role of parents in child development essay

Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Do you wonder how parents influence their child? Read our parents’ influence on a child essay example and learn about the parental impact on behavior and development.

Introduction

• Financial Resources
• Education Level

Unemployed Parents

• Involvement of Parents
• Support from Parents
• Understanding of the Child’s Future
• Motivation from Parents
• Parental Goal-Setting
• The Importance of Discipline

Parents are means of structuring their child’s future. They have a very crucial role to play in their child’s growth and his/her conduct. During the days when schooling was considered to be accessible only to the children of the opulent, those who were not privileged enough to go to school, remained at home and helped their parents in daily chores.

Such children used to emulate their parents in their deeds and conduct. “In large part, we as children are shaped by what we see our parents do and how we see them act. I know that I have tried to model after my parents in many ways because I think they have done many things right” (Enotes, 2010).

But during the years, owing to the numerous opportunities available, parents have started devoting more time towards their work. Moreover, education has been simplified and has easy access. Children have started going to schools and as such, both parents and their children don’t have enough time to spend with each other. But still there are parents who devote time towards their children and try and teach them.

It has been observed that children, who have their parents’ guidance and participation in their school activities, achieve more in life as compared to those who totally depend on their schools. “…is that when parents get involved in their children’s education, they offer not only information specific to the classroom, but likely help in giving children a broader level of academic information” (Jeynes, 2011).

There are a few factors related to parents that have a major role to play in the child’s upbringing and education. These are:

Financial resources of parents

Financial resources mean the income of the parents. If the income of parents is good, they can afford to provide extra study material to their child at home. There is a lot of referencing material required by children and as such parents earning better can provide their child with books, periodicals, magazines, etc. Technological devices like the computer play an important role in a child’s standard of education. Parents earning handsomely can provide their child with a computer at home so that he/she can complete online projects. “Poverty takes a toll on students’ school performance. Poor children are twice as likely as their more affluent counterparts to repeat a grade; to be suspended, expelled, or drop out of high school; and to be placed in special education classes” (Education).

Education level of the parents

If the parents are well educated, they ought to understand the importance of education and will encourage their child to study better and up to high levels. Uneducated or less educated parents will not be able to understand the importance of moulding their child’s career from the early school days. On the contrary, well educated parents will understand that for achieving success and objectives, the foundation of their child should be strong.

Unemployed parents are disgruntled and as such the atmosphere at home is not conducive for a child to study. Children find it suffocating at home and as such can’t concentrate on their studies even at their schools. Nicole Biedinger remarked that “…it is hypothesized that the home environment and family background are very important for the cognitive abilities and for their improvement” (Biedinger 2011). He further continues that “Previous research has shown that there exist developmental differences of children from different social classes” (Biedinger, 2011).

Involvement of parents

It will not be contradictory to state that parents and schools have an equal effect on the development of children. Both have an important role to play and are links to a child’s future. Even if one of the links is missing, it will have a negative impact on the child. Parents can get involved in their child’s upbringing by keeping a constant vigil on his/her school work. They can also visit his/her school on occasions such as parent-teacher meetings, annual days, sport events, social get-togethers, etc. All this will help in developing confidence in the child and also a sense of safety and protection.

Once a child is grown up, the parents can still contribute towards building their child’s confidence and identifying his/her qualities by talking to him/her on various career related issues.

Support from parents

Even if parents are not able to contribute financially by providing the essential tools for education, they can at least act as moral boosters for their child. They can inculcate, in their child, the habit of studying hard in order to attain success in life. Such children can defy all odds and prove to fulfil their parents’ aspirations. Alison Rich emphasized that “A cognitively stimulating home need not be one that is rich in material resources. Parents can simply discuss issues of importance with their children, talk to them about what they are doing in school, or spend time doing activities that will develop their skills and abilities” (Rich, 2000).

Parents’ understanding of their child’s future

Simply by getting involved in their child’s school activities, parents cannot guarantee their child’s success. Parents should be well acquainted with the ongoing educational process and various courses available. Information on when to go for any particular course is very crucial. As for example, parents must be aware of any courses that their child might require before going to the college. There are various pre-college courses that improve the grasping power of students. Further, a child will not be able to tell as to what he/she wants to achieve in life. But parents, by knowing his/her interests, can assess their child’s inclination and can further encourage him/her to pursue those interests.

Motivation from parents

Usually, parents tell bed-time stories to their children. These stories have a great impact on the way a child thinks and are instrumental to quite some extent in moulding his/her behaviour and conduct. So parents should tell such stories that have some moral values. The child will get inspired from them and behave accordingly. Stories of heroes and successful people will encourage the child to be like one of them. Parents can also motivate their children by doing good acts themselves.

Parents to set goals for their child

Achieving one’s goals in life is a very important factor of success. Success comes to those who achieve their aims and objectives. Even though there are no fixed parameters for achieving success, it solely depends on the hard work, enthusiasm and motivation of a person. These qualities don’t come instantly but have to be nurtured since childhood. So parents, who want their child to succeed, should start giving him/her small targets to be completed in a given time-frame. Gradually, the child will be habituated to achieve targets and this will be helpful to a great extent in his/her future life, may it be his/her education or career.

Inculcating the importance of discipline

Being disciplined is one of the most critical requirements of being successful. Similar to the habit of achieving targets, discipline also doesn’t come instantly. It has to be inculcated since childhood.

Parents can teach discipline to their child by following certain rules. They can have strict time frames for different activities of their child at home such as study hours, watching the television programmes, having supper and other meals, and going to bed. A sense of responsibility can also be imposed on the child by allocating to him/her certain house-hold tasks.

Having mentioned all the above factors, it can be concluded that parents have an ever-lasting impact on their child’s education. It has been observed that in cases where parents have involvement in their children’s education, the children portray the following virtues: better grades at school, better rates of graduation, fewer absentees from school, better inspiration and confidence, abstaining from drugs, smoking, alcohol and other sedatives, transparency, and being responsible.

Both parents and the school have to work in mutual co-operation to enhance the educational experience of a child and to mould his/her career. In fact, schools encourage parents to be more involved in their children’s activities because the school authorities know that parents’ involvement can bring about great positive changes in the students. That’s the reason schools invite parents to attend various school activities and functions.

Biedinger, N. (2011). The influence of education and home environment on the cognitive outcomes of preschool children in Germany . Web.

Education. (n.d.). Out-of-school influences and academic success-background, parental influence, family economic status, preparing for school, physical and mental health . Web.

Enotes. (2010). How do parents influence children in life? Web.

Jeynes, W. (2011). Parental involvement and academic success . New York: Routledge.

Rich, A. (2000). Beyond the classroom: How parents influence their children’s education . Web.

• Well-Educated Person and Their Characteristics
• Employment Programs for Unemployed Youth in the MENA
• SMART Targets and Process of Achieving Them
• Teaching Philosophy in Early Childhood
• Assessment and Evaluation
• Plan of Assessing Learner Performances
• Changing the Structure of the Class Grading System
• Influence of Cultural Identity the Way Middle School Students Learn
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2018, November 6). Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/

"Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." IvyPanda , 6 Nov. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development'. 6 November.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." November 6, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

1. IvyPanda . "Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." November 6, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development." November 6, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parents-influence-on-a-child/.

Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8 (2016)

Chapter: 1 introduction, 1 introduction.

Parents are among the most important people in the lives of young children. 1 From birth, children are learning and rely on mothers and fathers, as well as other caregivers acting in the parenting role, to protect and care for them and to chart a trajectory that promotes their overall well-being. While parents generally are filled with anticipation about their children’s unfolding personalities, many also lack knowledge about how best to provide for them. Becoming a parent is usually a welcomed event, but in some cases, parents’ lives are fraught with problems and uncertainty regarding their ability to ensure their child’s physical, emotional, or economic well-being.

At the same time, this study was fundamentally informed by recognition that the task of ensuring children’s healthy development does not rest solely with parents or families. It lies as well with governments and organizations at the local/community, state, and national levels that provide programs and services to support parents and families. Society benefits socially and economically from providing current and future generations of parents with the support they need to raise healthy and thriving children ( Karoly et al., 2005 ; Lee et al., 2015 ). In short, when parents and other caregivers are able to support young children, children’s lives are enriched, and society is advantaged by their contributions.

To ensure positive experiences for their children, parents draw on the resources of which they are aware or that are at their immediate disposal.

___________________

1 In this report, “parents” refers to the primary caregivers of young children in the home. In addition to biological and adoptive parents, main caregivers may include kinship (e.g., grandparents), foster, and other types of caregivers.

However, these resources may vary in number, availability, and quality at best, and at worst may be offered sporadically or not at all. Resources may be close at hand (e.g., family members), or they may be remote (e.g., government programs). They may be too expensive to access, or they may be substantively inadequate. Whether located in early childhood programs, school-based classrooms, well-child clinics, or family networks, support for parents of young children is critical to enhancing healthy early childhood experiences, promoting positive outcomes for children, and helping parents build strong relationships with their children (see Box 1-1 ).

The parent-child relationship that the parent described in Box 1-1 sought and continues to work toward is central to children’s growth and

development—to their social-emotional and cognitive functioning, school success, and mental and physical health. Experiences during early childhood affect children’s well-being over the course of their lives. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when children’s brains are developing rapidly and when nearly all of their experiences are created and shaped by their parents and by the positive or difficult circumstances in which the parents find themselves. Parents play a significant role in helping children build and refine their knowledge and skills, as well as their learning expectations, beliefs, goals, and coping strategies. Parents introduce children to the social world where they develop understandings of themselves and their place and value in society, understandings that influence their choices and experiences over the life course.

PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY

Over the past several decades, researchers have identified parenting-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices that are associated with improved developmental outcomes for children and around which parenting-related programs, policies, and messaging initiatives can be designed. However, consensus is lacking on the elements of parenting that are most important to promoting child well-being, and what is known about effective parenting has not always been adequately integrated across different service sectors to give all parents the information and support they need. Moreover, knowledge about effective parenting has not been effectively incorporated into policy, which has resulted in a lack of coordinated and targeted efforts aimed at supporting parents.

Several challenges to the implementation of effective parenting practices exist as well. One concerns the scope and complexity of hardships that influence parents’ use of knowledge, about effective parenting, including their ability to translate that knowledge into effective parenting practices and their access to and participation in evidence-based parenting-related programs and services. Many families in the United States are affected by such hardships, which include poverty, parental mental illness and substance use, and violence in the home. A second challenge is inadequate attention to identifying effective strategies for engaging and utilizing the strengths of fathers, discussed later in this chapter and elsewhere in this report. Even more limited is the understanding of how mothers, fathers, and other caregivers together promote their children’s development and analysis of the effects of fathers’ parenting on child outcomes. A third challenge is limited knowledge of exactly how culture and the direct effects of racial discrimination influence childrearing beliefs and practices or children’s development ( National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000 ). Despite acknowledgment of and attention to the importance of culture in

the field of developmental science, few studies have explored differences in parenting among demographic communities that vary in race and ethnicity, culture, and immigrant experience, among other factors, and the implications for children’s development.

In addition, the issue of poverty persists, with low-income working families being particularly vulnerable to policy and economic shifts. Although these families have benefited in recent years from the expansion of programs and policies aimed at supporting them (discussed further below), the number of children living in deep poverty has increased ( Sherman and Trisi, 2014 ). 2 Moreover, the portrait of America’s parents and children has changed over the past 50 years as a result of shifts in the numbers and origins of immigrants to the United States and in the nation’s racial, ethnic, and cultural composition ( Child Trends Databank, 2015b ; Migration Policy Institute, 2016 ). Family structure also has grown increasingly diverse across class, race, and ethnicity, with fewer children now being raised in households with two married parents; more living with same-sex parents; and more living with kinship caregivers, such as grandparents, and in other household arrangements ( Child Trends Databank, 2015b ). Lastly, parenting increasingly is being shaped by technology and greater access to information about parenting, some of which is not based in evidence and much of which is only now being studied closely.

The above changes in the nation’s demographic, economic, and technological landscape, discussed in greater detail below, have created new opportunities and challenges with respect to supporting parents of young children. Indeed, funding has increased for some programs designed to support children and families. At the state and federal levels, policy makers recently have funded new initiatives aimed at expanding early childhood education ( Barnett et al., 2015 ). Over the past several years, the number of states offering some form of publicly funded prekindergarten program has risen to 39, and after slight dips during the Great Recession of 2008, within-state funding of these programs has been increasing ( Barnett et al., 2015 ). Furthermore, the 2016 federal budget allocates about $750 million for state-based preschool development grants focused on improved access and better quality of care and an additional $1 billion for Head Start programs ( U.S. Department of Education, 2015 ; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015 ). The federal budget also includes additional funding for the expansion of early childhood home visiting programs ($15 billion over the next 10 years) and increased access to child care for low-income working families ($28 billion over 10 years) ( U.S. Department

2 Deep poverty is defined as household income that is 50 percent or more below the federal poverty level (FPL). In 2015, the FPL for a four-person household was $24,250 ( Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2015 ).

of Health and Human Services, 2015 ). Low-income children and families have been aided as well in recent years by increased economic support from government in the form of both cash benefits (e.g., the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit) and noncash benefits (e.g., Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and millions of children and their families have moved out of poverty as a result ( Sherman and Trisi, 2014 ).

It is against this backdrop of need and opportunity that the Administration for Children and Families, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Education, the Foundation for Child Development, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine empanel a committee to conduct a study to examine the state of the science with respect to parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices tied to positive parent-child interactions and child outcomes and strategies for supporting them among parents of young children ages 0-8. The purpose of this study was to provide a roadmap for the future of parenting and family support policies, practices, and research in the United States.

The statement of task for the Committee on Supporting the Parents of Young Children is presented in Box 1-2 . The committee was tasked with describing barriers to and facilitators for strengthening parenting capacity and parents’ participation and retention in salient programs and services. The committee was asked to assess the evidence and then make recommendations whose implementation would promote wide-scale adoption of effective strategies for enabling the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Given the multi- and interdisciplinary nature of the study task, the 18-member committee comprised individuals with an array of expertise, including child development, early childhood education, developmental and educational psychology, child psychiatry, social work, family engagement research, pediatric medicine, public and health policy, health communications, implementation science, law, and economics (see Appendix D for biosketches of the committee members).

WHAT IS PARENTING?

Conceptions of who parents are and what constitute the best conditions for raising children vary widely. From classic anthropological and human development perspectives, parenting often is defined as a primary mechanism of socialization, that is, a primary means of training and preparing children to meet the demands of their environments and take advantage

of opportunities within those environments. As Bornstein (1991, p. 6) explains, the “particular and continuing task of parents and other caregivers is to enculturate children . . . to prepare them for socially accepted physical, economic, and psychological situations that are characteristic of the culture in which they are to survive and thrive.”

Attachment security is a central aspect of development that has been

defined as a child’s sense of confidence that the caregiver is there to meet his or her needs ( Main and Cassidy, 1988 ). All children develop attachments with their parents, but how parents interact with their young children, including the extent to which they respond appropriately and consistently to their children’s needs, particularly in times of distress, influences whether the attachment relationship that develops is secure or insecure. Young chil-

dren who are securely attached to their parents are provided a solid foundation for healthy development, including the establishment of strong peer relationships and the ability to empathize with others ( Bowlby, 1978 ; Chen et al., 2012 ; Holmes, 2006 ; Main and Cassidy, 1988 ; Murphy and Laible, 2013 ). Conversely, young children who do not become securely attached with a primary caregiver (e.g., as a result of maltreatment or separation) may develop insecure behaviors in childhood and potentially suffer other adverse outcomes over the life course, such as mental health disorders and disruption in other social and emotional domains ( Ainsworth and Bell, 1970 ; Bowlby, 2008 ; Schore, 2005 ).

More recently, developmental psychologists and economists have described parents as investing resources in their children in anticipation of promoting the children’s social, economic, and psychological well-being. Kalil and DeLeire (2004) characterize this promotion of children’s healthy development as taking two forms: (1) material, monetary, social, and psychological resources and (2) provision of support, guidance, warmth, and love. Bradley and Corwyn (2004) characterize the goals of these investments as helping children successfully regulate biological, cognitive, and social-emotional functioning.

Parents possess different levels and quality of access to knowledge that can guide the formation of their parenting attitudes and practices. As discussed in greater detail in Chapter 2 , the parenting practices in which parents engage are influenced and informed by their knowledge, including facts and other information relevant to parenting, as well as skills gained through experience or education. Parenting practices also are influenced by attitudes, which in this context refer to parents’ viewpoints, perspectives, reactions, or settled ways of thinking with respect to the roles and importance of parents and parenting in children’s development, as well as parents’ responsibilities. Attitudes may be part of a set of beliefs shared within a cultural group and founded in common experiences, and they often direct the transformation of knowledge into practice.

Parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices are shaped, in part, by parents’ own experiences (including those from their own childhood) and circumstances; expectations and practices learned from others, such as family, friends, and other social networks; and beliefs transferred through cultural and social systems. Parenting also is shaped by the availability of supports within the larger community and provided by institutions, as well as by policies that affect the availability of supportive services.

Along with the multiple sources of parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices and their diversity among parents, it is important to acknowledge the diverse influences on the lives of children. While parents are central to children’ development, other influences, such as relatives, close family friends, teachers, community members, peers, and social institutions, also

contribute to children’s growth and development. Children themselves are perhaps the most essential contributors to their own development. Thus, the science of parenting is framed within the theoretical perspective that parenting unfolds in particular contexts; is embedded in a network of relationships within and outside of the family; and is fluid and continuous, changing over time as children and parents grow and develop.

In addition, it is important to recognize that parenting affects not only children but also parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents’ lives; generate stress or calm; compete for time with work or leisure; and create combinations of any number of emotions, including happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger.

