Positive Parenting and Support

No force may be more important to a child's development than the family. Many factors contribute to the family's influence, including family structure, functioning, economics, and stress. Parenting provides the foundation to promote healthy child development and to protect against adverse outcomes. The term positive parenting describes an approach to parenting that achieves these goals.

The Importance of Parenting

Interactions between parents and their children provide stimulation that promotes the development of language, early cognitive skills, and school readiness. Less frequent participation in interactive parenting practices, such as reading aloud to children, eating family meals, and participating in family outings, predicts an increased risk of developmental delay in low-income families. Interventions that increase parents' reading to children promote positive developmental outcomes such as early language and literacy development.

The affective nature of the parent–child interaction is important for both cognitive and social emotional development. Persistent maternal depression has been linked to decreases in child IQ scores at school entry. Early exposure to positive parenting has been associated with lower rates of childhood depression, risky behavior, delinquency, injuries, behavior problems, and bullying, with increased likelihood of empathy and prosocial behavior. The beneficial effects of early maternal sensitivity on social competence have been found to persist into adulthood, suggesting that early life experiences have a long-term impact.

Positive parenting practices, such as using a warm, supporting approach during conflict, and negative practices, such as maternal aggression, have been associated with MRI changes in adolescent brain development in boys. Animal models have been used to demonstrate the detrimental effects of stressful early life experiences, characterized by maternal separation or decreased maternal responsiveness. Offspring raised in these environments were more likely to exhibit fearful behavior. Differences were noted in brain architecture and epigenetic changes that alter gene expression (see Chapter 100 ). Importantly in these animal models, increased maternal nurturing could protect against these changes.

The Role of the Family

Parenting occurs in the context of a family unit, and there is significant diversity among families. Family makeup has changed greatly over the last several decades in the United States, with increases in cultural, ethnic, and spiritual diversity and in single-parent families. In 2014, based on U.S. Census Bureau data, 26% of children lived in single-parent families, and 62% lived in households with 2 married parents. These patterns differ when race and ethnicity are considered; the majority of children in white and Asian American families live in households with married parents, whereas only 31% of black children do, with about half (57%) living in single-parent households. Although children can thrive in all types of family environments, data suggest that, on average, children living in single-parent families fare less well than their counterparts. Children in single-parent households are 3 times more likely to be living below the poverty line than those in families with 2 married parents. Mothers are the primary breadwinner in 40% of families, an increase from 10% in 1960, yet families led by unmarried mothers tend to fare worse than those led by unmarried fathers.

Families are also changing how they spend time together. Media use for both parents and children has increased dramatically with the advent of tablets and smartphones. Over the last several decades, as women have entered the workforce, increasing numbers of children participate in childcare, and in after-school activities. Racial, ethnic, and economic disparities are found in those participating in these activities as well. More children from economically advantaged families participate in extracurricular activities; low-income and black families worry more about the availability of high-quality programming for their children.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2040 the majority of the U.S. population will consist of minorities, with steady increases in foreign-born populations and individuals reporting 2 or more ethnicities. This diversity will impact family composition, as well as family values and approaches to parenting. Culture refers to a pattern of social norms, values, language, and behavior shared by a group of individuals, and parents are thus affected by their culture. Parenting approaches to self-regulation vary across cultures with respect to promoting attention, compliance, delayed gratification, executive function, and effortful control.

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