reflective essay about responsible parenthood

Essay on Family Life And Responsible Parenthood

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100 Words Essay on Family Life And Responsible Parenthood

Introduction to family life.

Family life is a shared journey with our loved ones. It’s about living together, sharing happiness, sadness, and learning from each other. It’s also about helping each other grow and become better people. In a family, we learn to love, care, share, and respect others.

Understanding Responsible Parenthood

Responsible parenthood means taking care of your children’s needs. This includes their physical needs like food and shelter, and their emotional needs like love and support. Parents should also teach their children good values and guide them to become good people.

Link Between Family Life and Responsible Parenthood

Responsible parenthood shapes family life. When parents take care of their children’s needs and teach them good values, they create a happy and healthy family environment. This helps the children grow up to be responsible and caring adults.

Importance of Responsible Parenthood

Responsible parenthood is important because it affects the children’s future. If parents do not take care of their children’s needs or teach them good values, the children may grow up to be unhappy or irresponsible adults. But if parents are responsible, the children will likely grow up to be happy and responsible.

250 Words Essay on Family Life And Responsible Parenthood

What is family life.

Family life is the time we spend with our close relatives, such as our parents, siblings, and sometimes our extended family. This time is filled with love, care, and learning. We share our daily experiences, joys, and sorrows with our family. It is in the family that we first learn to talk, to move, and to behave in a certain way.

The Role of Parents

Parents play a crucial role in family life. They are the ones who provide for the family’s basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing. They also give emotional support, guide their children, and teach them right from wrong. Parents are the first teachers in a person’s life.

What is Responsible Parenthood?

Responsible parenthood means that parents do their best to raise their children well. They try to give their kids a good education, teach them good manners, and help them become good people. Responsible parents also make sure their children are healthy and safe. They take care of their children’s needs and guide them as they grow up.

Why is Responsible Parenthood Important?

Responsible parenthood is important because it affects the future of the children and the society they live in. When parents are responsible, they help their children grow into responsible adults. These adults then contribute positively to society. On the other hand, if parents are not responsible, it can lead to problems for the children and the society.

In conclusion, family life and responsible parenthood are closely linked. They both play a big role in shaping the future of children and society. Therefore, it is important for parents to be responsible and for families to spend quality time together.

500 Words Essay on Family Life And Responsible Parenthood

Understanding family life.

Family life is not only about living together under one roof. It is about sharing, caring, and supporting each other in good and bad times. It is about celebrating small moments of joy and overcoming difficulties together.

Parents play a vital role in family life. They are the pillars that hold the family together. They provide us with love, care, and guidance. They teach us about right and wrong. They help us develop our skills and talents. They prepare us for the challenges of life.

Responsible Parenthood

Being a parent is not an easy job. It requires a lot of patience, understanding, and love. Responsible parenthood means taking care of the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children. It means providing them with a safe and nurturing environment.

Responsible parents guide their children in making good decisions. They teach them about the importance of honesty, kindness, and respect. They help them develop a sense of responsibility and self-discipline.

The Impact of Responsible Parenthood on Family Life

When parents fulfill their responsibilities, children feel loved and secure. They develop a positive attitude towards life. They become confident and responsible individuals. They learn to value relationships and respect others.

In conclusion, family life and responsible parenthood are closely related. They play a crucial role in shaping the future of children. They help them become responsible and caring individuals. They prepare them for the challenges of life. Therefore, it is important for parents to understand their responsibilities and fulfill them with love and care.

Family life and responsible parenthood are not just about fulfilling duties. They are about creating a world full of love, respect, and understanding for our children. They are about making a difference in their lives and helping them become better individuals.

So, let’s cherish our family life and strive to be responsible parents. Let’s create a beautiful world for our children. Let’s make them proud of us. Let’s make the world a better place for them.

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Responsible Parenting: A Test of Character?

• Download the full set of Character and Opportunity Essays (PDF)

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Isabel v. sawhill isabel v. sawhill senior fellow emeritus - economic studies , center for economic security and opportunity.

