitment is Marcia’s term for personal investment in an occupation or system of beliefs.
Because of the permissive parenting style, Vetriswaran attained identity achievement. Marcia defined identity achievement as an identity status characterized by commitment to choices made following a crisis, a period spent in exploring alternatives. Individuals that do reach identity achievement feel self-acceptance, stable self-definition, and are committed to their identity. In this movie Appa, Vetriswaran decides his field of interest, is swimming and becomes one of the Guinness world record holders. So, permissive parenting helps him to attain identity achievement.