STUDY CONTEXT

As attention to early childhood development has increased over the past 20 years, so, too, has attention to those who care for young children. A recent Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report on the early childhood workforce ( Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2015 ) illustrates the heightened focus not only on whether young children have opportunities to be exposed to healthy environments and supports but also on the people who provide those supports. Indeed, an important responsibility of parents is identifying those who will care for their children in their absence. Those individuals may include family members and others in parents’ immediate circle, but they increasingly include non-family members who provide care and education in formal and informal settings outside the home, such as schools and home daycare centers.

Throughout its deliberations, the committee considered several questions relevant to its charge: What knowledge and attitudes do parents of young children bring to the task of parenting? How are parents engaged with their young children, and how do the circumstances and behaviors of both parents and children influence the parent-child relationship? What types of support further enhance the natural resources and skills that parents bring to the parenting role? How do parents function and make use of their familial and community resources? What policies and resources at the local, state, and federal levels assist parents? What practices do they expect those resources to reinforce, and from what knowledge and attitudes are those practices derived? On whom or what do they rely in the absence of those resources? What serves as an incentive for participation in parenting programs? How are the issues of parenting different or the same across culture and race? What factors constrain parents’ positive relationships with their children, and what research is needed to advance agendas that can help parents sustain such relationships?

The committee also considered research in the field of neuroscience,

which further supports the foundational role of early experiences in healthy development, with effects across the life course ( Center on the Developing Child, 2007 ; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009 ; World Health Organization, 2015 ). During early childhood, the brain undergoes a rapid development that lays the foundation for a child’s lifelong learning capacity and emotional and behavioral health (see Figure 1-1 ). This research has provided a more nuanced understanding of the importance of investments in early childhood and parenting. Moreover, advances in analyses of epigenetic effects on early brain development demonstrate consequences of parenting for neural development at the level of DNA, and suggest indirect consequences of family conditions such as poverty that operate on early child development, in part, through the epigenetic consequences of parenting ( Lipinia and Segretin, 2015 ).

This report comes at a time of flux in public policies aimed at supporting parents and their young children. The cost to parents of supporting their children’s healthy development (e.g., the cost of housing, health care, child care, and education) has increased at rates that in many cases have offset the improvements and increases provided for by public policies. As noted above, for example, the number of children living in deep poverty has grown since the mid-1990s ( Sherman and Trisi, 2014 ). While children represent approximately one-quarter of the country’s population, they make up 32 percent of all the country’s citizens who live in poverty ( Child Trends Databank, 2015a ). About one in every five children in the United States is now growing up in families with incomes below the poverty line, and 9 percent of children live in deep poverty (families with incomes below 50%

of the poverty line) ( Child Trends Databank, 2015a ). The risk of growing up poor continues to be particularly high for children in female-headed households; in 2013, approximately 55 percent of children under age 6 in such households lived at or below the poverty threshold, compared with 10 percent of children in married couple families ( DeNavas-Walt and Proctor, 2014 ). Black and Hispanic children are more likely to live in deep poverty (18 and 13%, respectively) compared with Asian and white children (5% each) ( Child Trends Databank, 2015a ). Also noteworthy is that child care policy, including the recent increases in funding for low-income families, ties child care subsidies to employment. Unemployed parents out of school are not eligible, and job loss results in subsidy loss and, in turn, instability in child care arrangements for young children ( Ha et al., 2012 ).

As noted earlier, this report also comes at a time of rapid change in the demographic composition of the country. This change necessitates new understandings of the norms and values within and among groups, the ways in which recent immigrants transition to life in the United States, and the approaches used by diverse cultural and ethnic communities to engage their children during early childhood and utilize institutions that offer them support in carrying out that role. The United States now has the largest absolute number of immigrants in its history ( Grieco et al., 2012 ; Passel and Cohn, 2012 ; U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 ), and the proportion of foreign-born residents today (13.1%) is nearly as high as it was at the turn of the 20th century ( National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015 ). As of 2014, 25 percent of children ages 0-5 in the United States had at least one immigrant parent, compared with 13.5 percent in 1990 ( Migration Policy Institute, 2016 ). 3 In many urban centers, such as Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City, the majority of the student body of public schools is first- or second-generation immigrant children ( Suárez-Orozco et al., 2008 ).

Immigrants to the United States vary in their countries of origin, their reception in different communities, and the resources available to them. Researchers increasingly have called attention to the wide variation not only among but also within immigrant groups, including varying premigration histories, familiarity with U.S. institutions and culture, and childrearing

3 Shifting demographics in the United States have resulted in increased pressure for service providers to meet the needs of all children and families in a culturally sensitive manner. In many cases, community-level changes have overwhelmed the capacity of local child care providers and health service workers to respond to the language barriers and cultural parenting practices of the newly arriving immigrant groups, particularly if they have endured trauma. For example, many U.S. communities have worked to address the needs of the growing Hispanic population, but it has been documented that in some cases, eligible Latinos are “less likely to access available social services than other populations” ( Helms et al., 2015 ; Wildsmith et al., 2016 ).

strategies ( Crosnoe, 2006 ; Fuller and García Coll, 2010 ; Galindo and Fuller, 2010 ; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2010 ; Takanishi, 2004 ). Immigrants often bring valuable social and human capital to the United States, including unique competencies and sociocultural strengths. Indeed, many young immigrant children display health and learning outcomes better than those of children of native-born parents in similar socioeconomic positions ( Crosnoe, 2013 ). At the same time, however, children with immigrant parents are more likely than children in native-born families to grow up poor ( Hernandez et al., 2008 , 2012 ; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015 ; Raphael and Smolensky, 2009 ). Immigrant parents’ efforts to raise healthy children also can be thwarted by barriers to integration that include language, documentation, and discrimination ( Hernandez et al., 2012 ; Yoshikawa, 2011 ).

The increase in the nation’s racial and ethnic diversity over the past several decades, related in part to immigration, is a trend that is expected to continue ( Colby and Ortman, 2015 ; Taylor, 2014 ). Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of Americans identifying as black, Hispanic, Asian, or “other” increased from 15 percent to 36 percent of the population ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 ). Over this same time, the percentage of non-Hispanic white children under age 10 declined from 60 percent to 52 percent, while the percentage of Hispanic ethnicity (of any race) grew from about 19 percent to 25 percent ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 ); the percentages of black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian children under age 10 remained relatively steady (at about 15%, 1%, and 4-5%, respectively); and the percentages of children in this age group identifying as two or more races increased from 3 percent to 5 percent ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 ).

The above-noted shifts in the demographic landscape with regard to family structure, including increases in divorce rates and cohabitation, new types of parental relationships, and the involvement of grandparents and other relatives in the raising of children ( Cancian and Reed, 2008 ; Fremstad and Boteach, 2015 ), have implications for how best to support families. Between 1960 and 2014, the percentage of children under age 18 who lived with two married parents (biological, nonbiological, or adoptive) decreased from approximately 85 percent to 64 percent. In 1960, 8 percent of children lived in households headed by single mothers; by 2014, that figure had tripled to about 24 percent ( Child Trends Databank, 2015b ; U.S. Census Bureau, 2016 ). Meanwhile, the proportions of children living with only their fathers or with neither parent (with either relatives or non-relatives) have remained relatively steady since the mid-1980s, at about 4 percent (see Figure 1-2 ). Black children are significantly more likely to live in households headed by single mothers and also are more likely to live in households where neither parent is present. In 2014, 34 percent of black

children lived with two parents, compared with 58 percent of Hispanic children, 75 percent of white children, and 85 percent of Asian children ( Child Trends Databank, 2015b ).

From 1996 to 2015, the number of cohabiting couples with children rose from 1.2 million to 3.3 million ( Child Trends Databank, 2015b ). Moreover, data from the National Health Interview Survey show that in 2013, 30,000 children under age 18 had married same-sex parents and 170,000 had unmarried same-sex parents, and between 1.1 and 2.0 million were being raised by a parent who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual but was not part of a couple ( Gates, 2014 ).

More families than in years past rely on kinship care (full-time care of children by family members other than parents or other adults with whom children have a family-like relationship). When parents are unable to care for their children because of illness, military deployment, incarceration, child abuse, or other reasons, kinship care can help cultivate familial and community bonds, as well as provide children with a sense of stability and belonging ( Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012 ; Winokur et al., 2014 ). It is estimated that the number of children in kinship care grew six times the rate of the number of children in the general population over the past decade ( Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012 ). In 2014, 7 percent of children lived in households headed by grandparents, as compared with 3 percent in 1970 ( Child Trends Databank, 2015b ), and as of 2012, about 10 percent of American children lived in a household where a grandparent was present ( Ellis and Simmons, 2014 ). Black children are twice as likely as the overall population of children to live in kinship arrangements, with about 20 percent of black children spending time in kinship care at some point

during their childhood ( Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012 ). Beyond kinship care, about 400,000 U.S. children under age 18 are in foster care with about one-quarter of these children living with relatives ( Child Trends Databank, 2015c ). Of the total number of children in foster care, 7 percent are under age 1, 33 percent are ages 1-5, and 23 percent are ages 6-10 ( Child Trends Databank, 2015c ). Other information about the structure of American families is more difficult to come by. For example, there is a lack of data with which to assess trends in the number of children who are raised by extended family members through informal arrangements as opposed to through the foster care system.

As noted earlier, fathers, including biological fathers and other male caregivers, have historically been underrepresented in parenting research despite their essential role in the development of young children. Young children with involved and nurturing fathers develop better linguistic and cognitive skills and capacities, including academic readiness, and are more emotionally secure and have better social connections with peers as they get older ( Cabrera and Tamis-LeMonda, 2013 ; Harris and Marmer, 1996 ; Lamb, 2004 ; Pruett, 2000 ; Rosenberg and Wilcox, 2006 ; Yeung et al., 2000 ). Conversely, children with disengaged fathers have been found to be more likely to develop behavioral problems ( Amato and Rivera, 1999 ; Ramchandani et al., 2013 ). With both societal shifts in gender roles and increased attention to fathers’ involvement in childrearing in recent years, fathers have assumed greater roles in the daily activities associated with raising young children, such as preparing and eating meals with them, reading to and playing and talking with them, and helping them with homework ( Bianchi et al., 2007 ; Cabrera et al., 2011 ; Jones and Mosher, 2013 ; Livingston and Parker, 2011 ). In two-parent families, 16 percent of fathers were stay-at-home parents in 2012, compared with 10 percent in 1989; 21 percent of these fathers stayed home specifically to care for their home or family, up from 5 percent in 1989 ( Livingston, 2014 ). At the same time, however, fewer fathers now live with their biological children because of increases in nonmarital childbearing (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015).

In addition, as alluded to earlier, parents of young children face trans-formative changes in technology that can have a strong impact on parenting and family life ( Collier, 2014 ). Research conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that, relative to other household configurations, married parents with children under age 18 use the Internet and cell phones, own computers, and adopt broadband at higher rates ( Duggan and Lenhart, 2015 ). Other types of households, however, such as single-parent and unmarried multiadult households, also show high usage of technology, particularly text messaging and social media ( Smith, 2015 ). Research by the Pew Research Center (2014) shows that many parents—25 percent in

one survey ( Duggan et al., 2015 )—view social media as a useful source of parenting information.

At the same time, however, parents also are saturated with information and faced with the difficulty of distinguishing valid information from fallacies and myths about raising children ( Aubrun and Grady, 2003 ; Center on Media and Human Development, 2014 ; Dworkin et al., 2013 ; Future of Children, 2008 ). Given the number and magnitude of innovations in media and communications technologies, parents may struggle with understanding the optimal use of technology in the lives of their children.

Despite engagement with Internet resources, parents still report turning to family, friends, and physicians more often than to online sources such as Websites, blogs, and social network sites for parenting advice ( Center on Media and Human Development, 2014 ). Although many reports allude to the potentially harmful effects of media and technology, parents generally do not report having many concerns or family conflicts regarding their children’s media use. On the other hand, studies have confirmed parents’ fears about an association between children’s exposure to violence in media and increased anxiety ( Funk, 2005 ), desensitization to violence ( Engelhardt et al., 2011 ), and aggression ( Willoughby et al., 2012 ). And although the relationship between media use and childhood obesity is challenging to disentangle, studies have found that children who spend more time with media are more likely to be overweight than children who do not (see Chapter 2 ) ( Bickham et al., 2013 ; Institute of Medicine, 2011 ; Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004 ).

The benefits of the information age have included reduced barriers to knowledge for both socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Yet despite rapidly decreasing costs of many technologies (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and computers), parents of lower socioeconomic position and from racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to have access to and take advantage of these resources ( Center on Media and Human Development, 2014 ; File and Ryan, 2014 ; Institute of Medicine, 2006 ; Perrin and Duggan, 2015 ; Smith, 2015 ; Viswanath et al., 2012 ). A digital divide also exists between single-parent and two-parent households, as the cost of a computer and monthly Internet service can be more of a financial burden for the former families, which on average have lower household incomes ( Allen and Rainie, 2002 ; Dworkin et al., 2013 ).

STUDY APPROACH

The committee’s approach to its charge consisted of a review of the evidence in the scientific literature and several other information-gathering activities.

Evidence Review

The committee conducted an extensive review of the scientific literature pertaining to the questions raised in its statement of task ( Box 1-2 ). It did not undertake a full review of all parenting-related studies because it was tasked with providing a targeted report that would direct stakeholders to best practices and succinctly capture the state of the science. The committee’s literature review entailed English-language searches of databases including, but not limited to, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Medline, the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. Additional literature and other resources were identified by committee members and project staff using traditional academic research methods and online searches. The committee focused its review on research published in peer-reviewed journals and books (including individual studies, review articles, and meta-analyses), as well as reports issued by government agencies and other organizations. The committee’s review was concentrated primarily, although not entirely, on research conducted in the United States, occasionally drawing on research from other Western countries (e.g., Germany and Australia), and rarely on research from other countries.

In reviewing the literature and formulating its conclusions and recommendations, the committee considered several, sometimes competing, dimensions of empirical work: internal validity, external validity, practical significance, and issues of implementation, such as scale-up with fidelity ( Duncan et al., 2007 ; McCartney and Rosenthal, 2000 ; Rosenthal and Rosnow, 2007 ).

With regard to internal validity , the committee viewed random-assignment experiments as the primary model for establishing cause- and-effect relationships between variables with manipulable causes (e.g., Rosenthal and Rosnow, 2007 ; Shadish et al., 2001 ). Given the relatively limited body of evidence from experimental studies in the parenting literature, however, the committee also considered findings from quasi-experimental studies (including those using regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, and difference-in-difference techniques based on natural experiments) ( Duncan et al., 2007 ; Foster, 2010 ; McCartney et al., 2006 ) and from observational studies, a method that can be used to test logical propositions inherent to causal inference, rule out potential sources of bias, and assess the sensitivity of results to assumptions regarding study design and measurement. These include longitudinal studies and limited cross-sectional studies. Although quasi- and nonexperimental studies may fail to meet the “gold standard” of randomized controlled trials for causal inference, studies with a variety of internal validity strengths and weaknesses can collectively provide useful evidence on causal influences ( Duncan et al., 2014 ).

When there are different sources of evidence, often with some differences in estimates of the strength of the evidence, the committee used its collective experience to integrate the information and draw reasoned conclusions.

With regard to external validity , the committee attempted to take into account the extent to which findings can be generalized across population groups and situations. This entailed considering the demographic, socioeconomic, and other characteristics of study participants; whether variables were assessed in the real-world contexts in which parents and children live (e.g., in the home, school, community); whether study findings build the knowledge base with regard to both efficacy (i.e., internal validity in highly controlled settings) and effectiveness (i.e., positive net treatment effects in ecologically valid settings); and issues of cultural competence ( Bracht and Glass, 1968 ; Bronfenbrenner, 2009 ; Cook and Campbell, 1979 ; Harrison and List, 2004 ; Lerner et al., 2000 ; Rosenthal and Rosnow, 2007 ; Whaley and Davis, 2007 ). However, the research literature is limited in the extent to which generalizations across population groups and situations are examined.

With regard to practical significance , the committee considered the magnitude of likely causal impacts within both an empirical context (i.e., measurement, design, and method) and an economic context (i.e., benefits relative to costs), and with attention to the salience of outcomes (e.g., how important an outcome is for promoting child well-being) ( Duncan et al., 2007 ; McCartney and Rosenthal, 2000 ). As discussed elsewhere in this report, however, the committee found limited economic evidence with which to draw conclusions about investing in interventions at scale or to weigh the costs and benefits of interventions. (See the discussion of other information-gathering activities below.) Also with respect to practical significance, the committee considered the manipulability of the variables under consideration in real-world contexts, given that the practical significance of study results depend on whether the variables examined are represented or experienced commonly or uncommonly among particular families ( Fabes et al., 2000 ).

Finally, the committee took into account issues of implementation , such as whether interventions can be brought to and sustained at scale ( Durlak and DuPre, 2008 ; Halle et al., 2013 ). Experts in the field of implementation science emphasize not only the evidence behind programs but also the fundamental roles of scale-up, dissemination planning, and program monitoring and evaluation. Scale-up in turn requires attending to the ability to implement adaptive program practices in response to heterogeneous, real-world contexts, while also ensuring fidelity for the potent levers of change or prevention ( Franks and Schroeder, 2013 ). Thus, the committee relied on both evidence on scale-up, dissemination, and sustainability from empirically based programs and practices that have been implemented and

evaluated, and more general principles of implementation science, including considerations of capacity and readiness for scale-up and sustainability at the macro (e.g., current national politics) and micro (e.g., community resources) levels.

The review of the evidence conducted for this study, especially pertaining to strategies that work at the universal, targeted, and intensive levels to strengthen parenting capacity (questions 2 and 3 from the committee’s statement of task [ Box 1-2 ]), also entailed searches of several databases that, applying principles similar to those described above, assess the strength of the evidence for parenting-related programs and practices: the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP), supported by SAMHSA; the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC), which is funded by the state of California; and Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development, which has multiple funding sources. Although each of these databases is unique with respect to its history, sponsors, and objectives (NREPP covers mental health and substance abuse interventions, CEBC is focused on evidence relevant to child welfare, and Blueprints describes programs designed to promote the health and well-being of children), all are recognized nationally and internationally and undergo a rigorous review process.