October 22, 2014

In this essay from the Center on Children and Families’ Essay Series on Character and Opportunity , Isabel Sawhill notes that social norms can help to build or reinforce character strengths. Without a new ethic of responsible parenting, Sawhill says social mobility will continue to be limited for those at the bottom.

A well-functioning liberal democracy is based on the everyday practice of civic virtues or what in another context we might call character. Without those virtues, the amount of intervention required to promote social and individual welfare, including upward mobility, would be inefficient, and overly intrusive. Government may require that children be vaccinated or attend school, but unless parents see the need for this and voluntarily cooperate with such requirements, they would not work in practice. Government can establish laws governing taxes or safe driving speeds but it cannot have an auditor for every citizen or a policeman on every corner and it must have the consent of the governed to impose such rules in the first place. Social norms are the private analogue to government rules and regulations. They establish standards of behavior to which most people conform. The punishment for nonconformity is not a fine or a prison sentence but social stigma and loss of respect or affection from significant others.

Although more efficient and less intrusive than government for guiding our behavior, social norms can also be individually stifling, even repressive. In addition, norms that may have once been useful for supporting the collective good may later become outdated and unproductive. But social norms are, in my view, exceedingly powerful shapers of individual behavior. The economist James Duesenberry once said that economics is all about how people make choices and sociology is all about why they don’t have any choices to make. Theories of human behavior need, in my view, to consider both.

As Richard Reeves has noted, some of these civic virtues or traits – what he calls persistence (hard work) and prudence (self-control or deferred gratification) – are more important than others for an individual’s chance of being upwardly mobile. I want to apply these ideas to a topic of great interest to me: unplanned childbearing, and its implications for upward mobility and opportunity.

Many young adults are drifting into early and unplanned childbearing outside of marriage, often before they have completed their education or formed a stable relationship with another adult. Roughly 40 percent of all births now occur outside of marriage and most of these are unplanned. All of the evidence, detailed in my book, Generation Unbound , points to this being detrimental to both the parents and their children’s life prospects. I have argued that what is needed, in this context, is a new ethic of responsible parenting, by which I mean: Not having a child before you and your partner really want a child and are prepared to care for it. With such an ethic in place, the amount of government assistance needed in cases where, through no fault of their own, parents still needed help, would be more affordable, and more acceptable to the taxpaying public. Such cases could include death of a parent, the low wages earned by both parents, the lack of child care to enable them to work, a child with special needs, and so forth.

But it would not include the large number of children who are born to adults who did not want a child (or another child) at a particular stage of their lives.

What’s behind this drifting into relationships and into parenthood without marriage? Some of it is the result of changing social norms. Fifty years ago children born outside of marriage were considered “illegitimate.” Not anymore. Even the term sounds old-fashioned and pejorative. In addition, some young adults may see little or no reason to delay childbearing given their limited economic prospects. But unintended childbearing rates are three or four times as high among the poor as among the middle class: this is hard to reconcile with a purely economic argument. The disadvantaged are not actively choosing to have as many children, or to have them as early in life. Less discussed is another important reason for drifting into parenthood: the simple fact that all of us lack will power and make mistakes; we don’t always end up doing what we intend to do. We don’t reach for a condom in the heat of the moment. We don’t think about the college tuition we are going to have to pay when we have a baby now. More generally, we lack a sense of self-efficacy or control over our lives. In a sample of 103 college women in their twenties, a relatively advantaged group, Paula England and her colleagues found that efficacy has strong effects on contraceptive use, even after controlling for many other variables including the strength of the desire to have children. And in a large survey of American women, 44 percent agreed or strongly agreed that “it doesn’t matter whether you use birth control or not; when it’s you time to get pregnant it will happen.” These findings suggest that a large portion of the population is fatalistic in their attitudes. If character means being more self-directed, more future-oriented, and more willing to control one’s impulses, and if these attributes, in turn, produce more social mobility, these findings are discouraging.

Social norms, I believe, can help to build or reinforce character strengths. The old social norm was “don’t have a child outside of marriage.” That norm was useful but it has now eroded to the point where it has little salience to the youngest generation. The new norm needs to be “don’t have a child until you and your partner are ready to be parents.” A new ethic of responsible parenting (backed up by more affordable and effective forms of birth control) may or may not be feasible. But without it, social mobility will continue to be limited for those at the bottom.

