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.

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

Solve toddler challenges with eight key mindshifts that will help you parent with clarity, calmness, and self-control. In Why is My Child in Charge?, Claire Lerner shows how making critical mindshifts—seeing children’s behaviors through a new lens —empowers parents to solve their most vexing childrearing challenges. Using real life stories, Lerner unpacks the individualized process she guides parents through to settle common challenges, such as throwing tantrums in public, delaying bedtime for hours, refusing to participate in family mealtimes, and resisting potty training. Lerner then provides readers with a roadmap for how to recognize the root cause of their child’s behavior and how to create and implement an action plan tailored to the unique needs of each child and family. Why is My Child in Charge? is like having a child development specialist in your home. It shows how parents can develop proven, practical strategies that translate into adaptable, happy kids and calm, connected, in-control parents.

This research-based book covers the core components of modern parenting and child development across multi-ethnic and cross-cultural contexts in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America, with a focus on the United States. Parenting and Child Development: Across Ethnicity and Culture is based on a cohesive framework that links physical, psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional aspects of children's lives to their experiences of parental behavior. This book covers the fundamentals of parent-child relationships, including the theoretical perspective of parenting, positive and negative parenting behaviors, and changing patterns of parenting from infancy through adolescence. Explored are parent-child relationships and their implications for children's health, well-being, and quality of life in different family forms, including parenting in drug-addicted families, homeless families, cohabiting families, single-parent families, and LGBT families around the world. Using an array of theories with relevant empirical findings, the practical implications for child development both within the United States and across the globe are highlighted. Also included is specific information about tools and techniques for measuring intimate relationships and intervention strategies for relationship problems.

The goal of this volume is to discuss--in depth--the ways in which various "deviations" from "traditional" family styles affect childrearing practices and child development. Each of the contributors illustrates the dynamic developmental processes that characterize parenting and child development in contexts that can be deemed "nontraditional" because they do not reflect the demographic characteristics of the traditional families on which social scientists have largely focused. The contributors deal with the dynamics and possible effects of dual-career families, families with unusually involved fathers, families characterized by the occurrence of divorce, single parenthood, remarriage, poverty, adoption, reliance on nonparental childcare, ethnic membership, parents with lesbian or gay sexual orientations, as well as violent and/or neglectful parents. By doing so, the authors provide thoughtful, literate, and up-to-date accounts of a diverse array of "nontraditional" or traditionally understudied family types. All the chapters offer answers to a common question: How do these patterns of childcare affect children, their experiences, and their developmental processes? The answers to these questions are of practical importance, relevant to a growing proportion of the families and children in the United States, but also have significant implications for the understanding of developmental processes in general. As a result, the book will be of value to basic social scientists, as well as those professionals concerned with guiding and advising clients and public policy.

This volume presents cutting-edge thinking & research on linkages among SES, parenting & child development. The authors represent an array of different disciplines, & they approach the issues of SES parenting & child dev. from a variety of perspectives.