The basic principles of evaluation and classification and the processes for classification of evidence-based practices are common across NREPP, CEBC, and Blueprints. Each has two top categories—optimal and promising—for programs and practices (see Appendix B ; see also Burkhardt et al., 2015 ; Means et al., 2015 ; Mihalic and Elliot, 2015 ; Soydan et al., 2010 ). Given the relatively modest investment in research on programs for parents and young children, however, the array of programs that are highly rated remains modest. For this reason, the committee considered as programs with the most robust evidence not only those included in the top two categories of Blueprints and CEBC but also those with an average rating of 3 or higher in NREPP. The committee’s literature searches also captured well-supported programs that are excluded from these databases (e.g., because they are recent and/or have not been submitted for review) but have sound theoretical underpinnings and rely on well-recognized intervention and implementation mechanisms.

Other reputable information sources used in producing specific portions of this report were What Works for Health (within the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps Program, a joint effort of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin); the What Works Clearinghouse of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Services; and HHS’s Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) review.

In addition, the committee chose to consider findings from research using methodological approaches that are emerging as a source of innovation and improvement. These approaches are gaining momentum in parent-

ing research and are being developed and funded by the federal government and private philanthropy. Examples are breakthrough series collaborative approaches, such as the Home Visiting Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Network to Reduce Infant Mortality, and designs such as factorial experiments that have been used to address topics relevant to this study.

Other Information-Gathering Activities

The committee held two open public information-gathering sessions to hear from researchers, practitioners, parents, and other stakeholders on topics germane to this study and to supplement the expertise of the committee members (see Appendix A for the agendas of these open sessions). Material from these open sessions is referenced in this report where relevant.

As noted above, the committee’s task included making recommendations related to promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective strategies for supporting parents and the salient knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Cost is an important consideration for the implementation of parenting programs at scale. Therefore, the committee commissioned a paper reviewing the available economic evidence for investing in parenting programs at scale to inform its deliberations on this portion of its charge. Findings and excerpts from this paper are integrated throughout Chapters 3 through 6 . The committee also commissioned a second paper summarizing evidence-based strategies used by health care systems and providers to help parents acquire and sustain knowledge, attitudes, and practices that promote healthy child development. The committee drew heavily on this paper in developing sections of the report on universal/preventive and targeted interventions for parents in health care settings. Lastly, a commissioned paper on evidence-based strategies to support parents of children with mental illness formed the basis for a report section on this population. 4

In addition, the committee conducted two sets of group and individual semistructured interviews with parents participating in family support programs at community-based organizations in Omaha, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C. Parents provided feedback on the strengths they bring to parenting, challenges they face, how services for parents can be improved, and ways they prefer to receive parenting information, among other topics. Excerpts from these interviews are presented throughout this report as “Parent Voices” to provide real-world examples of parents’ experiences and to supplement the discussion of particular concepts and the committee’s findings.

4 The papers commissioned by the committee are in the public access file for the study and can be requested at https://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/ManageRequest.aspx?key=49669 [October 2016].

TERMINOLOGY AND STUDY PARAMETERS

As specified in the statement of task for this study ( Box 1-2 ), the term “parents” refers in this report to those individuals who are the primary caregivers of young children in the home. Therefore, the committee reviewed studies that involved not only biolofical and adoptive parents but also relative/kinship providers (e.g., grandparents), stepparents, foster parents, and other types of caregivers, although research is sparse on unique issues related to nontraditional caregivers. The terms “knowledge,” “attitudes,” and “practices” and the relationships among them were discussed earlier in this chapter, and further detail can be found in Chapter 2 ).

The committee recognized that to a certain degree, ideas about what is considered effective parenting vary across cultures and ecological conditions, including economies, social structures, religious beliefs, and moral values ( Cushman, 1995 ). To address this variation, and in accordance with its charge, the committee examined research on how core parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices differ by specific characteristics of children, parents, and contexts. However, because the research on parenting has traditionally underrepresented several populations (e.g., caregivers other than mothers), the evidence on which the committee could draw to make these comparisons was limited.

The committee interpreted “evidence-based/informed strategies” very broadly as ranging from teaching a specific parenting skill, to manualized parenting programs, to policies that may affect parenting. The term “interventions” is generally used in this report to refer to all types of strategies, while more specific terms (e.g., “program,” “well-child care”) are used to refer to particular types or sets of interventions. Also, recognizing that nearly every facet of society has a role to play in supporting parents and ensuring that children realize their full potential, the committee reviewed not only strategies designed expressly for parents (e.g., parenting skills training) but also, though to a lesser degree, programs and policies not designed specifically for parents that may nevertheless affect an individual’s capacity to parent (e.g., food assistance and housing programs, health care policies).

As noted earlier in this chapter, this report was informed by a life-course perspective on parenting, given evidence from neuroscience and a range of related research that the early years are a critical period in shaping how individuals fare throughout their lives. The committee also aimed to take a strengths/assets-based approach (e.g., to identify strategies that build upon the existing assets of parents), although the extent to which this approach could be applied was limited by the paucity of research examining parenting from this perspective.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

A number of principles guided this study. First, following the ideas of Dunst and Espe-Sherwindt (2016) , the distinction between two types of family-centered practices—relational and participatory—informed the committee’s thinking. Relational practices are those focused primarily on intervening with families using compassion, active and reflective listening, empathy, and other techniques. Participatory practices are those that actively engage families in decision making and aim to improve families’ capabilities. In addition, family-centered practices focused on the context of successful parenting are a key third form of support for parenting. A premise of the committee is that many interventions with the most troubled families and children will require all these types of services—often delivered concurrently over a lengthy period of time.

Second, many programs are designed to serve families at particular risk for problems related to cognitive and social-emotional development, health, and well-being. Early Head Start and Head Start, for example, are means tested and designed for low-income families most of whom are known to face not just one risk factor (low income) but also others that often cluster together (e.g., living in dangerous neighborhoods, exposure to trauma, social isolation, unfamiliarity with the dominant culture or language). Special populations addressed in this report typically are at very high risk because of this exposure to multiple risk factors. Research has shown that children in such families have the poorest outcomes, in some instances reaching a level of toxic stress that seriously impairs their developmental functioning ( Shonkoff and Garner, 2012 ). Of course, in addition to characterizing developmental risk, it is essential to understand the corresponding adaptive processes and protective factors, as it is the balance of risk and protective factors that determines outcomes. In many ways, supporting parents is one way to attempt to change that balance.

From an intervention point of view, several principles are central. First, intervention strategies need to be designed to have measurable effects over time and to be sustainable. Second, it is necessary to focus on the needs of individual families and to tailor interventions to achieve desired outcomes. The importance of personalized approaches is widely acknowledged in medicine, education, and other areas. An observation perhaps best illustrated in the section on parents of children with developmental disabilities in Chapter 5 , although the committee believes this approach applies to many of the programs described in this report. A corresponding core principle of intervention is viewing parents as equal partners, experts in what both they and their children need. It is important as well that multiple kinds of services for families be integrated and coordinated. As illustrated earlier

in Box 1-1 , families may be receiving interventions from multiple sources delivered in different places, making coordination all the more important.

A useful framework for thinking about interventions is described in the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2009) report Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders among Young People . Prevention interventions encompass mental health promotion: universal prevention, defined as interventions that are valuable for all children; selected prevention, aimed at populations at high risk (such as children whose parents have mental illness); and indicated prevention, focused on children already manifesting symptoms. Treatment interventions include case identification, standard treatment for known disorders, accordance of long-term treatment with the goal of reduction in relapse or occurrence, and aftercare and rehabilitation ( National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009 ).

The committee recognizes that engaging and retaining children and families in parenting interventions are critical challenges. A key to promoting such engagement may be cultural relevance. Families representing America’s diverse array of cultures, languages, and experiences are likely to derive the greatest benefit from interventions designed and implemented to allow for flexibility.

Finally, the question of widespread implementation and dissemination of parenting interventions is critically important. Given the cost of testing evidence-based parenting programs, the development of additional programs needs to be built on the work that has been done before. Collectively, interventions also are more likely to achieve a significant level of impact if they incorporate some of the elements of prior interventions. In any case, a focus on the principles of implementation and dissemination clearly is needed. As is discussed in this report, the committee calls for more study and experience with respect to taking programs to scale.

REPORT ORGANIZATION

This report is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 2 examines desired outcomes for children and reviews the existing research on parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices that support positive parent-child interactions and child outcomes. Based on the available research, this chapter identifies a set of core knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Chapter 3 provides a brief overview of some of the major federally funded programs and policies that support parents in the United States. Chapters 4 and 5 describe evidence-based and evidence-informed strategies for supporting parents and enabling the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices, including universal and widely used interventions ( Chapter 4 ) and interventions targeted to parents of children with special needs and parents who themselves face adversities

( Chapter 5 ). Chapter 6 reviews elements of effective programs for strengthening parenting capacity and parents’ participation and retention in effective programs and systems. Chapter 7 describes a national framework for supporting parents of young children. Finally, Chapter 8 presents the committee’s conclusions and recommendations for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective intervention strategies and parenting practices linked to healthy child outcomes, as well as areas for future research.

Ainsworth, M.D.S., and Bell, S.M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41 (1), 49-67.

Allen, K., and Rainie, L. (2002). Parents Online. Available: http://www.pewinternet.org/2002/11/17/parents-online/ [October 2016].

Amato, P.R., and Rivera, F. (1999). Paternal involvement and children’s behavior problems. Journal of Marriage and Family, 61 (2), 375-384.

Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2012). Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families . Available: http://www.issuelab.org/permalink/resource/12484 [October 2016].

Aubrun, A., and Grady, J. (2003). Two Cognitive Obstacles to Preventing Child Abuse: The “Other Mind” Mistake and the “Family Bubble . ” Washington, DC: Cultural Logic.

Barnett, W.S., Carolan, M.E., Squires, J.H., Brown, K.C., and Horowitz, M. (2015). The State of Preschool 2014 . New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

Bianchi, S.M., Robinson, J.P., and Milkie, M.A. (2007). Changing Rhythms of American Family Life: Table 4.1 . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Bickham, D.S., Blood, E.A., Walls, C.E., Shrier, L.A., and Rich, M. (2013). Characteristics of screen media use associated with higher BMI in young adolescents. Pediatrics, 131 (5), 935-941.

Bornstein, M.H. (1991). Cultural Approaches to Parenting (The Crosscurrents in Contemporary Psychology Series) . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bowlby, J. (1978). Attachment theory and its therapeutic implications. Adolescent Psychiatry, 6 , 5-33.

Bowlby, J. (2008). A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development . New York: Basic Books.

Bracht, G.H., and Glass, G.V. (1968). The external validity of experiments. American Educational Research Journal, 5 (4), 437-474.

Bradley, R.H., and Corwyn, R.F. (2004). “Family process” investments that matter for child well-being. In A. Kalil and T.C. DeLeire (Eds.), Family Investments in Children’s Potential Resources and Parenting Behaviors That Promote Success (pp. 1-32). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (2009). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Burkhardt, J.T., Schroter, D.C., Magura, S., Means, S.N., and Coryn, C.L.S. (2015). An overview of evidence-based program registers (EBPRs) for behavioral health. Evaluation and Program Planning, 48 , 92-99.

Cabrera, N., and Tamis-LeMonda, C. (2013). Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspective (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Routledge.

Cabrera, N. J., Hofferth, S. L, and Chae, S. (2011). Patterns and predictors of father-infant engagement across race/ethnic groups. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26 (3), 365-375.

Cancian, M., and Reed, D. (2008). Family Structure, Childbearing, and Parental Employment Implications for the Level and Trend in Poverty . Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Institute for Research on Poverty.

Center on Media and Human Development. (2014). Parenting in the Age of Digital Technology: A National Survey . Evanston, IL: Northwestern University.

Center on the Developing Child. (2007). A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy: Using Evidence to Improve Outcomes in Learning, Behavior, and Health for Vulnerable Children . Cambridge, MA: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

Chen, F.M., Lin, H.S., and Li, C.H. (2012). The role of emotion in parent-child relationships: Children’s emotionality, maternal meta-emotion, and children’s attachment security. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21 (3), 403-410.

Child Trends Databank. (2015a). Children in Poverty . Available: http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=children-in-poverty [May 2016].

Child Trends Databank. (2015b). Family Structure . Available: http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=family-structure [October 2016].

Child Trends Databank. (2015c). Foster Care . Available: http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=foster-care [May 2016].

Colby, S., and Ortman, L. (2015). Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060. Available: http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf [May 2016].

Collier, A. (2014). Perspectives on parenting in a digital age. In A.B. Jordan and D. Romer (Eds.), Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents (pp. 247-265). New York: Oxford University Press.

Cook, T.D., and Campbell, D.T. (1979). Quasi-Experimentation: Design & Analysis Issues for Field Settings . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Crosnoe, R. (2006). Mexican Roots, American Schools: Helping Mexican Immigrant Children Succeed . Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.

Crosnoe, R. (2013). Preparing the Children of Immigrants for Early Academic Success . Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.

Cushman, P. (1995). Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy . Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.

DeNavas-Walt, C., and Proctor, B.D. (2014). Current Population Reports: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013 . Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

Duggan, M., and Lenhart, A. (2015). Parents and Social Media: Mothers are Especially Likely to Give and Receive Support on Social Media . Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Duggan, M., Lenhart, A., Lampe, C., and Ellison, N.B. (2015). Parents and Social Media . Available: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/07/16/parents-and-social-media/#fn-13802-1 [October 2016].

Duncan, G.J., Ludwig, J., and Magnuson, K.A. (2007). Reducing poverty through preschool interventions. The Future of Children, 17 (2), 143-160.

Duncan, G.J., Engel, M., Claessens, A., and Dowsett, C.J. (2014). Replication and robustness in developmental research. Developmental Psychology, 50 (11), 2417-2425.

Dunst, C.J., and Espe-Sherwindt, M. (2016). Family-centered practices in early intervention. In B. Reichow, B. Boyd, E. Barton, and S. Odom (Eds.), Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education . New York: Springer.

Durlak, J.A., and DuPre, E.P. (2008). Implementation matters: A review of research on the influence of implementation on program outcomes and the factors affecting implementation. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41 (3-4), 327-350.

Dworkin, J., Connell, J., and Doty, J. (2013). A literature review of parents’ online behavior. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychological Research on Cyberspace, 7 , 2.

Ellis, R.R., and Simmons, T. (2014). Coresident Grandparents and Their Grandchildren: 2012 . Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

Engelhardt, C.R., Bartholow, B.D., Kerr, G.T., and Bushman, B.J. (2011). This is your brain on violent video games: Neural desensitization to violence predicts increased aggression following violent video game exposure. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47 (5), 1033-1036.

Fabes, R.A., Martin, C.L., Hanish, L.D., and Updegraff, K.A. (2000). Criteria for evaluating the significance of developmental research in the twenty-first century: Force and counter-force. Child Development, 71 (1), 212-221.

File, T., and Ryan, C. (2014). Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013 . American Community Survey Reports, ACS-28. Available: https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/2013computeruse.pdf [October 2016].

Foster, E.M. (2010). Causal inference and developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 46 (6), 1454-1480.

Franks, R.P., and Schroeder, J. (2013). Implementation science: What do we know and where do we go from here? In T. Halle, A. Metz, and I. Martinez-Beck (Eds.), Applying Implementation Science in Early Childhood Programs and Systems (pp. 5-20). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Fremstad, S., and Boteach, M. (2015). Valuing All Our Families: Progressive Policies That Strengthen Family Commitments and Reduce Family Disparities . Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.

Fuller, B., and García Coll, C. (2010). Learning from Latinos: Contexts, families, and child development in motion. Developmental Psychology, 46 (3), 559-565.

Funk, J.B. (2005). Video games. Adolescent Medicine Clinics, 16 (2), 395-411.

Future of Children. (2008). Parenting in a Media-Saturated World . Available: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/highlights/18_01_highlights_05.pdf [October 2016].

Galindo, C., and Fuller, B. (2010). The social competence of Latino kindergartners and growth in mathematical understanding. Developmental Psychology, 46 (3), 579-592.

Gates, G.J. (2014). LGB Families and Relationships: Analyses of the 2013 National Health Interview Survey . Available: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/lgbfamilies-nhis-sep-2014.pdf [May 2016].

Grieco, E.M., Trevelyan, E., Larsen, L., Acosta, Y.D., Gambino, C., de la Cruz, P., Gryn, T., and Walters, N. (2012). The Size, Place of Birth, and Geographic Distribution of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 1960 to 2010 . Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

Ha, Y., Magnuson, K., and Ybarra, M. (2012). Patterns of child care subsidy receipt and the stability of child care. Children and Youth Services Review, 34 (9), 1834-1844.

Halle, T., Metz, A., and Martinez-Beck, I. (Eds.). (2013). Applying Implementation Science in Early Childhood Programs and Systems . Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Harris, K.M., and Marmer, J.K. (1996). Poverty, paternal involvement, and adolescent well-being. Journal of Family Issues, 17 (5), 614-640.

Harrison, G.W., and List, J.A. (2004). Field experiments. Journal of Economic Literature, 42 (4), 1009-1055.

Helms, H.M., Hengstebeck, N.D., Rodriguez, Y., Mendez, J.L., and Crosby, D.A. (2015). Mexican Immigrant Family Life in a Pre-Emerging Southern Gateway Community. National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families. Available: http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hispanic-Center-Unidos-Report.pdf [May 2016].

Hernandez, D.J., Denton, N.A., and Macartney, S.E. (2008). Children in immigrant families: Looking to America’s future. Society for Research in Child Development , 22 (3), 3-22.