Economic Studies

Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Sweta Shah, Juanita Morales

September 20, 2024

Amna Qayyum

September 19, 2024

Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly, Landry Signé, George Ingram, Priya Vora, Rebecca Winthrop, Caren Grown, Belinda Archibong, Brad Olsen, Jennifer L. O’Donoghue, Sweta Shah, Ghulam Omar Qargha

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Responsible Parenthood: Tips, Advice, and Resources for Effective Parenting

Responsible parenthood: values and resources for effective parenting.

Responsible Parenthood: Values to consider

Responsible parenthood is a crucial aspect of raising children and ensuring their well-being. It involves making informed decisions, being aware of family planning options, and embracing the responsibilities that come with parenting.

Here is some parenting tips and values to consider to help you navigate the journey of responsible parenthood:

Family Planning and Decision-Making

Family planning plays a vital role in responsible parenthood. It allows couples to make informed choices about the number and spacing of their children. By utilizing effective contraception methods, parents can plan their family size based on their financial, emotional, and physical capabilities. Consult with healthcare professionals or family planning clinics to explore the various options available and find the method that suits your needs best.

Parenting Responsibilities

Responsible parenthood encompasses various responsibilities that contribute to the overall well-being of children. It involves providing a safe and nurturing environment, meeting their physical and emotional needs, and promoting their holistic development. Parents should prioritize open communication, active listening, and positive discipline techniques to foster healthy parent-child relationships .

Educational Support

As responsible parents, it is essential to prioritize your child's education. Encourage a love for learning by engaging in educational activities, supporting their schoolwork, and promoting a growth mindset. Stay involved in their academic journey, attend parent-teacher meetings, and communicate with their teachers to ensure their educational needs are met.

Emotional Well-being

Nurturing your child 's emotional well-being is vital for responsible parenthood. Create a positive parenting environment where they feel safe expressing their emotions. Teach them emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills to help them navigate life's challenges. Encourage open discussions about feelings and be a source of comfort and understanding for them.

Health and Nutrition

Responsible parenthood involves prioritizing your child's health and nutrition. Ensure they receive regular medical check-ups, vaccinations, and preventive healthcare. Provide a balanced diet rich in nutrients, fruits, and vegetables. Encourage physical activity and limit screen time to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Supporting their dreams

Letting your child navigate the complexities of life is one unrealized fear of parents. As much as we want to steer them every step of the way, it’s best to let them decide and support them in every thing they do. Let their imagination and dreams start young by introducing them to helpful toys .

Resources for Responsible Parenthood

There are numerous resources available to support responsible parenthood. Local community centers, parenting classes , online forums, and books can provide valuable insights, tips, and guidance. Seek support from other parents who share similar values and experiences, as they can offer empathy, advice, and a sense of community.

By embracing responsible parenthood, you lay the foundation for your child's future success and well-being. Remember, it is a journey that requires continuous learning and adaptation. Stay informed, seek support when needed, and enjoy the rewarding experience of raising responsible and caring individuals.

Parenting 101: What is Responsible Parenting?

Mica Valledor

Mica Valledor is an expert shopper and gift-giver, all thanks to being a godmother to five incredible kiddos. She's also a full-time furmom who believes you should treat yourself whenever you deserve it!

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How to Be a Responsible Parent

Last Updated: November 5, 2020 References

This article was co-authored by Julie Wright, MFT . Julie Wright is a Marriage and Family Therapist and the co-founder of The Happy Sleeper, which offers sleep consulting and online baby sleep classes. Julie is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in babies, children, and their parents, and the co-author of two best selling parenting books (The Happy Sleeper and Now Say This) published by Penguin Random House. She created the popular Wright Mommy, Daddy and Me program in Los Angeles, California, which provides support and learning for new parents. Julie's work has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR. Julie received her training at the Cedars Sinai Early Childhood Center. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 46,714 times.

