Accessible, easy-to-follow guide to teaching parents and other caregivers to value and support a child's development.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

This handbook presents the latest theories and findings on parenting, from the evolving roles and tasks of childrearing to insights from neuroscience, prevention science, and genetics. Chapters explore the various processes through which parents influence the lives of their children, as well as the effects of parenting on specific areas of child development, such as language, communication, cognition, emotion, sibling and peer relationships, schooling, and health. Chapters also explore the determinants of parenting, including consideration of biological factors, parental self-regulation and mental health, cultural and religious factors, and stressful and complex social conditions such as poverty, work-related separation, and divorce. In addition, the handbook provides evidence supporting the implementation of parenting programs such as prevention/early intervention and treatments for established issues. The handbook addresses the complementary role of universal and targeted parenting programs, the economic benefits of investment in parenting programs, and concludes with future directions for research and practice. Topics featured in the Handbook include: · The role of fathers in supporting children’s development. · Developmental disabilities and their effect on parenting and child development. · Child characteristics and their reciprocal effects on parenting. · Long-distance parenting and its impact on families. · The shifting dynamic of parenting and adult-child relationships. · The effects of trauma, such as natural disasters, war exposure, and forced displacement on parenting. The Handbook of Parenting and Child Development Across the Lifespan is an essential reference for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and therapists and professionals in clinical child and school psychology, social work, pediatrics, developmental psychology, family studies, child and adolescent psychiatry, and special education.

Parenting and Substance Abuse is the first book to report on pioneering efforts to move the treatment of substance-abusing parents forward by embracing their roles and experiences as mothers and fathers directly and continually across the course of treatment.

According to these pediatric psychologists, the best interest of the child calls for a developmentally appropriate parenting plan-that is, custody that accurately reflects the child's physical and psychological development. Even now this concept often faces courtroom challenges as it can conflict with the traditional lawyer-client relationship. This book explores developing alternate parenting schedules (or custody) with the child's best interest and developmental needs considered first.

This thorough and multidisciplinary overview of childrearing illustrates and stands on two foundational principles: that the importance of parenting is immense, and that it is undervalued. The Critical Role of Parenting in Human Development surprises readers with the realization that the way we were parented in childhood impacts nearly every aspect of our lives. Based in part on cutting-edge research using MRI and fMRI technologies demonstrating that the brains of those traumatized in childhood are essentially different, the book explains that our brain development during our earliest years and in the womb is fundamental to the lives we lead. It covers attachment theory, the impact of corporal punishment on the brain, the effects of emotional abuse and neglect, and the widespread nature of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, describing the process that leads to the transmission of parenting patterns through the generations and explaining how resulting personal issues recur throughout the lifespan. The Critical Role of Parenting in Human Development also examines laws and policies that impact parenting in our culture, making a case for their importance, and describes the effect of childrearing on various aspects of human life, including relationships, crime and violence, economics, mental and physical health, addiction, education, and career issues, among others. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book is a much-needed resource for professionals and students in the psychology, psychotherapy, social work, and related mental health and child welfare fields.