Hernandez, D.J., Macartney, S., and Cervantes, W. (2012). Measuring social disparities via the CWI: Race-ethnicity, income, and immigrant status. In K.C. Land (Ed.), The Well-Being of America’s Children (vol. 6, pp. 77-120). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Holmes, J. (2006). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory . New York: Routledge.

Institute of Medicine. (2006). Examining the Health Disparities Research Plan of the National Institutes of Health: Unfinished Business . G.E. Thomson, F. Mitchell, and M. Williams (Eds.). Board on Health Sciences Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Institute of Medicine. (2011). Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies . L.L. Birch, L. Parker, and A. Burns (Eds.). Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. (2015). Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation . L. Allen and B.B. Kelly (Eds.). Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8: Deepening and Broadening the Foundation for Success; Board on Children, Youth, and Families. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Jones, J., and Mosher, W.D. (2013). Fathers’ involvement with their children: United States, 2006-2010. National Health Statistics Reports, 71 , 1-22.

Kalil, A., and DeLeire, T. (Eds.). (2004). Family Investments in Children: Resources and Parenting Behaviors That Promote Success . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kaiser Family Foundation. (2004). The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity. Available: https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/the-role-of-media-in-childhood-obesity.pdf [October 2016].

Karoly, L.A., Kilburn, M.R., and Cannon, J.S. (2005). Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise . Available: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG341.pdf [May 2016].

Lamb, M.E. (2004). The Role of the Father in Child Development (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Lee, S., Aos, S., and Pennucci, A. (2015). What Works and What Does Not? Benefit-Cost Findings from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Doc. No. 15-02-4101. Olympia: Washington State Institute for Public Policy.

Lerner, R.M., Fisher, C.B., and Weinberg, R.A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71 (1), 11-20.

Lipinia, S.J., and Segretin, M.S. (2015). Strengths and weakness of neuroscientific investigations of childhood poverty: Future directions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9 (53), 1-5.

Livingston, G. (2014). Growing Number of Dads Home with the Kids . Available: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/06/05/growing-number-of-dads-home-with-the-kids/ [October 2016].

Livingston, G., and Parker, K. (2011). A Tale of Two Fathers: More Are Active, but More Are Absent . Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Main, M., and Cassidy, J. (1988). Categories of response to reunion with the parent at age 6: Predictable from infant attachment classifications and stable over a 1-month period. Developmental Psychology, 24 (3), 415-426.

McCartney, K., and Rosenthal, R. (2000). Effect size, practical importance, and social policy for children. Child Development, 71 (1), 173-180.

McCartney, K., Burchinal, M., and Bub, K.L. (2006). Best practices in quantitative methods for developmentalists. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 7 (3), 1-150.

Means, S.N., Magura, S., Burkhardt, J.T., Schroter, D.C., and Coryn, C.L.S. (2015). Comparing rating paradigms for evidence-based program registers in behavioral health: Evidentiary criteria and implications for assessing programs. Evaluation and Program Planning Evaluation and Program Planning, 48 (1), 100-116.

Migration Policy Institute. (2016). U.S. Immigration Trends . Available: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/us-immigration-trends#children [June 2016].

Mihalic, S.F., and Elliott, D.S. (2015). Evidence-based programs registry: Blueprints for healthy youth development. Evaluation and Program Planning Evaluation and Program Planning, 48 (4), 124-131.

Murphy, T.P., and Laible, D.J. (2013). The influence of attachment security on preschool children’s empathic concern. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37 (5), 436-440.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2015). The Integration of Immigrants into American Society . Panel on the Integration of Immigrants into American Society, M.C. Waters and M.G. Pineau, Eds. Committee on Population, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21746.

National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. J.P. Shonkoff and D.A. Phillips (Eds.). Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. (2009). Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders among Young People: Progress and Possibilities . M.E. O’Connell, T. Boat, and K.E. Warner (Eds.). Committee on the Prevention of Mental Disorders and Substance Abuse Among Children, Youth and Young Adults: Research Advances and Promising Interventions; Board on Children, Youth and Families; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Nelson, C.A. (2000). The neurobiological bases of early intervention. In J.P. Shonkoff and S.J. Meisels (Eds.), Handbook of Early Childhood Intervention (2nd ed., pp. 204-227). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (2015). 2015 Poverty Guidelines . Available: http://aspe.hhs.gov/2015-poverty-guidelines [December 2, 2015].

Open session presentation. (2015). Perspectives from Parents . Presentation before the Committee on Supporting the Parents of Young Children, June 29, Irvine, CA.

Passel, J.S., and Cohn, D. (2012). Unauthorized Immigrants: 11.1 Million in 2011 . Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Perrin, A., and Duggan, M. (2015). Americans’ Internet Access: 2000-2015 . Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Pew Research Center. (2014). Internet Use Over Time . Available: http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/internet-use/internet-use-over-time [November 2015].

Pruett, K. (2000). Father-Need . New York: Broadway Books.

Ramchandani, P.G., Domoney, J., Sethna, V., Psychogiou, L., Vlachos, H., and Murray, L. (2013). Do early father-infant interactions predict the onset of externalising behaviours in young children? Findings from a longitudinal cohort study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 54 (1), 56-64.

Raphael, S., and Smolensky, E. (2009). Immigration and poverty in the United States. The American Economic Review , 41-44.

Rosenberg, J., and Wilcox, W.B. (2006). The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children: Fathers and Their Impact on Children’s Well-Being . Washington, DC: U.S. Children’s Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Rosenthal, R., and Rosnow, R. (2007). Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Schore, A.N. (2005). Attachment, affect regulation, and the developing right brain: Linking developmental neuroscience to pediatrics. Pediatrics in Review, 26 (6), 204-217.

Shadish, W.R., Cook, T.D., and Campbell, D.T. (2001). Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Sherman, A., and Trisi, D. (2014). Deep Poverty among Children Worsened in Welfare Law’s First Decade . Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Shonkoff, J.P., and Garner, A.S. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129 (1), e232-e246.

Smith, A. (2015). U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015 . Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

Soydan, H., Mullen, E., Alexandra, L., Rehnman, J., and Li, Y.-P. (2010). Evidence-based clearinghouses in social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 20 (6), 690-700.

Suárez-Orozco, C., Suárez-Orozco, M.M., and Todorova, I. (2008). Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society . Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Suárez-Orozco, C., Gaytán, F.X., and Kim, H.Y. (2010). Facing the challenges of educating Latino immigrant origin youth. In S. McHale and A. Booth (Eds.), Growing up Hispanic: Health & Development of Children (pp. 189-239). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

Taylor, P. (2014). The Next America. Available: http://www.pewresearch.org/next-america/#Two-Dramas-in-Slow-Motion [May 2016].

Takanishi, R. (2004). Leveling the playing field: Supporting immigrant children from birth to eight. The Future of Children, 14 (2), 61-79.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2011). National Intercensal Estimates (2000-2010) . Available: http://www.census.gov/popest/data/intercensal/national/nat2010.html [February 2016].

U.S. Census Bureau. (2016). Living Arrangements of Children . Available: http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/graphics/CH-1.pdf [July 2016].

U.S. Department of Education. (2015). Fiscal Year 2016 Budget: Summary and Background Information . Available: http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget16/summary/16summary.pdf [October 2016].

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2015). HHS FY2016 Budget in Brief . Available: http://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/budget-in-brief/index.html [October 2016].

Viswanath, K., Nagler, R.H., Bigman-Galimore, C.A., McCauley, M.P., Jung, M., and Ramanadhan, S. (2012). The communications revolution and health inequalities in the 21st century: Implications for cancer control. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 21 (10), 1701-1708.

Whaley, A.L., and Davis, K.E. (2007). Cultural competence and evidence-based practice in mental health services: A complementary perspective. The American Psychologist, 62 (6), 563-574.

Wildsmith, E., Alvira-Hammond, M., and Guzman, L. (2016). A National Portrait of Hispanic Children in Need. National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families. Available: http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016-15HispChildrenInNeed.pdf [May 2016].

Willoughby, T., Adachi, P.J., and Good, M. (2012). A longitudinal study of the association between violent video game play and aggression among adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 48 (4), 1044-1057.

Winokur, M., Holtan, A., and Batchelder, K.E. (2014). Kinship care for the safety, permanency, and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews . Available: http://www.cochrane.org/CD006546/BEHAV_kinship-care-for-the-safety-permanency-and-well-being-of-maltreated-children [May 2016].

World Health Organization. (2015). 10 Facts About Early Childhood Development as a Social Determinant of Health . Available: http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/child/development/10facts/en/ [October 2016].

Yeung, W.J., Duncan, G.J., and Hill, M.S. (2000). Putting fathers back in the picture: Parental activities and children’s adult outcomes. In H.E. Peters, G.W. Peterson, S.K. Steinmetz, and R.D. Day (Eds.), Fatherhood: Research, Interventions and Policies (pp. 97-113). New York: Hayworth Press.

Yoshikawa, H. (2011). Immigrants Raising Citizens: Undocumented Parents and Their Children . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

This page intentionally left blank.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the family—which includes all primary caregivers—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.

READ FREE ONLINE

Welcome to OpenBook!

You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

Show this book's table of contents , where you can jump to any chapter by name.

...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

Switch between the Original Pages , where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter .

Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

View our suggested citation for this chapter.

Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

Get Email Updates

Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free ? Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released.

The Importance of Parenting in Influencing the Lives of Children

• First Online: 07 December 2018

Cite this chapter

• Matthew R. Sanders 3 &
• Karen M. T. Turner 3  

11k Accesses

40 Citations

The quality of parenting children receive during childhood and adolescence plays a major role in influencing their developmental competence and ultimately their life course trajectories. The parent–child relationship has a pervasive impact on children, and affects many different areas of development including language and communication, executive function and self-regulation, sibling and peer relationships, academic attainment, and mental and physical health. This chapter provides an overview of evidence showing how parenting influences children’s development. In addition, we explore how the broader ecological contexts of parents’ lives influence parenting practices and family relationships. Proximal determinants of parenting (e.g., the parent–child relationship) and more distal factors (e.g., cultural and community context) combine to influence the quality of parenting children receive. We argue that evidence-based parenting support that is delivered at a whole of community level and is attuned to the broader ecological context of modern parenting is needed to promote competent parenting and to reduce the adverse effects of poor parenting on children. Policy-based investments in evidence-based parenting programs have great potential to enhance life course outcomes for both children and parents that can have major economic benefits to the entire community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Durable hardcover edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation . Oxford: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Google Scholar  

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2016). Poverty and child health in the United States. Pediatrics, 137 , 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-0339

Article   Google Scholar  

Anda, R. F., Felitti, V. J., Walker, J., Whitfield, C. L., Bremner, J. D., Perry, B. D., … Giles, W. H. (2006). The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood. A convergence of evidence from neurobiology and epidemiology. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 256 (3), 174–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-005-0624-4

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2017). Australia’s Welfare 2017 , Australia’s welfare series no. 13. AUS 214 . Canberra, ACT: AIHW.

Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monographs, 1 (4), 1–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030372

Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of parenting: A process model. Child Development, 55 , 83–96.

Biblarz, T. J., & Stacey, J. (2010). How does the gender of parents matter? Journal of Marriage and Family, 72 (1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00678.x

Biglan, A. (2015). The nurture effect: How the science of human behavior can improve our lives and our world . Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Bornstein, M. H., & Bohr, Y. (2011). Immigration, acculturation and parenting. In R. E. Tremblay, M. Boivin, & R. D. V. Peters (Eds.), Encyclopedia on early childhood development Retrieved from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/immigration/according-experts/immigration-acculturation-and-parenting

Bornstein, M. H., & Bradley, R. H. (Eds.). (2014). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development . New York, NY: Routledge.

Bright, M. A., & Thompson, L. A. (2018). Association of adverse childhood experiences with co-occurring health conditions in early childhood. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 39 (1), 37–45.

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Brody, G. H., Stoneman, Z., & Flor, D. (1996). Parental religiosity, family processes, and youth competence in rural, two-parent African American families. Developmental Psychology, 32 (4), 696–706. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.32.4.696

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22 (6), 723–742. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.22.6.723

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In Handbook of child psychology (pp. 793–828). New York, NY: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0114

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Brotman, L. M., Basrjas-Gonzalez, R., Dawson-McClure, S., & Calzada, E. (2018). In M. R. Sanders & A. Morawska (Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development over the life span . New York, NY: Springer.

Calam, R., & Wittkowski, A. (2017). Parents with serious mental health problems. In M. R. Sanders & T. G. Mazzucchelli (Eds.), The power of positive parenting: Transforming the lives of children, parents and communities using the triple P system . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Cartmill, E. A. (2016). Mind the gap: Assessing and addressing the word gap in early education. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3 (2), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732216657565

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2016). From best practices to breakthrough impacts: A science-based approach to building a more promising future for young children and families . Boston, MA: Author.

Collins, W. A., Maccoby, E. E., Steinberg, L., Hetherington, E. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting: The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55 (2), 218–232. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.55.2.218

Crnic, K., & Ross, E. (2017). Parenting stress and parental efficacy. In K. Deater-Deckard & R. Panneton (Eds.), Parental stress and early child development . New York, NY; Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55376-4_11

Crumbley, J., & Little, R. L. (1997). Relatives raising children: An overview of kinship care . Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.

Dadds, M., Moul, C., Hawes, D., Mendoza Diaz, A., & Brennan, J. (2015). Individual differences in childhood behavior disorders associated with epigenetic modulation of the cortisol receptor gene. Child Development, 86 (5), 1311–1320. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12391

Darling, N., & Steinberg, L. (1993). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. Psychological Bulletin, 113 (3), 487–496. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.113.3.487

Deater-Deckard, K., Wang, Z., Chen, N., & Belland, M. A. (2012). Maternal executive function, harsh parenting, and child conduct problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52 (10), 1084–1091. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02582.x

Drazen, Y. N. (2015). Child behavior and the home environment: Are crowding and doubling-up bad for kids? Presented at the Society for Social Work and Research 19th Annual Conference: The Social and Behavioral Importance of Increased Longevity, SSWR. Retrieved from https://sswr.confex.com/sswr/2015/webprogram/Paper23510.html

Duncan, G. J., Magnuson, K., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2014). Boosting family income to promote child development. The Future of Children, 24 (1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2014.0008

Endendijk, J. J., Groeneveld, M. G., Pol, L. D., Berkel, S. R., Hallers-Haalboom, E. T., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Mesman, J. (2017). Gender differences in child aggression: Relations with gender-differentiated parenting and parents’ gender-role stereotypes. Child Development, 88 (1), 299–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12589

Evans, G. W. (2003). A multimethodological analysis of cumulative risk and allostatic load among rural children. Developmental Psychology, 39 (5), 924–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.39.5.924

Evans, G. W., Rhee, E., Forbes, C., Allen, K., & Lepore, S. J. (2000). The meaning and efficacy of social withdrawal as a strategy for coping with chronic residential crowding. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20 (4), 335–342. https://doi.org/10.1006/jevp.1999.0174

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., … Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14 , 245–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8

Fung, J., Wong, M. S., & Park, H. (2018). Determinants of parenting: Cultural background and religious beliefs. In M. R. Sanders & A. Morawska (Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development over the lifespan . New York, NY: Springer.

Garai, E. P., McKee, L. G., Peisch, V., & Forehand, R. (2016). Disciplining. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of adolescence (pp. 1–11). New York, NY; Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_34-2

Geffner, R., Igelman, R. S., & Zellner, J. (Eds.). (2014). The effects of intimate partner violence on children . New York, NY: Routledge.

Gravningen, K., Mitchell, K. R., Wellings, K., Johnson, A. M., Geary, R., Jones, K. G., … Field, N. (2017). Reported reasons for breakdown of marriage and cohabitation in Britain: Findings from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3). PLoS One, 12 (3), e0174129. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174129

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Greenfield, P. M., Keller, H., Fuligni, A., & Maynard, A. (2003). Cultural pathways through universal development. Annual Review of Psychology, 54 , 461–490. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145221

Groh, A. M., Roisman, G. I., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Fearon, R. P. (2012). The significance of insecure and disorganized attachment for children’s internalizing symptoms: A meta-analytic study. Child Development, 83 , 591–610. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01711.x

Haggerty, K. P., McGlynn-Wright, A., & Klima, T. (2013). Promising parenting programs for reducing adolescent problem behaviors. Journal of Children’s Services, 8 (4), 229. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-04-2013-0016

Halford, K., Rhoades, G., & Morris, M. (2018). Effects of parental relationships on children. In M. R. Sanders & A. Morawska (Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development over the life span . New York, NY: Springer.

Hart, B., & Risley, R. T. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children . Baltimore, MA: Brookes.

Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1992). American parenting of language-learning children: Persisting differences in family-child interactions observed in natural home environments. Developmental Psychology, 28 (6), 1096–1105. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.6.1096

Harvard Center on the Developing Child. (2016). From best practices to breakthrough impacts: A science-based approach to building a more promising future for young children and families . Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/from-best-practices-to-breakthrough-impacts/

Haslam, D. M., & Penman, N. (2018). Parenting support in the workplace. In M. R. Sanders & T. G. Mazzucchelli (Eds.), The power of positive parenting: Transforming the lives of children, parents and communities using the Triple P System (pp. 262–271). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Hayes, A., Weston, R., Qu, L., & Gray, M. (2010). Families then and now 1980-2010 . Australian Institute of Family Studies. Retrieved from https://aifs.gov.au/publications/families-then-and-now-1980-2010

Healy, K. L., Sanders, M. R., & Iyer, A. (2015). Parenting practices, children’s peer relationships and being bullied at school. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24 , 127–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9820-4

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Owen, M. T., Golinkoff, R. M., Pace, A., … Suma, K. (2015). The contributions of early communication quality to low-income children’s language success. Psychological Science, 26 (7), 1071–1083. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615581493

Hoghughi, M. S., & Long, N. (2004). Handbook of parenting: Theory and research for practice . London: Sage.