Being a parent involves many responsibilities; you need to feed and clothe your kids, discipline them when they need it, and nurture their personalities and interests. The rewards for responsible parenting, though, are immense. You’ll be able to watch your children blossom and gain self-confidence, while respecting others and developing personal values. As a responsible parent, you need to care for your child’s safety and well-being, give them a value system to rely on, and spend quality time with them. This kind of responsible parenting strategy will help you raise a mature, loving, safe, and thoughtful child.

Disciplining and Setting Boundaries for Your Kids

• Household rules could take the form of written instructions. For example, write: “No hitting other people, no complaining, no TV watching before homework is finished, and no name-calling.”
• Teaching your children empathy from a young age will help you more easily enforce your behavioral standards. Help them view their actions from an empathetic point-of-view. You could say, "How do you think it makes your sister feel when you hit her?" or "How do you think Daddy feels when you say hurtful things?"

• The issue of boundaries becomes increasingly important as kids age. Teens are more likely to try to push the boundaries or disobey rules in ways you may not notice.
• Remind teens who act out that it’s still against household boundaries to, for example, swear in the house or come home past curfew.

• For example, if your child gets their shoes muddy on a walk home from school, it would be arbitrary to spank the child or send them to bed without dinner.
• Instead, try requiring the child to wash their shoes in the bathtub before having a snack or watching TV.

• For example, if your child is past the age at which most learn to read, don’t get upset or frustrated with your kid, or feel like you’re a failure as a parent.
• Keep in mind that children progress at different rates.
• Being flexible also means adjusting your rules as your child gets older to reflect their changing needs. For example, you might allow them to go to bed later or play games with more mature ratings.

• Protect very young kids by covering outlets, securely locking cabinets and drawers, and keeping them away from flights of stairs.
• As children age, they should be given more freedom and responsibility. You can still watch over teenagers, for example, by suggesting that they not participate in activities that seem dangerous or sketchy.
• As a responsible parent, it’s okay to say something like, “I respect your ability to make your own decisions. But in this case, I think you should reconsider the plans you’ve made; they sound dangerous.”

• For example, if your children ask you to drive them to the movies after you’ve had a draining day at work, it’s perfectly fine to say, “Not tonight, guys. I’ve had a tough day and need some time to myself. I’m going to take a bath, why don’t you just watch a movie on TV instead.”
• If you’re raising your kids together with a partner, intentionally spend time together with them every couple of weeks.

Communicating with Children and Instilling Values

• For example, your kids will notice if you encourage them to treat others with kindness, then lash out in road rage whenever you’re behind the wheel.

• Try saying something like, “Hey, I know you were unhappy that I made you go to bed early last night. But, I only did that since you had school early today and I knew you’d be too tired to enjoy it if you stayed up late.”
• Whenever possible, offer reasonable options for your child. You could say, "I know you don't want to go to bed early, but you need to be rested for school tomorrow. How about you stay up late on Saturday, and we invite your friend for a sleepover?"
• You can periodically tell your kids something like, “It feels like we’ve all been very busy lately. I’m sorry we haven’t talked much, how are things going in your life? What’s new?”

• Ask them about their day and their social groups.
• Play a board game or a video game with them for an hour.

• Take them on a family road trip or to a local attraction over a weekend.
• Take a family walk after dinner.
• Eat breakfast and dinner together.

• For example, you can teach your children that it’s wrong to lie and that it’s wrong to hurt other people.
• Be aware, of course, that your kids may depart from this value system as they grow older. As long as they still treat themselves and others well, as a responsible parent, you need to let the kids grow and develop their own beliefs and values.
• It goes without saying that these beliefs do not need to be religious. That’s fine if you choose to bring your child up in a religious household. It’s also fine if you choose to bring your child up without religion. Either way, they’ll still need to be taught positive values.

Fostering Love and Affection with Your Children

• For example, try to avoid saying things like, “You forgot to take out the trash again! No dessert for a week.”
• Instead, say things like, “I noticed that you made your bed this morning without having to be asked. Thank you, it makes me so happy when you do that!”

• Say something like, “I love that sculpture you made for me in art class! You’re so good at making art. I love how talented you are!”
• Self-esteem is not the same thing as being rude, cocky, or arrogant. If your child starts to act entitled or feels as if they’re better than others, remind them that it’s important to be humble about their gifts and skills.