Hughes, K., Bellis, M. A., Hardcastle, K. A., Sethi, D., Butchart, A., Mikton, C., … Dunne, M. P. (2017). The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 2 (8), e356–e366. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(17)30118-4

Hughes, K., Lowey, H., Quigg, Z., & Bellis, M. A. (2016). Relationships between adverse childhood experiences and adult mental well-being: Results from an English national household survey. BMC Public Health, 16 (1), 222. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2906-3

Janssen, H. J., Weerman, F. M., & Eichelsheim, V. I. (2017). Parenting as a protective factor against criminogenic settings? Interaction effects between three aspects of parenting and unstructured socializing in disordered areas. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 54 (2), 181–207. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427816664561

Karoly, P. (1993). Mechanisms of self-regulation: A systems view. Annual Review of Psychology, 44 , 23–52. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.44.020193.000323

Kirby, G., & Hodges, J. (2018). Parenting of preschool and school-aged children. In M. R. Sanders & A. Morawska (Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development over the life span . New York, NY: Springer.

Kirby, J. N. (2015). The potential benefits of parenting programs for grandparents: Recommendations and clinical implications. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24 (11), 9200–3212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0123-9

Kirby, J. N. (2016). The role of mindfulness and compassion in enhancing nurturing family environments. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 23 (2), 142–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpsp.12149

Kraft, M. A., & Rogers, T. (2015). The underutilized potential of teacher-to-parent communication: Evidence from a field experiment. Economics of Education Review, 47 , 49–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.04.001

Lee, C. M., Smith, P. B., Stern, S. B., Piché, G., Feldgaier, S., Ateah, C., … Dennis, D. (2014). The international parenting survey–Canada: Exploring access to parenting services. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 55 (2), 110–116.

Lundahl, B., Risser, H. J., & Lovejoy, M. C. (2006). A meta-analysis of parent training: Moderators and follow-up effects. Clinical Psychology Review, 26 (1), 86–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2005.07.004

Maccoby, E. E. (2015). Historical overview of socialization research and theory. In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 3–32). New York, NY: Guilford.

Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent–child interaction. In P. H. Mussen & E. M. Heatherington (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 4, 4th ed., pp. 1–102). New York, NY: Wiley.

Marmot, M., & Bell, R. (2012). Fair society, healthy lives. Public Health, 126 (Supplement 1), S4–S10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2012.05.014

Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A., Taylor, S., & Commission on Social Determinants of Health. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 372 (9650), 1661–1669. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61690-6

McDowell, D. J., & Parke, R. D. (2009). Parental correlates of children’s peer relations: An empirical test of a tripartite model. Developmental Psychology, 45 , 224–235. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014305

McQuillan, M. E., & Bates, J. E. (2017). Parental stress and child temperament. In K. Deater-Deckard & R. Panneton (Eds.), Parental stress and early child development (pp. 75–106). New York, NY: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55376-4_4

Mejia, A., Calam, R., & Sanders, M. R. (2012). A review of parenting programs in developing countries: Opportunities and challenges for preventing emotional and behavioral difficulties in children. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 15 (2), 163–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-012-0116-9

Mejia, A., Calam, R., & Sanders, M. R. (2015). Examining delivery preferences and cultural relevance of an evidence-based parenting program in a low-resource setting of Central America: Approaching parents as consumers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24 , 1004–1015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-014-9911-x

Metzler, C. W., Sanders, M. R., Rusby, J. C., & Crowley, R. N. (2012). Using consumer preference information to increase the reach and impact of media-basedparenting interventions in a public health approach to parenting support. Behavior Therapy, 43 (2), 257–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.05.004

Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, A. (Eds.). (2002). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Montag, J. L., Jones, M. N., & Smith, L. B. (2015). The words children hear: Picture books and the statistics for language learning. Psychological Science, 26 (9), 1489–1496. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615594361

Moore, T. G., Arefadib, N., Deery, A., Keyes, M., & West, S. (2017). The first thousand days: An evidence paper – Summary . Parkville, VIC: Centre for Community Child Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Morawska, A., & Mitchell, A. (2018). Children’s health, physical activity and nutrition. In M. R. Sanders & A. Morawska (Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development over the life span . New York, NY: Springer.

Morawska, A., Sanders, M., Goadby, E., Headley, C., Hodge, L., McAuliffe, C., … Anderson, E. (2011). Is the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program acceptable to parents from culturally diverse backgrounds? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 20 (5), 614–622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-010-9436-x

Morawska, A., Winter, L., & Sanders, M. R. (2009). Parenting knowledge and its role in the prediction of dysfunctional parenting and disruptive child behaviour. Child: Care, Health and Development, 35 (2), 217–226. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2008.00929.x

Mosier, C. E., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Privileged treatment of toddlers: Cultural aspects of individual choice and responsibility. Developmental Psychology, 39 (6), 1047–1060. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.39.6.1047

National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine. (2016). Parenting matters: Supporting parents of children ages 0-8 . Washington, DC: Author.

Oakley, M., Farr, R. H., & Scherer, D. G. (2017). Same-sex parent socialization: Understanding gay and lesbian parenting practices as cultural socialization. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 13 (1), 56–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/1550428X.2016.1158685

Patterson, C. J. (2017). Parents’ sexual orientation and children’s development. Child Development Perspectives, 11 (1), 45–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12207

Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process . Eugene, OR: Castalia.

Powell, D. R., Son, S.-H., File, N., & San Juan, R. R. (2010). Parent–school relationships and children’s academic and social outcomes in public school pre-kindergarten. Journal of School Psychology, 48 (4), 269–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2010.03.002

Prinz, R. J., Sanders, M. R., Shapiro, C. J., Whitaker, D. J., & Lutzker, J. R. (2009). Population-based prevention of child maltreatment: The U.S. Triple P system population trial. Prevention Science, 10 (1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-009-0123-3

Prinz, R. J., Sanders, M. R., Shapiro, C. J., Whitaker, D. J., & Lutzker, J. R. (2016). Addendum to: Population-based prevention of child maltreatment: The U.S. Triple P system population trial. Prevention Science, 17 (3), 410–416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0631-x

Rowe, M. L. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of the role of quantity and quality of child-directed speech in vocabulary development. Child Development, 83 (5), 1762–1774. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01805.x

Ryan, R., O’Farrelly, C., & Ramchandani, P. (2017). Parenting and child mental health. London Journal of Primary Care, 9 (6), 86–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/17571472.2017.1361630

Sameroff, A. (Ed.). (2009). The transactional model of development: How children and contexts shape each other . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Sameroff, A. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child Development, 81 (1), 6–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01378.x

Sampaio, F., Barendregt, J. J., Feldman, I., Lee, Y. Y., Sawyer, M. G., Dadds, M. R., … Mihalopoulos, C. (2017). Population cost-effectiveness of the Triple P parenting programme for the treatment of conduct disorder: An economic modelling study. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 933–944. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1100-1

Sanders, M. R. (2018). The future of evidence based parenting support programs. In M. R. Sanders & T. G. Mazzucchelli (Eds.), The power of positive parenting: Transforming the lives of children, parents and communities using the Triple P System (pp. 504–532). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Sanders, M. R., Baker, S., & Turner, K. M. T. (2012). A randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of Triple P Online with parents of children with early-onset conduct problems. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 50 (11), 675–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2012.07.004

Sanders, M. R., Burke, K., Prinz, R. J., & Morawska, A. (2017). Achieving population-level change through a system-contextual approach to supporting competent parenting. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 20 (1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-017-0227-4

Sanders, M. R., Healy, K. L., Grice, C., & Del Vecchio, T. (2017). Evidence-based parenting programs: Integrating science into school-based practice. In M. Thielsking & M. D. Terjesen (Eds.), Handbook of Australian school psychology: Bridging the gaps in international research, practice, and policy (pp. 537–551). New York, NY: Springer.

Sanders, M. R., Kirby, J. N., Tellegen, C. L., & Day, J. J. (2014). The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program: A systematic review and meta-analysis of a multi-level system of parenting support. Clinical Psychology Review, 34 (4), 337–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2014.04.003

Sanders, M. R., & Mazzucchelli, T. G. (2018). The power of positive parenting: Transforming the lives of children, parents and communities . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Scott, S. (2012). Parenting quality and children’s mental health: Biological mechanisms and psychological interventions. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 25 (4), 301–306. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0b013e328354a1c5

Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Care. (2011). Growing up our way: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practices matrix . Melbourne, VIC: Author.

Seo, D., Patrick, C. J., & Kennealy, P. J. (2008). Role of serotonin and dopamine system interactions in the neurobiology of impulsive aggression and its comorbidity with other clinical disorders. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13 (5), 383–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2008.06.003

Shwalb, D. W., & Hossain, Z. (Eds.). (2018). Grandparents in cultural context . New York, NY: Routledge.

Spera, C. (2005). A review of the relationship among parenting practices, parenting styles, and adolescent school achievement. Educational Psychology Review, 17 (2), 125–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-005-3950-1

Spock, B. (1946). The common sense book of baby and child care . New York, NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.

Van Mourik, K., Crone, M. R., De Wolff, M. S., & Reis, R. (2017). Parent training programs for ethnic minorities: A meta-analysis of adaptations and effect. Prevention Science, 18 (1), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0733-5

Wang, Y., Huang, Z., & Kong, F. (2017). Parenting stress and life satisfaction in mothers of children with cerebral palsy: The mediating effect of social support. Journal of Health Psychology . https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105317739100

Waters, S. F., Virmani, E. A., Thompson, R. A., Meyer, S., Raikes, H. A., & Jochem, R. (2010). Emotion regulation and attachment: Unpacking two constructs and their association. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 32 (1), 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-009-9163-z

Weissman, M. M., Pilowsky, D. J., Wickramaratne, P. J., Talati, A., Wisniewski, S. R., Fava, M., … Cerda, G. (2006). Remissions in maternal depression and child psychopathology: A STAR* D-child report. Journal of the American Medical Association, 295 (12), 1389–1398. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.295.12.1389

Wilson, D. S., O’Brien, D. T., & Sesma, A. (2009). Human prosociality from an evolutionary perspective: Variation and correlations at a city-wide scale. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30 (3), 190–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.12.002

Yee, A. Z. H., Lwin, M. O., & Ho, S. S. (2017). The influence of parental practices on child promotive and preventive food consumption behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14 (47), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0501-3

Youngblade, L., & Belsky, J. (1995). From family to friend: Predicting positive dyadic interaction with a close friend at five years of age from early parent-child relations. In S. Shulman (Ed.), Close relationships and social-emotional development (pp. 35–62). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Zemp, M., Milek, A., Cummings, E. M., & Bodenmann, G. (2017). Longitudinal interrelations between dyadic coping and coparenting conflict in couples. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26 (8), 2276–2290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0742-4

Download references

The Parenting and Family Support Centre is partly funded by royalties stemming from published resources of the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program, which is developed and owned by the University of Queensland (UQ). Royalties are also distributed to the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at UQ and contributory authors of published Triple P resources. Triple P International (TPI) Pty Ltd. is a private company licensed by UniQuest Pty Ltd. on behalf of UQ, to publish and disseminate Triple P worldwide. The authors of this chapter have no share or ownership of TPI. TPI has no involvement in the writing of this chapter. Matthew R Sanders is the founder of Triple P and receives royalties from TPI. He is a consultant to Triple P International and an employee at UQ. Karen Turner receives royalties from TPI and is an employee at UQ.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Parenting and Family Support Centre, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Matthew R. Sanders & Karen M. T. Turner

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew R. Sanders .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Parenting and Family Support Centre School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Matthew R. Sanders

Alina Morawska

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Sanders, M.R., Turner, K.M.T. (2018). The Importance of Parenting in Influencing the Lives of Children. In: Sanders, M., Morawska, A. (eds) Handbook of Parenting and Child Development Across the Lifespan . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94598-9_1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94598-9_1

Published : 07 December 2018

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-94597-2

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-94598-9

eBook Packages : Behavioral Science and Psychology Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• Vishal's account
• Development

Role of Parents in Child Development

Importance of the Role of Parents in Child Development

Some useful parenting tips to make your child’s growing years worthy.

Parents play the most important role in the overall development of their child. It is the right guidance of parents that develops the character of the child. Parenting is an ongoing job. It is not something you can get away from once the time comes because children need their parents, from time to time, to stay on the right track. Here’s all that you need to know about the role of parents in the development of their child. We have covered information on how parenting influences child development and some tips on parent’s role in development of child below. Let’s read!

Parenting and child development go hand in hand. The proverbs that the apple does not fall far from the tree and that the branch grows as the twig grows can well-describe the effects of parenting styles on child growth and development .

All development is interrelated and cannot be defined under water-tight categories. So let us focus on how parents can actively participate to ensure that the child’s growing years are worthy. The role of parents in child development is responsive, responsible and never-ending. It governs responses, actions, thinking and decision making of a child in the following areas.

1. Cognitive Development

When children are growing up, positive parenting improves their cognitive, social and problem-solving skills. Positive parenting also affects their responses and helps them grow up to be better humans. Interaction and stimulation are very important in the early years. It is all about recognising problems, handling all situations well and picking up the traits of discipline, time management and effective problem-solving through simple routines at home.

2. Socio-Cultural Development

Children observe spousal interaction and how arguments are settled in the family. It teaches them a variety of good values that are imbibed and crucial to growing up. The child learns how to behave with others , playing to a common goal, team spirit, picking the right friends and a lot more.

3. Physical Development

Reaching age-related milestones is not the only goal. Children learn about being healthy, exercising regularly, being a team player, having the right diet and growing in a conducive environment through play-and-learn. The right guidance from parents can inculcate in children a good regimen of exercise and diet to achieve ideal physical development. Parents should remember that children lead by example.

4. Mental Development

Parenting styles help the child learn innovatively, accepting failures and overcoming them, understanding discipline, accepting feedback and the award-and-punishment concept. It governs their response to stimuli, thus moulding their minds.

5. Spiritual Development

Understanding religion, prayer, knowing right from wrong, being empathetic, having the right ethical values, valuing your parents and strengthening goal-setting liberates the free spirit in children. Teaching your children to be more accepting and believing in the greater good can help them gain a sense of purpose. Try not to conform them to any particular religion and let them explore spirituality on their own.

Children naturally turn to the father to play and to the mother if they sense stress , fear , etc. But, gone are the days when fathers were bread providers, and mothers did all the nurturing and interaction.

The role of a father in child development is very important. Children will always look up to their father for motivation. Similarly, the role of a mother in child development has moved on and is not restricted to nurturing and caretaking alone. From that first touch and look, to later years, a parent is responsible for making the tiny infant into a well-grown, responsible and caring adult. This list of child development tips is not gender-specific and is equally applicable to both parents.

1. Be Positive

Children can easily sense negativity. No matter how young your child is, discuss your problems with him and how you handle them. Encourage your child to participate with you in different small household tasks. Teach him how to be  creative  and how to solve problems with a positive attitude.

2. Be Sensitive to Your Child’s Needs

Irrespective of how small your child’s needs are, understanding and fulfilling them is very important to help your child realise that you are there for him at all times and that his needs never go unheard.

3. Be Emotionally Present

Encouragement and love yield good fruit only when they are cultivated, worked on, nurtured & pruned. Show your child that he is loved all the time and that you are always there for him, no matter what.

4. Communicate Effectively

Talk to the child and hear what he has to say before jumping to conclusions. In every conversation, make sure you think from your child’s perspective and let him express himself. Remember, positive feedback is always better than negative punishment or blames.

5. Be Affectionate to All

Children pick up what they see/hear at home. To a child, using harsh words, quarrelling loudly, constantly fighting, incorporating bad habits, and swearing feels absolutely normal if he sees the same at home.

6. Set Routines for Play, Eating and Sleep

A good routine can help set good habits for the future. If you stick to a fixed routine, eat and sleep on time, refrain from watching the television during meals, then your child too will pick up these lessons and follow a routine.

7. Make Family Outings a Part of Your Routine

Remember, the family that eats and prays together stays together! Encourage your child to have family meals together and teach him the importance of spending quality time with family members.

8. Talk to the Child Even When Tired

Hard work gives immense satisfaction, and the reward for you is watching your child learn how to deal with problems, how to deal with financial insecurities, how to interact with others and how to be a little like you. So talk to your child no matter how tired you are at the end of the day. He will learn the same and be there for his family, just like you.

9. Build Trust, Love and Fair-Play in Relationships

Best examples are between the parents, in dealing with siblings and especially in quarrels. If you behave rationally with all the family members, then your children will learn the same and will end up loving and caring for all without discriminating.

10. Help Your Child Understand The Importance of Speaking Right and Honestly

Make sure your child values honesty, especially when it comes to matters that involve relationships and money. Teach him that no matter what, he should speak the truth and stick to what he says. Also, inculcate in your child a sense of responsibility.

11. Assure Your Unconditional Love and Support

If your child fails at something, make an effort to understand why and what to do before you criticise him. But over that, tell him that mistakes do not reduce the love between people.

12. Respect Your Child’s Feelings

Accept your child’s feelings, whether good or bad—and let them come out of them in their own way. It is the emotions in a person that guide them to take either the right or the wrong actions. But, as a parent, you should be there for your child to listen to them calmly and let them vent out their feelings.

Parents must remember that supportive families encourage each other to learn and offer the possibility to be better. Therefore, you must create an environment that motivates your child to participate, educate, and practise all the good habits you want him to inculcate.

Also Read: 

Important Tips on How to Be a Good Father Impact of Working Parents on Child Development Parents Role in Child’s Education at Home and School

• RELATED ARTICLES
• MORE FROM AUTHOR

Talking About Tough Issues with Kids

8 Genius Ideas To Make Sure Your Kids Are Physically Fit

Your 39-week-old Baby - Development, Milestones & Care

Your 12-Week-Old Baby - Development, Milestones & Care

Your 5 Months Old Baby Growth and Development

Using Puzzles To Boost Development in Preschoolers

Popular on parenting.

245 Rare Boy & Girl Names with Meanings

Top 22 Short Moral Stories For Kids

170 Boy & Girl Names That Mean 'Gift from God'

800+ Unique & Cute Nicknames for Boys & Girls

Latest posts.

Spiderman Coloring Pages - Free Printable Pages For Kids

Hamster Coloring Pages - Free Printable Pages For Kids

Understanding Baby Food Labels - Easy Guide for Parents on How to Read & Use

5 Ways to Maintain Diaper Hygiene in Summer for a Happy Baby!

Role of Parents in Child Development Essay Example

No matter whether you love children or not, every person was a kid at some point, and this part of life is closely connected to parents. Our writer from EssaySeek has volunteered to write this role of parents in child development essay and discuss the ideas of psychologist Diana Baumrind. This topic is really interesting to discuss, so feel free to use this idea for your own writing. But just don’t simply copy the text to your paper, as your tutor may mark it as plagiarized. Fill your paper with your own thoughts on the basis of this sample paper.

With the help of our psychology examples like this role of parents in child development essay, you will be inspired to write your own paper. When you will be ready to start writing your essay, be sure that you have considered writing tips from our blog! Students frequently suffer with writing, especially when they need to write something for the first time, but with our step-by-step guides it will be easy! Feel free to check our EssaySeek blog!

Is Baumrind Right That ‘Parents Create Their Children Psychologically’?

As most of us know, Diana Baumrind is a famous psychologist especially due to her researches and achievements on parenting styles. And the fact that, according to her, parents create their children psychologically, cannot be underestimated.

It is a usual thought that the way children are treated is the key factor of what they will become in the future, hence: how they will form psychologically. And that treatment, in other words, is parenting. Well, Baumrind research has proved that there are 4 main parenting styles: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and uninvolved. According to recent researches the results of each parenting style have been proved and sorted out one by one(Amy Morin, LCSW).

Let’s take the contrast of 2 parenting styles as an example: authoritarian and authoritative. Authoritarian parents are more demanding and less responsive for their child. They expect that their child will accept their strict rules without questioning them, and punish if the child disobeys (Dewar). As a result, the child grows up with poor social skills, because of their parents’ lack of responsiveness, less self-esteem, most of them even start lying in order to avoid punishments.

 In the contrary of authoritarian, authoritative parents’ demandingness and responsiveness are equally high. They often praise good behavior, value independence and are more supportive. Such parenting style creates a happy, successful child with better social skills, since child gets more experience of socializing because of the responsive environment that the authoritative parents have provided for their child (Bianca Mgbemere and Rachel Telles).

Therefore, in the case of these two parenting styles, we can see the possibility of psychological development of two different personalities, that are created under the circumstances of dissimilar approach of raising a child. This proves the point of Baumrind, that parents are, indeed, responsible for the creation of their children psychologically.

Works Cited

Amy Morin, LCSW. “4 Types of Parenting Styles and Their Effects on Kids.” Very Well (2017): 2. https://www.verywell.com/types-of-parenting-styles-1095045. (Aug. 24, 2017)

Bianca Mgbemere and Rachel Telles. “Types of Parenting Styles and How to Identify Yours.” Vanderbilt (2013): 1. https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2013/12/types-of-parenting-styles-and-how-to-identify-yours/. (Aug. 24, 2017)

Dewar, Gwen. “Authoritarian parenting: What happens to the kids?” Parenting Science (2017): 1. http://www.parentingscience.com/authoritarian-parenting.html. (Aug. 25, 2017)

Leave a Comment: Cancel reply

Parents Influence on a Child

This essay about the influence of parents on a child examines the multifaceted ways in which parental behavior, values, and the emotional environment within the home shape a child’s development. It discusses the role of modeling in teaching children social conduct and coping mechanisms, the impact of parents in instilling moral and ethical frameworks, and the significance of the emotional climate fostered by parents on a child’s mental health. While recognizing the profound effect parents have on their children, the essay also considers the child’s individual temperament, societal influences, and their own agency as factors in development. It underscores the importance of nurturing, supportive parenting in guiding children towards healthy emotional well-being and social competencies, highlighting parenting as a reflective journey with societal implications.

How it works

The parental sway on a child’s evolution stands as a topic of paramount significance and intricacy, delving into diverse dimensions of psychological, emotive, and societal maturation. From the earliest stages of existence, the parent-child bond lays the groundwork upon which many aspects of the progeny’s forthcoming identity will be forged. This discourse endeavors to delve into the multifaceted functions parents undertake in molding their offspring’s identities, principles, and conduct, acknowledging the gravity of this duty and the myriad manifestations it encompasses.

Central to parental influence is the notion of modeling. Offspring, with their acute perception and absorptive intellects, glean knowledge through observation and emulation. The conduct, attitudes, and emotional reactions exhibited by parents serve as a living repository from which offspring derive their initial teachings. This apprenticeship extends to social interactions, problem-solving abilities, and even stress management strategies. The dictum “actions speak louder than words” assumes profound relevance here; parents’ day-to-day demeanor, from their treatment of others to their regulation of personal emotions, ingrains in offspring what is deemed acceptable and anticipated in communal comportment.

Beyond the overt spectrum of acquired behaviors, parents also shape their offspring through the values and convictions they impart. This inculcation of a child’s moral and ethical scaffold commences in the nuanced interplay of quotidian existence—via the narratives exchanged, the tenets accentuated in decision-making, and the elucidation parents provide behind their edicts and anticipations. Such influences are perhaps most conspicuous in the domains of education, religious convictions, and cultural customs, where parental inclinations and biases can substantially sway a child’s outlook and attitudes toward society and themselves.

Additionally, the affective ambiance parents cultivate within the domicile wields a pivotal sway in steering a child’s mental and emotional well-being. The caliber of attachment, the presence or dearth of supportive and nurturing connections, and the mode by which conflicts are resolved—all contribute to the budding self-regard, resilience, and interpersonal competencies of the progeny. In households where candid communication, emotional warmth, and unwavering support predominate, offspring are likelier to foster a secure self-concept and salubrious interpersonal skills. Conversely, milieus characterized by disregard, censure, or undue pressure can precipitate an array of emotive and behavioral quandaries, underscoring the profound impact of parental emotional accessibility and backing.

However, acknowledging the weight of parental sway does not invalidate the role of inherent disposition, external societal influences, and the offspring’s own volition in shaping their progression. Offspring are not mere recipients of parental influence; they are active participants in their own socialization, infusing their distinct personalities into the dynamic interplay of influences enveloping them. Furthermore, as offspring mature and broaden their communal horizons beyond the family unit, peers, educators, and media outlets increasingly contribute to their evolving self-concept and worldview.

In summation, the parental influence on offspring is both profound and intricate, encompassing the transmission of behaviors, values, and emotive patterns. While parents undoubtedly occupy a foundational role in sculpting their offspring’s development, it is imperative to acknowledge the complexity of this influence, which operates within a broader context of individual attributes and external societal factors. The duty of parenting, therefore, transcends mere provision for a child’s corporeal necessities; it entails nurturing their emotional welfare, exemplifying salubrious behaviors, and guiding them in cultivating a robust and empathetic outlook. Recognizing the gravity of this influence marks the inaugural stride in the conscientious and introspective expedition of parenting, a sojourn that harbors the potential to mold not only the lives of individual offspring but the fabric of society itself.

Cite this page

Parents Influence On A Child. (2024, Apr 14). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/parents-influence-on-a-child/

"Parents Influence On A Child." PapersOwl.com , 14 Apr 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/parents-influence-on-a-child/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Parents Influence On A Child . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/parents-influence-on-a-child/ [Accessed: 4 Jun. 2024]

"Parents Influence On A Child." PapersOwl.com, Apr 14, 2024. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/parents-influence-on-a-child/

"Parents Influence On A Child," PapersOwl.com , 14-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/parents-influence-on-a-child/. [Accessed: 4-Jun-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Parents Influence On A Child . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/parents-influence-on-a-child/ [Accessed: 4-Jun-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

• IELTS Scores
• Life Skills Test
• Find a Test Centre
• Alternatives to IELTS
• General Training
• Academic Word List
• Topic Vocabulary
• Collocation
• Phrasal Verbs
• Writing eBooks
• Reading eBook
• All eBooks & Courses
• Sample Essays

Child Development Essay

This is an IELTS model child development essay . The essay is about the factors that affect the way that children develop.

This is the question:

Some people think that the main factors influencing a child’s development these days are things such as television, friends, and music. Others believe that the family still remains more important.

Discuss both opinions and give your opinion.

The factors that you need to discuss are:

• Social factors (such as television, music and friends)

Which do you think has the biggest impact on a child as they grow up?

In this essay you have to discuss two opinions and give your opinion . The best way to do this is to dedicate one body paragraph to each opinion.

You can then give your opinion in the second body paragraph and the conclusion, or just the conclusion if you wish.

But however you organise it, you must make sure you do these three things:

• Discuss the first opinion
• Discuss the second opinion
• Give your opinion

Now take a look at the question and the model answer.

IELTS Child Development Essay

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Child Development Essay Model Answer:

While parents obviously play a major role in the way that their child develops as they get older, many people believe that social factors outside of the family now influence children much more. This essay will examine both sides of the argument.

There is no doubt that there are factors external to the family that significantly impact on a child’s development.  For example, there is television and the internet. Children these days have access to these much more than they used to in the past, and they will pick up language and see things that will teach them about life. Friends also have an important influence as a child will often copy peers that they admire and respect. This could be positive behaviour but it could also be negative, such as smoking or taking drugs.

Ultimately, however, it is family who have the most important impact. Children spend nearly all of their time with their family, especially in their early years. They develop their confidence, socialisation skills, morals, values and views on life through their interaction with them. Proof of the importance of this can be seen in the differences between some children. Those that grow up in a dysfunctional home often eventually have problems themselves, whilst those that are brought up in a warm and close environment end up more confident and secure in adult life.

To conclude, it is the family that can provide a supportive, secure, and nurturing environment, which is crucial to the way in which a child becomes an adult. Although it is clear that social factors play a part, I would argue that it is the former that is the most important.

(278 words)

The child development essay has a good introduction that clearly sets out what the two opposing opinions are ( this is done by paraphrasing the question ).

The thesis sentence ( last sentence of the introduction ) then clearly states what will be in the essay - a discussion of the two opinions.

The body paragraphs are coherent - each one clearly discusses one of the opinions. Topic sentences have also been used effectively in each body paragraph to identify the topic and controlling idea :

There is no doubt that there are factors external to the family that significantly impact on a child’s development. Ultimately, however, it is family who have the most important impact.

Note the use of ' however ' to show that a contrasting opinion is to be given. This gives the writing coherence .

The topic sentence of the second body paragraph also makes it clear that this other side of the argument is also the writers opinion .

There is some good topic related vocabulary . For example:

peers; socialisation skills; dysfunctional home; supportive; secure; nurturing

There are a mix of complex sentences in the child development essay. For example:

While parents obviously play a major role... There is no doubt that ... Friends also have an important influence as ... Ultimately, however, it is family who ... ... whilst those that are brought up... Although it is clear that ...

The candidates opinion is made clear in the second body paragraph, but the candidate clearly clarifies it in the conclusion and also summarises the main ideas of the essay again.

<<< Back

Next >>>

More Discuss Two Opinion Essays:

IELTS Writing Example: What are the aims of a university education?

IELTS writing example essays. This is an essay on the aims of university education. In this essay, two opposing opinions need to be discussed. It is important to understand how to answer this type of question in the IELTS exam.

Formal and Informal Education Essay: What age should it start?

This formal and informal education essay is about whether it is best for children to begin their formal education at school when they are 7 rather than much younger.

IELTS Essay Becoming Independent

This IELTS essay discussed whether people are becoming more independent than they were in the past. This is a question that has come up a few times in the test. This is discussion type essay as you have to discuss both sides of an argument and come to a conclusion.

Sources for Stories Essay: Should parents read to their children?

This sources for stories essay asks for your opinion on the best way for children to get stories. Is it from parents reading to them or other ways?

Influence of Scientists or Politicians Essay

Influence of Scientists or Politicians Essay- Model answer for IELTS. Who has had the most influence on our world? In this essay you have to discuss both sides.

Zoo Essay: Are zoos cruel or do they protect animals?

This is a recent zoo essay question from the IELTS test (June 2018). Essay about zoos have come up a few times in the IELTS test so it's worth studying same sample questions and sample essays about the topic.

Childcare Essay: Should family or carers look after young children?

Childcare Essay: In the essay you have to discuss two sides of an argument. The first is that it is better if pre-school children are looked after at home with relatives such as grandparents. The second opinion is that children should be looked after at childcare centres.

Animal Rights Essay: Should animals be exploited for humans?

Animal Rights Essay for IELTS: Learn how to write an essay where you have to discuss two opinions. People who believe in animal rights think that they should not be treated cruelly, for example in experiments or for sport.

Diet and Health Essay: Who is responsible for diet and health?

Diet and Health Essay for IELTS: This model examines the extent to which individuals or governments should be responsible for health. Read a model answer and useful comments about the essay which will help you to improve your IELTS Score.

Donating Money to Charity Essay: Where should the money go?

Donating Money to Charity Essay: IELTS model answer to an essay on the topic of giving locally or to national and international charities.

IELTS Essays: What is the best way to reduce crime?

IELTS essays online with comments by an IELTS instructor - A writing sample on the topic of reducing crime.

Extraterrestrial Life Essay: Should we look for life on other planets?

This extraterrestrial life essay is an IELTS opinion essay where you have to discuss both sides of an issue then give your own opinion.

Any comments or questions about this page or about IELTS? Post them here. Your email will not be published or shared.

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

• Click on the HTML link code below.
• Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Band 7+ eBooks

"I think these eBooks are FANTASTIC!!! I know that's not academic language, but it's the truth!"

Linda, from Italy, Scored Band 7.5

All 4 Writing eBooks for just  $25.86 30% Discount Find out more >>

IELTS Modules:

Other resources:.

• All Lessons
• Band Score Calculator
• Writing Feedback
• Speaking Feedback
• Teacher Resources
• Free Downloads
• Recent Essay Exam Questions
• Books for IELTS Prep
• Useful Links

Recent Articles

IELTS Bundle Writing eBooks: 30% Off

Jun 01, 24 09:55 AM

House Sitting

May 31, 24 03:59 AM

Key Phrases for IELTS Speaking: Fluency and Coherence

May 26, 24 06:52 AM

Important pages

IELTS Writing IELTS Speaking IELTS Listening   IELTS Reading All Lessons Vocabulary Academic Task 1 Academic Task 2 Practice Tests

Connect with us

Before you go...

Check out the ielts buddy band 7+ ebooks & courses.

Copyright © 2022- IELTSbuddy All Rights Reserved

IELTS is a registered trademark of University of Cambridge, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia. This site and its owners are not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.

Children’s Education and Role of Parents

The question of the competent and correct development of the child is quite important since based on the knowledge and skills laid down in childhood, all the subsequent future is laid. The role of parents is significant because these are the people who are around throughout the child’s life, share their own experiences, support, and motivate their children. A good parent takes an active part in the child’s life and their formation as a person. Although some parents are aware of their importance in the child’s development, there are still those who do not seek to work on the development of their children, and both these groups can subsequently observe the results of their choice.

Parents who help children in difficult situations, work together on homework, play educational games can observe how the child develops. In family settings, children gain different experiences by performing various activities (Ceka & Murati 61). Along with development comes an interest in a particular subject. In the end, the child has a formed character, way of thinking, and interests; they become a fully formed personality. This is followed by education, which parents should also supervise (Yulianti et al. 10). Parents should not have a total impact on their child when choosing a further path, but as adults, they can give practical and necessary advice to which the child can listen.

The child’s upbringing takes place for a significant amount of time until the child can make decisions independently and consciously. The difference between children brought up by parents who were endowed with attention is quite substantial. The contrasts between them and children who were abandoned in childhood and adolescence are apparent. Lara & Sarakosti claim that parents with a high degree of involvement have children with a higher level of achievement, unlike those who have not been involved in child development (4). Undoubtedly, parents have various reasons why they cannot devote enough time to their children, such as heavy workloads, unwillingness, or inability to raise children. Such situations will affect every area of the child’s life and will lead to inevitable negative consequences.

Children who do not receive parental love and affection can grow aggressive and unhappy. This will ultimately affect their relationships with the people around them and may also impact their psychological perception of themselves. Children may realize that if their parents ignore them, then something is wrong with them, and they will work on themselves, trying to fix what they think can cause such an attitude in adults. In the end, realizing that the child has corrected everything in himself, and the parents has not changed their perspective, children stop loving the world and their lives.

In addition, there are cases when parents do not shift responsibility for raising a child from themselves to an educational institution. This decision is also incorrect since the role of the parent, in this case, is irreplaceable. Parents’ participation in children’s education begins at home with the fact that adults provide a safe and healthy environment, learning experience, support, and a positive attitude to school (Đurišić & Bunijevac 140). Assistance in training, development, and education of values will always primarily lie with parents. It is adult relatives who should tell the child about what is good and what is evil, how to behave in society, help with homework, and pay close attention to the child’s interests.

In conclusion, the role of parents in the upbringing of children is an essential and integral part. Because children need love and warmth, education, development, explanations about good and evil, as well as careful control. Without this, children grow angry, dissatisfied, have no success in work, business, and relationships. Problems with the society also generate negative feelings in children and make life difficult and unbearable. It is vital to take a responsible approach to a child’s upbringing to grow a powerful personality.

Works Cited

Ceka, Ardita and Murati Rabije. “ The Role of Parents in the Education of Children .” Journal of Education and Practice, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 61-64. Web.