• For example, if a young child is debating attending a friend’s birthday party, say something like, “You know, this isn’t a decision that I can make for you. But, I know how good you are at making decisions. What do you think the right thing to do is?”
• Of course, be reasonable when allowing kids to make decisions. Consider the child’s maturity level and age when allowing them to make a decision.
• Allowing a 6-year-old to choose whether or not they go to school would be unwise. However, you could allow a 6-year-old to choose what they wear to school each day.

• Meeting a child’s needs involves knowing how much time you should spend with them. Infants and young children crave constant attention. As kids age, and especially by the time they’re teenagers, they will need much less of your time.

• This means that, even if your kids present ideas to you that are silly or impractical, you should still take them seriously.

• For example, avoid saying, “Your friend Sara always brings home excellent grades on her report card. I wish you would do the same thing.”
• Instead, try saying, “I’m impressed that you got a B+ in Geography, I know you worked really hard in that class! As long as you do your best, I’ll always be proud.”

Expert Q&A

• When keeping very young children safe, you’ll need to do things like: keep all medicine and poisonous substances out of reach and remove any choking hazards from your child’s reach. [19] X Research source Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/nine-steps.html
• ↑ https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/parental-roles-how-to-set-healthy-boundaries-with-your-child/
• ↑ http://www.pollyklaas.org/safe/9-1-1-practice-for-children.html
• ↑ Julie Wright, MFT. Childcare Specialist. Expert Interview. 6 March 2020.
• ↑ https://centerforparentingeducation.org/library-of-articles/indulgence-values/values-matter-using-your-values-to-raise-caring-responsible-resilient-children-what-are-values/
• ↑ https://medium.com/thrive-global/10-things-responsible-parents-do-and-5-they-dont-85a17c1c601d
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/compassion-matters/201211/7-tips-raising-emotionally-healthy-child
• ↑ https://www.safekids.org/blog/7-easy-ways-prevent-injuries-and-keep-your-kids-safe

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Understandings of Responsible Parenthood Among University Educated: 'Listening to Our Conscience is a Very Demanding Vocation'

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Reproductive Autonomy in Light of Responsible Parenthood

Winter 2006.

By Hille Haker

Reproductive autonomy has always been one of the most important issues for different kinds of women’s movements, and in different phases of these movements. The movements have demanded that family-planning matters not be decided by men alone, or by religious authorities or the state. Reproductive autonomy as a political slogan in the context of planned motherhood can be constructed as a negative right—in this case, the right to non-interference in a woman’s decision-making capacity, and the right to nonviolation of female bodily integrity.

Reproductive autonomy is not synonymous with liberty in the sense of mere individual autonomy—this concept is often (mis-) represented in bioethical reasoning. 1 Rather, it takes women seriously as moral agents who must decide what kind of life they want to live, together with others, in particular social contexts and given particular institutional constraints.

Stating that women have moral reproductive rights and calling for these to become recognized as legal rights in all countries has a political side as much as an ethical one: politically, it asserts the right to autonomy; ethically it implies that every woman claims to be considered as a moral agent, and, as such, to be accountable for the reproductive decisions she makes.

As far as this argument rests upon modern ethical reasoning, women should not have had a problem gaining support within the ethics community for their position and struggle. When medically assisted abortion became a political issue in the 1970s and 1980s, however, it was soon identified with the much broader scope of women’s reproductive autonomy. Ethical opposition to abortion was raised especially by religious (Christian) leaders who grounded their objections to the reproductive rights’ movements in a specific version of natural-law theory and an ontological anthropology, or in the faith-based assumption of the sanctity of life.

Neglecting the historicity of anthropological concepts and ignoring the necessity to balance conflicting rights, a reductive, unmediated application of the concept of human dignity was held up against the concept of reproductive autonomy. As a result, the opponents of the women’s movement denied not only women’s moral agency but also the possibility of dilemmatic moral situations during pregnancy, furthermore ignoring the practical moral conflicts many women would have expressed with respect to their need to be assisted in their (actual and prospective) parental responsibilities, had they been asked.