Đurišić, Maša and Bunijevac Mila. “ Parental Involvement as a Important Factor for Successful Education. ” CEPS Journal, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 137-153. Web.

Lara, Laura and Saracostti Mahia. “ Effect of Parental Involvement on Children’s Academic Achievement in Chile .” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1-5. Web.

Yulianti, Kartika, Denessen, Eddie, Droop, Mienke and Veerman Gert-Jan. “School efforts to promote parental involvement: the contributions of school leaders and teachers.” Educational Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-16. Web.

Cite this paper

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2022, October 1). Children’s Education and Role of Parents. https://studycorgi.com/childrens-education-and-role-of-parents/

"Children’s Education and Role of Parents." StudyCorgi , 1 Oct. 2022, studycorgi.com/childrens-education-and-role-of-parents/.

StudyCorgi . (2022) 'Children’s Education and Role of Parents'. 1 October.

1. StudyCorgi . "Children’s Education and Role of Parents." October 1, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/childrens-education-and-role-of-parents/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "Children’s Education and Role of Parents." October 1, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/childrens-education-and-role-of-parents/.

StudyCorgi . 2022. "Children’s Education and Role of Parents." October 1, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/childrens-education-and-role-of-parents/.

This paper, “Children’s Education and Role of Parents”, was written and voluntary submitted to our free essay database by a straight-A student. Please ensure you properly reference the paper if you're using it to write your assignment.

Before publication, the StudyCorgi editorial team proofread and checked the paper to make sure it meets the highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, fact accuracy, copyright issues, and inclusive language. Last updated: November 10, 2023 .

If you are the author of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal . Please use the “ Donate your paper ” form to submit an essay.

Disclaimer » Advertising

• HealthyChildren.org

• Previous Article
• Next Article

INTRODUCTION

The benefits of play, reduced child-driven play and the potential repercussions, factors that have changed the routine of childhood, why is it a problem, family considerations, what are the solutions, advice for pediatricians *, conclusions, committee on communications, 2006–2007, committee on psychosocial aspects of child and family health, 2006–2007, consultants, the importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds.

• Split-Screen
• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data
• Peer Review
• CME Quiz Close Quiz
• Open the PDF for in another window
• Get Permissions
• Cite Icon Cite
• Search Site

Kenneth R. Ginsburg , and the Committee on Communications , and the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health; The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. Pediatrics January 2007; 119 (1): 182–191. 10.1542/peds.2006-2697

Download citation file:

• Ris (Zotero)
• Reference Manager

Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. Play also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children. Despite the benefits derived from play for both children and parents, time for free play has been markedly reduced for some children. This report addresses a variety of factors that have reduced play, including a hurried lifestyle, changes in family structure, and increased attention to academics and enrichment activities at the expense of recess or free child-centered play. This report offers guidelines on how pediatricians can advocate for children by helping families, school systems, and communities consider how best to ensure that play is protected as they seek the balance in children’s lives to create the optimal developmental milieu.

Play is so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. 1   This birthright is challenged by forces including child labor and exploitation practices, war and neighborhood violence, and the limited resources available to children living in poverty. However, even those children who are fortunate enough to have abundant available resources and who live in relative peace may not be receiving the full benefits of play. Many of these children are being raised in an increasingly hurried and pressured style that may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child-driven play. Because every child deserves the opportunity to develop to their unique potential, child advocates must consider all factors that interfere with optimal development and press for circumstances that allow each child to fully reap the advantages associated with play.

No single set of guidelines could do justice to the many factors that impact on children’s play, even if it was to focus only on children living in the United States. These guidelines will focus on how American children with adequate resources may be limited from enjoying the full developmental assets associated with play because of a family’s hurried lifestyle as well as an increased focus on the fundamentals of academic preparation in lieu of a broader view of education. Those forces that prevent children in poverty and the working class from benefiting fully from play deserve full, even urgent, attention, and will be addressed in a future document. Those issues that impact on play for children with limited resources will be mentioned briefly here to reinforce that play contributes to optimal child development for all children and that we must advocate for the changes specific to the need of each child’s social and environmental context that would enhance the opportunities for play.

These guidelines were written in response to the multiple forces that challenge play. The overriding premise is that play (or some available free time in the case of older children and adolescents) is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. Although the guidelines were written in defense of play, they should not be interpreted as being against other forces that compete for children’s time. Academic enrichment opportunities are vital for some children’s ability to progress academically, and participation in organized activities is known to promote healthy youth development. 2 , 3   It is essential that a wide variety of programming remain available to meet the needs of both children and families. Rather, these guidelines call for an inclusion of play as we seek the balance in children’s lives that will create the optimal developmental milieu to prepare our children to be academically, socially, and emotionally equipped to lead us into the future.

Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development. 4 – 6   It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers. 7 – 14   As they master their world, play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resiliency they will need to face future challenges. 7 , 10 , 15   Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills. 7 , 10 , 11 , 16   When play is allowed to be child driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their own areas of interest, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue. 7 , 10 , 11   Ideally, much of play involves adults, but when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills. 17   In contrast to passive entertainment, play builds active, healthy bodies. In fact, it has been suggested that encouraging unstructured play may be an exceptional way to increase physical activity levels in children, which is one important strategy in the resolution of the obesity epidemic. 18 , 19   Perhaps above all, play is a simple joy that is a cherished part of childhood.

Children’s developmental trajectory is critically mediated by appropriate, affective relationships with loving and consistent caregivers as they relate to children through play. 4   When parents observe their children in play or join with them in child-driven play, they are given a unique opportunity to see the world from their child’s vantage point as the child navigates a world perfectly created just to fit his or her needs. (The word “parent” is used in this report to represent the wide range of adult caregivers who raise children.) The interactions that occur through play tell children that parents are fully paying attention to them and help to build enduring relationships. 6 , 13 , 14 , 20 , 21   Parents who have the opportunity to glimpse into their children’s world learn to communicate more effectively with their children and are given another setting to offer gentle, nurturing guidance. Less verbal children may be able to express their views, experiences, and even frustrations through play, allowing their parents an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of their perspective. Quite simply, play offers parents a wonderful opportunity to engage fully with their children.

Play is integral to the academic environment. It ensures that the school setting attends to the social and emotional development of children as well as their cognitive development. It has been shown to help children adjust to the school setting and even to enhance children’s learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problem-solving skills. 22 – 32   Social-emotional learning is best integrated with academic learning; it is concerning if some of the forces that enhance children’s ability to learn are elevated at the expense of others. Play and unscheduled time that allow for peer interactions are important components of social-emotional learning. 33 , 34  

Despite the numerous benefits derived from play for both children and parents, time for free play has been markedly reduced for some children. This trend has even affected kindergarten children, who have had free play reduced in their schedules to make room for more academics. A 1989 survey taken by the National Association of Elementary School Principals found that 96% of surveyed school systems had at least 1 recess period. Another survey a decade later found that only 70% of even kindergarten classrooms had a recess period. 35 , 36  

Currently, many schoolchildren are given less free time and fewer physical outlets at school; many school districts responded to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 37   by reducing time committed to recess, the creative arts, and even physical education in an effort to focus on reading and mathematics. 38 , 39   This change may have implications on children’s ability to store new information, because children’s cognitive capacity is enhanced by a clear-cut and significant change in activity. 35 , 40   A change in academic instruction or class topic does not offer this clear-cut change in cognitive effort and certainly does not offer a physical release. Even a formal structured physical education class may not offer the same benefit as free-play recess. 35 , 41   Reduced time for physical activity may be contributing to the discordant academic abilities between boys and girls, because schools that promote sedentary styles of learning become a more difficult environment for boys to navigate successfully. 42 , 43  

Some children are given less time for free exploratory play as they are hurried to adapt into adult roles and prepare for their future at earlier ages. 44 – 46   Parents are receiving carefully marketed messages that good parents expose their children to every opportunity to excel, buy a plethora of enrichment tools, and ensure their children participate in a wide variety of activities. 45 , 47   Children are exposed to enrichment videos and computer programs from early infancy as well as specialized books and toys designed to ensure that they are well-rounded and adequately stimulated for excelled development. Specialized gyms and enrichment programs designed for children exist in many communities, and there is an abundance of after-school enrichment activities. These tools and programs are heavily marketed, and many parents have grown to believe that they are a requirement of good parenting and a necessity for appropriate development. As a result, much of parent-child time is spent arranging special activities or transporting children between those activities. In addition to time, considerable family financial resources are being invested to ensure that the children have what are marketed as the “very best” opportunities. 33 , 34 , 47 – 49  

It is clear that organized activities have a developmental benefit for children, especially in contrast to completely unsupervised time. 2   Some research substantiates that for most children, benefits increase with higher levels of participation. 2   In addition, it has been suggested that because this lifestyle is associated with middle-class families, it may have a benefit in maintaining social class or in creating upward mobility. 50   It is less clear, however, at what point a young person may be “overscheduled” to their developmental detriment or emotional distress. Free child-driven play known to benefit children is decreased, and the downtime that allows parents and children some of the most productive time for interaction is at a premium when schedules become highly packed with adult-supervised or adult-driven activities. 45 – 47 , 51 , 52  

It is left to parents to judge appropriate levels of involvement, but many parents seem to feel as though they are running on a treadmill to keep up yet dare not slow their pace for fear their children will fall behind. In addition, some worry they will not be acting as proper parents if they do not participate in this hurried lifestyle. 45 – 47 , 51 , 52  

Although most highly scheduled children are thriving, 2   some are reacting to the associated pressures with anxiety and other signs of increased stress. 45 , 46 , 53   In this regard, highly scheduled children have less time for free, child-driven, creative play, 45 , 46 , 47 , 54   which offers benefits that may be protective against the effects of pressure and stress. 45 , 54   There is evidence that childhood and adolescent depression is on the rise through the college years. 55 – 60   Although there are certainly many factors involved, and a direct link between the early pressure-filled intense preparation for a high-achieving adulthood and these mental health concerns cannot be made on the basis of current research, it is important that we consider the possibility of this linkage. We can be certain that in some families, the protective influences of both play and high-quality family time are negatively affected by the current trends toward highly scheduling children.

As trusted child advocates, pediatric health professionals are ideally suited to help parents consider the appropriate balance between preparing for the future and living fully in the present through play, child-centered organized activities, and rich parent-child interaction. It is likely that the balance that needs to be achieved will be different for every child on the basis of the child’s academic needs, temperament, environment, and the family’s needs. Because there are so many forces that influence the trend toward focusing on future preparation, it is important that parents have a medical home that can reinforce the importance of some of the basic, tried-and-true aspects of child rearing.

There may be as many explanations for the current trends as there are families, but several key factors that have led to decreased free play should be considered.

There are more families with a single head of household or 2 working parents and fewer multigenerational households in which grandparents and extended family members can watch the children. Therefore, fewer families have available adult supervision in the home during the workday, which makes it necessary for children to be in child care or other settings in which they can be monitored by adults throughout the day. 61   Organized after-school activities and academic enrichment opportunities offer valuable alternatives to children who might otherwise be left with minimal or no adult supervision.

Many parents have learned how to become increasingly efficient in balancing work and home schedules. They wish to make the most effective use of limited time with their children and believe that facilitating their children to have every opportunity is the best use of that time. Some may use some of the standards of efficiency and productivity they have mastered at work to judge their own effectiveness as parents; this is sometimes referred to as the professionalization of parenthood. 51   This phenomenon may create guilt in parents who find it difficult to balance competing demands after a taxing workday. Parents who understand that high-interaction, at-home activities (eg, reading or playing with children) present opportunities for highly effective parenting may feel less stress than those who feel compelled to arrange out-of-home opportunities.

Parents receive messages from a variety of sources stating that good parents actively build every skill and aptitude their child might need from the earliest ages. They are deluged in parenting magazines and in the media with a wide range of enrichment tools and activities that tout their ability to produce super-achieving children. They read about parents who go to extreme efforts, at great personal sacrifice, to make sure their children participate in a variety of athletic and artistic opportunities. They hear other parents in the neighborhood talk about their overburdened schedules and recognize it is the culture and even expectation of parents. 51 , 52  

The college-admissions process has become much more rigorous in recent years, largely because of a baby boom hitting the college years. Parents receive the message that if their children are not well prepared, well balanced, and high-achieving, they will not get a desired spot in higher education. Even parents who wish to take a lower-key approach to child rearing fear slowing down when they perceive everyone else is on the fast track. 62 , 63   Children are encouraged to build a college resume through both academic excellence and a wide variety of activities and volunteer efforts starting at younger ages. In some cases, parents feel pressured to help their child build a strong resume.

In response to the increasingly rigorous college-admissions process, many secondary schools are judged by the rates in which their students are accepted by the most prestigious centers of higher learning. Partly in response to this, many students have been encouraged to carry increasingly rigorous academic schedules, including multiple advanced-placement courses. In addition, many students are taking preparation courses for standardized entrance examinations. These students are left with less free time because of the home preparatory time needed for their classes.

The pressure for admission to select schools begins for some families long before college. Selection for private preschool programs can even be competitive, and parents may need to consider how best to “package” their preschoolers.

There is a national trend to focus on the academic fundamentals of reading and arithmetic. This trend, spearheaded by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is a reaction to the unacceptable educational performance of America’s children in some educational settings. One of the practical effects of the trend is decreased time left during the school day for other academic subjects, as well as recess, creative arts, and physical education. 38 , 39   This trend may have implications for the social and emotional development of children and adolescents. 33   In addition, many after-school child care programs prioritize an extension of academics and homework completion over organized play, free play, and physical activity. 64  

The decrease in free play can also be explained by children being passively entertained through television or computer/video games. In sharp contrast to the health benefits of active, creative play and the known developmental benefits of an appropriate level of organized activities, there is ample evidence that this passive entertainment is not protective and, in fact, has some harmful effects. 65 – 68  

In many communities, children cannot play safely outside of the home unless they are under close adult supervision and protection. This is particularly true in areas that are unsafe because of increased violence or other environmental dangers.

It would be wrong to assume that the current trends are a problem for all children; some excel with a highly driven schedule. Because we need skilled young people to be well prepared to be tomorrow’s leaders, we must recognize the advantages to the increased exposures and enriched academics some of our children are receiving. In fact, many of our children, particularly those in poverty, should receive more enrichment activities. But even children who are benefiting from this enrichment still need some free unscheduled time for creative growth, self-reflection, and decompression and would profit from the unique developmental benefits of child-driven play.

However, for some children, this hurried lifestyle is a source of stress and anxiety and may even contribute to depression. 45 , 46   Increased pressure to achieve is likely to manifest in school avoidance and somatic symptoms. 69 – 72   The challenge for society, schools, and parents is to strike the balance that allows all children to reach their potential without pushing them beyond their personal comfort limits and while allowing them personal free playtime.

It appears that the increased pressures of adolescence have left some young people less equipped to manage the transition toward the college years. Many student health services and counseling centers on college campuses have not been able to keep pace with the increased need for mental health services, and surveys have substantiated this need by reporting an increase in depression and anxiety among college students. 57 – 59   A survey by the American College Health Association reported that 61% of college students had feelings of hopelessness during the previous academic year, 45% felt so depressed they had trouble functioning, and 9% suffered suicidal ideation. 57   Several studies have linked feelings of anxiety and depression with that of perfectionism and an overly critical self-evaluation. 72 – 77   Other studies have linked this perfectionism with highly critical parents who instill pressures to excel. 78 – 82   Perfectionism is challenging to the individual and has a broader effect on society because it may stifle creativity and unencumbered thinking. 83   There are no longitudinal studies that directly link intense preparation for adulthood during childhood to this rise in mental health needs, and there certainly are other causes, but some experts believe today’s pressured lifestyle is an important contributor. 46 , 84  

Children may also have received an unintended message from this hurried, intense preparation for adulthood. They may have learned that the end-point goal—the best school or the best job—must be reached at all costs. High schools, colleges, and universities throughout the country are reporting that more students may be cheating to achieve the desired end result of a superior grade. 85 , 86   Despite grade inflation over the last decades, many teachers report increased stress in students when they achieve less-than-perfect scores. 87 – 89   This competitive era may be producing a minority of young people so intensely worried about the appearance of high achievement that they will forsake core values such as fairness and honesty for the sake of acquiring good grades.

Some families whose children are highly scheduled may also suffer. Adults who may already be burdened by work responsibilities and maintaining a household find themselves sacrificing their downtime because they need to arrange activities and transport children between appointments. 45 – 47   In addition, because of the pressures they feel to meet every one of the needs they perceive (or are told) their child requires to excel, they may feel inadequate and ultimately have less personal satisfaction in parenting. 51 , 52   Most importantly, parents lose the opportunity for perhaps the highest-quality time with their children. Some of the best interactions occur during downtime—just talking, preparing meals together, and working on a hobby or art project, playing sports together, or being fully immersed in child-centered play.

As parents prepare their children for the future, they cannot know precisely which skills each will need for the workforce. With added anxiety over their inability to adequately predict the future, they become susceptible to the promises of success and full preparation offered by all of the special enrichment programs and vulnerable to the belief that if their children are at least exposed to everything, they will have the best chance to be prepared. Although no one can be sure what skills will be needed, certain character traits will produce children capable of navigating an increasingly complex world as they grow older. These traits include confidence, competence or the ability to master the environment, and a deep-seated connectedness to and caring about others that create the love, safety, and security that children need to thrive. In addition, to be resilient—to remain optimistic and be able to rebound from adversity—young people need the essential character traits of honesty, generosity, decency, tenacity, and compassion. Children are most likely to gain all of these essential traits of resiliency within a home in which parents and children have time to be together and to look to each other for positive support and unconditional love. 90 – 95   Many families are successfully navigating a wide variety of commitments without sacrificing high-quality parent-child time, 2   but some families’ ability to maintain essential parent-child time may be compromised by this hurried lifestyle. In these families, overscheduling may lead to less emotionally competent, well-buffered children.

Because there are at least several causes for the decreased amount of child-directed play, there is no single position that child advocates should take. For example, in the case of a child who is economically disadvantaged and does not reside in a safe neighborhood, it may be unwise to simply propose more child-centered play. Although parents can be encouraged to optimize conditions for this kind of play in the home, there must be broad societal responses that address poverty, social inequities, and violence before we can advise parents to allow unsupervised play. In addition, for children in poverty, enhanced child care services, early community-based education (eg, Head Start), increased academic programming, more enrichment activities, and greater opportunities for community-based adult-supervised activities are warranted. Some of the needed solutions for this group of disadvantaged children remain beyond the scope of this article and are raised here to emphasize that the suggestions offered here need to be individualized; one size does not fit all.

For all children, however, advocates need to promote the implementation of those strategies known to promote healthy youth development and resiliency. Some of those strategies are community based, and others are school based, but many reside within the family. They are rooted in the deep connection that develops when parents engage with their children. 92 , 93 , 95   Play remains an ideal venue for parents to engage fully, and child professionals must reinforce the value of this play. Some play must remain entirely child driven, with parents either not present or as passive observers, because play builds some of the individual assets children need to develop and remain resilient.

Parents need to feel supported to not passively accept the media and advertising messages that suggest there are more valuable means of promoting success and happiness in children than the tried, trusted, and traditional methods of play and family togetherness. Purveyors of these special programs should be encouraged to produce long-term evidence that define how their products/strategies produce more successful children. In parallel, we would encourage independent researchers to evaluate both the benefits and problems associated with these enrichment tools. Researchers should also continue to explore the type and quantity of activities that are likely to be enriching for children with different needs.

Colleges are seeing a generation of students who appear to be manifesting increased signs of depression, anxiety, perfectionism, and stress. They should clarify their messages about the type of students they seek in the face of widespread folklore that they seek only super-achieving students. Colleges certainly seek a physically and emotionally healthy student body with the character traits that support learning. Colleges could reduce the stress levels of young people and their parents if they offered clear, more realistic expectations about the type of students they seek and helped families to understand that there is a match for each reasonably prepared student. In addition, colleges should address the myth that desirable students are those who excel in every area. In the adult world, people rarely excel in more than 1 or 2 areas, while well-balanced individuals enjoy several others. Colleges should recognize the possibility that when children believe that they must excel in all areas to gain admission, they might respond to those perceived and unrealistic expectations with stress and anxiety. 62 , 63  

In the midst of so many conflicting messages about what parents should do to prepare their child for what is perceived to be an increasingly complicated, competitive world, pediatricians have a natural role to serve as caring, objective child professionals with whom parents can discuss their approach to child rearing and reflect on their own desires for their children. Because pediatricians have a unique and important role in promoting the physical, emotional, and social well-being of children and adolescents, it is important that they promote strategies that will support children to be resilient and to reduce excessive stressors in their lives.

Pediatricians can promote free play as a healthy, essential part of childhood. They should recommend that all children are afforded ample, unscheduled, independent, nonscreen time to be creative, to reflect, and to decompress. They should emphasize that although parents can certainly monitor play for safety, a large proportion of play should be child driven rather than adult directed.

Pediatricians should emphasize the advantages of active play and discourage parents from the overuse of passive entertainment (eg, television and computer games).

Pediatricians should emphasize that active child-centered play is a time-tested way of producing healthy, fit young bodies.

Pediatricians should emphasize the benefits of “true toys” such as blocks and dolls, with which children use their imagination fully, over passive toys that require limited imagination.

Pediatricians can educate families regarding the protective assets and increased resiliency developed through free play and some unscheduled time.

Pediatricians can reinforce that parents who share unscheduled spontaneous time with their children and who play with their children are being wonderfully supportive, nurturing, and productive.

Pediatricians can discuss that, although very well intentioned, arranging the finest opportunities for their children may not be parents’ best opportunity for influence and that shuttling their children between numerous activities may not be the best quality time. Children will be poised for success, basking in the knowledge that their parents absolutely and unconditionally love them. This love and attention is best demonstrated when parents serve as role models and family members make time to cherish one another: time to be together, to listen, and to talk, nothing more and nothing less. Pediatricians can remind parents that the most valuable and useful character traits that will prepare their children for success arise not from extracurricular or academic commitments but from a firm grounding in parental love, role modeling, and guidance.

Pediatricians should be a stable force, reminding parents that the cornerstones of parenting—listening, caring, and guiding through effective and developmentally appropriate discipline—and sharing pleasurable time together are the true predictors of childhood, and they serve as a springboard toward a happy, successful adulthood.

Pediatricians should help parents evaluate the claims made by marketers and advertisers about the products or interventions designed to produce super-children.

Pediatricians should emphasize the proven benefits of reading to their children, even at very early ages.

Pediatricians can be available to parents as sounding boards to help parents evaluate the specific needs of their child in terms of promoting resiliency, developing confidence and competence, and ultimately enhancing that child’s trajectory toward a successful future.

Pediatricians can support parents to organize playgroups beginning at an early preschool age of approximately 2.5 to 3 years, when many children move from parallel play to cooperative play in the process of socialization.

Pediatricians can advocate for developing “safe spaces” in underresourced neighborhoods, perhaps by opening school, library, or community facilities to be used by children and their parents after school hours and on weekends.

Pediatricians can educate themselves about appropriate resources in their own community that foster play and healthy child development and have this information available to share with parents.

Pediatricians should support children having an academic schedule that is appropriately challenging and extracurricular exposures that offer appropriate balance. What is appropriate has to be determined individually for each child on the basis of their unique needs, skills, and temperament, not on the basis of what may be overly pressurized or competitive community standards or a perceived need to gain college admissions.

Pediatricians should encourage parents to allow children to explore a variety of interests in a balanced way without feeling pressured to excel in each area. Pediatricians should encourage parents to avoid conveying the unrealistic expectation that each young person needs to excel in multiple areas to be considered successful or prepared to compete in the world. In parallel, they should promote balance in those youth who are strongly encouraged to become expert in only 1 area (eg, a particular sport or musical instrument) to the detriment of having the opportunity to explore other areas of interest.

As parents choose child care and early education programs for their children, pediatricians can reinforce the importance of choosing settings that offer more than “academic preparedness.” They should be guided to also pay attention to whether the settings attend to the social and emotional developmental needs of the children.

Pediatricians can join with other child professionals and parents to advocate for educational settings that promote optimal academic, cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development for children and youth.

Pediatricians should assess their patients for the manifestations of stress, anxiety, and depression in family-centered interviews for children and privately conducted interviews with adolescents.

Because stress often manifests with physical sensations, pediatricians should be highly sensitized to stress as an underlying cause of somatic illness.

Pediatricians should refer to appropriate mental health professionals when children or their parents show signs of excessive stress, anxiety, or depression.

Play is a cherished part of childhood that offers children important developmental benefits and parents the opportunity to fully engage with their children. However, multiple forces are interacting to effectively reduce many children’s ability to reap the benefits of play. As we strive to create the optimal developmental milieu for children, it remains imperative that play be included along with academic and social-enrichment opportunities and that safe environments be made available to all children. Additional research is needed to explore the appropriate balance of play, academic enrichment, and organized activities for children with different temperaments and social, emotional, intellectual, and environmental needs.

Donald L. Shifrin, MD, Chairperson

Daniel D. Broughton, MD

Benard P. Dreyer, MD

Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD

Regina M. Milteer, MD

Deborah A. Mulligan, MD

Kathleen G. Nelson, MD

Tanya R. Altmann, MD

Media Resource Team

Michael Brody, MD

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Michelle L. Shuffett, MD

Brian Wilcox, PhD

American Psychological Association

Carolyn Kolbaba

Veronica L. Noland

Marjorie Tharp

William L. Coleman, MD, Chairperson

Marian F. Earls, MD

Edward Goldson, MD

Cheryl L. Hausman, MD

Benjamin S. Siegel, MD

Thomas J. Sullivan, MD

J. Lane Tanner, MD

Ronald T. Brown, PhD

Society of Pediatric Psychology

Mary Jo Kupst, Phd, MD

Sally E.A. Longstaffe, MD

Canadian Paediatric Society

Janet Mims, MS, CPNP

National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners

Frances J. Wren

George J. Cohen, MD

Karen Smith

All clinical reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics automatically expire 5 years after publication unless reaffirmed, revised, or retired at or before that time.

The guidance in this report does not indicate an exclusive course of treatment or serve as a standard of medical care. Variations, taking into account individual circumstances, may be appropriate.

This guidance is offered by the American Academy of Pediatrics and, therefore, is targeted to pediatricians. Other health professionals who serve children and adolescents, including other physicians, pediatric and family nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, are welcome to consider incorporating these guidelines into practice.

Play Beyond the Kids

As a clinician specializing in working with children and an advocate/practitioner of Play Therapy, I must applaud the alert this article provides about the risks of the lost learning opportunities and the “unintended message from this hurried, intense preparation for adulthood” of our increasingly less ‘playful’ society. Research has for many years recognized the cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral benefits of providing children with unstructured, child-centered play time; HOWEVER, as important as play is for children, it is (at least) nearly equally important for adults. Popular phrases are popular because of their resonance of truth and what is it we do when we are struggling with the challenges of life? What is the process we engage in to reach a resolution? We “play with an idea”!! Most adults do so in their thoughts alone whereas others also interact with their environment as part of this process. I suggest that this devaluation and denial of play’s importance to adult health is a second major contributant to the general devaluation by our society of the power and importance of play. I would contend that play is, even for adults, the foundation of contentment and achievement. We need to advocate for adults, just as for children, to engage the world with that ‘playfulness’ that allows us to see the many possibilities and options each of our life experiences exposes. We need to remember what these people knew:

G.B. Shaw: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”

R. von Oech: “Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.”

G.K. Chesterson:“The true object of all human life is play.”

Respectfully submitted: T.G. Borkan, PhD-Psychologist

Conflict of Interest:

None declared

Advertising Disclaimer »

Citing articles via

Email alerts.

Affiliations

• Editorial Board
• Editorial Policies
• Journal Blogs
• Pediatrics On Call
• Online ISSN 1098-4275
• Print ISSN 0031-4005
• Pediatrics Open Science
• Hospital Pediatrics
• Pediatrics in Review
• AAP Grand Rounds
• Latest News
• Pediatric Care Online
• Red Book Online
• Pediatric Patient Education
• AAP Toolkits
• AAP Pediatric Coding Newsletter

First 1,000 Days Knowledge Center

Institutions/librarians, group practices, licensing/permissions, integrations, advertising.

• Privacy Statement | Accessibility Statement | Terms of Use | Support Center | Contact Us
• © Copyright American Academy of Pediatrics

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Essay on Parents Role in Our Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on Parents Role in Our Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Parents Role in Our Life

The importance of parents.

Parents play a crucial role in our lives. They are our first teachers, guiding us through the early stages of life. They teach us values, morals, and skills, shaping our character and personality.

Our Support System

Parents provide emotional and financial support. They encourage us when we face challenges and celebrate our achievements. Their unconditional love and care are irreplaceable.

Role Models

Parents are our first role models. We learn how to interact with others, handle difficulties, and make decisions by observing them. Their actions and behavior influence our growth and development.

In conclusion, parents play an essential role in our life. Their love, support, and guidance shape us into who we are.

250 Words Essay on Parents Role in Our Life

Introduction.

Parents play a pivotal role in shaping our lives. They are not just the biological entities who give birth to us, but the guiding lights that help us navigate the complex journey of life.

The Foundation of Character

Parents lay the foundation of our character. From teaching us basic etiquettes to instilling moral values, they prepare us for the real world. They influence our behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs, thereby molding our personality and identity.

Support System

Parents are our primary support system. They provide emotional stability, helping us to cope with life’s ups and downs. Their unconditional love and care foster a sense of security and confidence in us, enabling us to face challenges with courage.

Educational Role

Parents are our first teachers. They introduce us to the world of knowledge and continue to contribute to our learning process. Their active participation in our educational journey significantly impacts our academic success and intellectual development.

Parents serve as role models, influencing our aspirations and ambitions. Observing them, we learn the importance of hard work, perseverance, and resilience. Their life lessons guide us in making informed decisions and pursuing our goals.

In essence, parents play an indispensable role in our lives. Their immense contribution is beyond quantification. They shape us into responsible individuals, preparing us for life’s challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it is imperative to acknowledge and appreciate their role in our lives.

500 Words Essay on Parents Role in Our Life

The quintessential influence of parents.

Parents play a pivotal role in shaping our lives, a role that extends far beyond mere biological or legal obligations. They are the architects of our character, the nurturers of our dreams, and the pillars of our resilience.

Parents as Role Models

Parents are our first role models. From a young age, we observe and imitate their behavior, attitudes, and responses to various situations. This process of modeling is intrinsic to human nature and is a key method through which we learn about the world and our place in it. Parents’ actions, therefore, leave indelible imprints on our psyches, influencing our values, ethics, and interpersonal skills.

Parents as Nurturers of Dreams

Parents also play a significant role in nurturing our dreams and aspirations. They provide the necessary resources, guidance, and emotional support that enable us to explore our interests and cultivate our talents. Whether it’s a mother staying up late to help her child with a science project or a father sacrificing his leisure time to coach his child’s sports team, parents’ contributions are instrumental in our journey towards realizing our potential.

Parents as Pillars of Resilience

Life is a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs. In this tumultuous journey, parents act as our pillars of resilience. They teach us how to cope with failures, manage stress, and navigate through life’s challenges. Their unconditional love and support provide a safety net that cushions the impact of life’s adversities, fostering resilience and emotional strength in us.

Parents as Guides in Decision Making

As we mature and begin to make important life decisions, parents serve as our guides. They share their wisdom and experiences, helping us evaluate our options and make informed choices. By doing so, they equip us with the tools necessary for independent thought and action, thereby preparing us for the future.

Parents as Emotional Anchors

Parents also serve as our emotional anchors. They are our confidants, our cheerleaders, and our comforters. They celebrate our victories, empathize with our struggles, and provide reassurance during our moments of self-doubt. This emotional support is crucial for our mental well-being and self-esteem.

The Lasting Impact of Parents

In conclusion, parents play a multifaceted role in our lives. They shape our character, nurture our dreams, fortify our resilience, guide our decision-making, and provide emotional support. Their influence is profound and enduring, leaving a lasting impact on our lives. As we navigate through the different stages of life, let us remember to appreciate the invaluable role our parents play in shaping our lives.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Life Without Newspaper
• Essay on Life of Soldiers
• Essay on Life Is Beautiful

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

TYRE PARTNER

ASSOCIATE PARTNER

Global Day of Parents 2024: Wishes, Quotes, History and Celebration Ideas

Published By : Nibandh Vinod

Trending Desk

Last Updated: June 01, 2024, 06:00 IST

Mumbai, India

Every year on June 1, the Global Day of Parents is observed across the world. (Image: Shutterstock)

The Global Day of Parents is an occasion to highlight the important role that families and parents play in their children's development and well-being.

Every year on June 1, the Global Day of Parents is observed to commemorate the vital role that parents play in their children’s lives. It also promotes the overall well-being of society. On this day, children as well as adults can spend time with their parents, give them gifts, or schedule a movie night.

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared June 1 as the Global Day of Parents, and the people across the globe began to observe the day. The United Nations highlights the importance of strengthening family bonds by spending time with one’s parents.

Global Day of Parents 2024: Theme

This year’s Global Day of Parents theme is – “The Promise of Playful Parenting”. Throughout the month of June, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its approved partners will push for expert guidance and support for parents on a variety of topics, including the scientific basis of play and family activities.

Global Day of Parents 2024: Wishes, Quotes, & Messages To Share

• Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for your unwavering support whenever I needed it. Mom and Dad, I wish you a very happy Parents’ Day.
• I am so grateful to you, Mom and Dad, for your unwavering support and love. Happy Global Day of Parents 2024!
• I cannot express how grateful I am for you both. There aren’t enough words to express my sentiments for you both. But I hope you can understand. A very Happy Global Day of Parents.
• There are too many things you have given up to keep me happy to list them all. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done. Happy Global Day of Parents 2024!
• Parents are the most precious gifts from God. Let us constantly be present and respectful to them. Happy Global Day of Parents 2024.
• When you’ve lost hope, your parents make things easier for you. Let us love them forever. Happy Global Day of Parents.

Global Day of Parents 2024: History And Significance

Though the United Nation officially designated June 1 as Global Day of Parents, its origins can be dated back to the 1980s.

According to the UN website, the international community began to recognise the importance of families in people’s lives. To underline this, the United Nations General Assembly passed many resolutions and declared the International Year of the Family and the International Day of Families.

However, the United Nations stated that the presence of parents is critical for a child’s full and harmonious personality development. It went on to say that children should grow up in a familial environment where they can be happy, loved, and understood.

Eventually, the General Assembly declared June 1, 2012 to be International Day of Parents. The first Global Day of Parents was marked in 2013, signalling a turning point in global understanding and appreciation for the role that parents play.

The Global Day of Parents celebrates the important role that families and parents play in a child’s growth and well-being. They provide children and adolescents with more than just identity, love, care, provision, and protection; they also bring economic security and stability.

Global Day of Parents 2024: How To Celebrate

• Take this opportunity to express gratitude to your parents for their love, support, and knowledge. Send them a kind note, a small gift, or simply show how much you care about them.
• Make time for activities that you can do together, like taking a stroll, sharing a meal, or engaging in a hobby. Express gratitude for their presence and the time you get to spend with them.
• Get together with your parents and talk about treasured moments, common experiences, and cherished family customs. It can be a beautiful way to forge fresh memories and deepen the ties between generations.
• Seek for local projects or groups that assist low-income parents and families. Provide resources or your time to support their endeavours.

• Global Day of Parents