Feminist ethicists became trapped in the reductive polarization of “pro-choice” and “pro-life,” because it seemed that they could not uphold the right to abortion without questioning the right to life of an embryo, and vice versa. The basic feminist argument of reproductive autonomy thus seemed to conflict with the ethical claim that the hierarchy of rights must be consistent, favoring (embryonic) life over (women’s) autonomy. To escape this trap—which I would call the trap or fallacy of simplicity—many ethicists simply did not acknowledge a right to life on the side of embryos or fetuses, while others argued for the acknowledgment of a practical moral dilemma in cases of unwanted pregnancies.

Although I am convinced that the latter position is stronger than the first, my point here is that the concept of reproductive autonomy makes sense in an ethical discourse only if the women’s capability for and obligation to moral decision-making is acknowledged and, likewise, societal responsibility is taken seriously.

With the introduction and implementation of assisted reproduction, women’s reproductive autonomy became an important focus within bioethical reflection. In ethical debates of the 1970s and 1980s on reproductive medicine, a negative right was turned into the positive right to have access to assisted reproductive technology (ART). The assumed “natural striving” of women to give birth to children was presupposed in many debates about in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the metaphor of “giving nature a helping hand” became a rhetorical phrase for the self-understanding of physicians who saw themselves as helping women (and only secondly men) to fulfill their natural role—namely, to be parents.

Several feminists criticized ART as being one more means to keep women in their social place as mothers and, moreover, as an excuse to experiment with human reproduction without considering the side effects these experiments could have on women and offspring alike. On the other hand, factions of the women’s rights movement, especially in countries with a strong liberal tradition, strongly endorsed reproductive medicine as part of the women’s struggle for autonomy, claiming women should at least have access to ART. These feminists saw modern reproductive technologies as a useful tool to achieve the overall goal of women’s liberation and autonomy. Because ART is dependent on financial, medical, and sometimes psychological support that societies or individuals pay for, however, the status of the right needs to be clarified. If ART is taken only as a negative right—namely, the right not to be stopped from having access to ART as a tool to become pregnant—clearly well-off couples who can pay for the procedure are favored. But in places where there is public funding for and access to ART—as in, for example, Germany—the just distribution of health care goods becomes an obvious and more and more urgent problem. Liberal approaches have tried to respond to the situation with the justice-based claim to “ equal access,” but this claim seems to be unrealistic given the scarcity of health care resources.

Exhaustive answers to these questions have not yet been found, but it seems clear that today the focus of the debate is shifting from individual ethics to social ethics, emphasizing concerns of political and social justice over the individual freedom to choose health-related services.

When prenatal genetic diagnosis was implemented on a larger scale during the 1980s and 1990s, the same period when assisted reproduction was increasing, issues of autonomy and reproductive rights shifted from a discussion about the right to procreation to a debate about the right to a healthy child . Whereas prenatal diagnosis was initially introduced to avoid the birth of children with a high risk of “serious hereditary diseases,” it soon became a common component of pregnancy monitoring. In non-Western countries—India and China in particular—an emphasis on the risk of poverty as well as state policies on birth control resulted in a large-scale sex-selection practice via prenatal diagnosis, to the disadvantage of girls. The difference between medically indicated interventions and socially motivated sex selection was thereby blurred.

With the introduction of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in the early 1990s, a next step was reached. Intended first to raise the success rate of assisted reproduction, it soon became the focus of a new way of family planning, based on preventing offspring with certain genetic risks, implementing pre-pregnancy and prenatal predictive tests such as those for cystic fibrosis, but also including tests for late-onset diseases such as Huntington’s chorea and Alzheimer’s disease. 2 Rarely were the well-known side effects of in vitro fertilization and its risks for women, especially the so-called hyperstimulation syndrome, weighed against the interests of couples to diminish the risk for future children. At present, we can observe the next step, to promote enhancement technology as part of medical intervention, thereby enforcing normative concepts of the “healthy” child.

In the last decade, another major step has taken place with the new possibilities of regenerative medicine. Embryos have become a promising resource for research going far beyond assisted reproduction. For the time being, embryonic stem cell research is dependent on donors of “surplus” embryos from IVF procedures, or on women as donors (or sellers) of egg cells, in order to perform the so-called nonreproductive cloning via somatic nuclear cell transfer.

In addition to growing concern about the exploitation of women as egg-cell “donors,” similar to the exploitation of organ donors in the “gray market” of organ trafficking (cases of Eastern European women who were paid for their “donations” by British IVF centers were debated in the summer of 2005), embryonic stem cell research is in part ethically questioned because it shifts embryo research from reproduction to regeneration and transplantation of tissue. It thereby advances the bio-economic perception of embryos (and women’s body parts), and separates embryo research and egg cell donation from purposes related to reproduction.

As partner and love relations have become more reflective, so too has the parent-child relationship.

I have stressed the development of reproductive technologies to see more clearly where we have come with respect to reproductive autonomy. But several issues need further analysis: ethnic and cultural diversity in regard to reproduction; class differences; the prospect of an all-embracing monitoring of pregnancy in the Western world while the priorities of global health care are pushed to the background; 3 the expansion of predictive tests; the problem of insurance not being provided if certain tests are not performed; second- and third-trimester abortions; health risks for women and children caused by IVF or intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI); and socially motivated sex selection and family balancing as an underpinning of the normative social construct of the “good family.”

It is often argued that the political right to autonomy be achieved by leaving the choice for the above-mentioned services and practices to women, but this position is weakened when considered from a social-ethical perspective. Feminist bioethicists in particular are now faced with a critique initially leveled at mainstream bioethics: namely, that they ignore social and political constraints of reproductive and genetic technologies and endorse the traditional modern liberal theory of the self. The critique raised by care-ethical approaches raised in early feminist ethics was renewed by critical theory; feminist philosophers and scholars of the history of sciences have articulated their critique for some time, but it has still not been adequately addressed by feminist liberal bioethicists.

Critics accuse proponents of the “individual autonomy” model of naïveté, of underestimating the social construction of this concept in the context of ART and genetic diagnosis, and of uncritically endorsing mainstream bio-economical policies and biomedical definitions, thereby eclipsing social understandings of “life,” “parenthood,” or “human development.” These critics demand that feminist ethics pay attention to the rhetorical use of the (feminist) concept of reproductive autonomy, and analyze the disempowering effects that assisted reproduction, genetic diagnosis, and egg-cell donation have on women.

Reproductive autonomy must be seen not only in the context of technological development, but also in the context of societal developments and changes in family structures over the last 50 or so years.

In Western societies technological and biomedical progress has been accompanied by changes not only in family structures but also in parent-child relations and health care systems. As social and historical studies have shown, kinship and parenthood have shifted from being understood in a common naturalistic way to being understood in relation to a couple’s decision-making. And as partnership and love relations have become more reflective, so too has the parent-child relationship. 4

While birth control resulted in a considerable drop in the number of births per woman, assisted reproduction is an ambiguous practice: on the one hand, it advances the distinction between genetic, biological, and social parents and thus questions the traditional biological concept of parenthood. On the other, however, it implicitly maintains the concept of biological parenthood by responding to the assumed (female) desire to become pregnant with the rhetoric of reproductive autonomy and rights. If the biologically related child had not been upheld as a more or less unquestioned ideal of parenthood, assisted reproduction, with its serious risks for women and offspring and a still rather low success rate, would never have become a serious option for couples.

Just as assisted reproduction has changed the concept of parenthood, so too has prenatal genetic diagnosis. Given the changes in (middle-class, white) female biographies, it is not surprising that prenatal diagnosis—endorsed by societies that objected to discriminating against “disabled persons” but at the same time openly discussed the use of genetic diagnosis to prevent further births of disabled children—was welcomed by women who did not want to endanger the independence they had only just gained. Unlike male liberals, feminist liberals argued from this background of well-known dependence and the experience of having liberated themselves from it. The growing societal toleration of terminated pregnancies made it easy to accept not only the legitimacy of terminations for medical reasons, but also of an assumed health-related obligation to “prevent” giving birth to a child with serious health risks or symptoms of disability.

Supporting and promoting this concept, many bioethicists began to spell out parental responsibility as a duty to prevent the birth of children with genetic risks. Translated into practical terms, couples are to understand their new responsibility in terms of pre-pregnancy tests, or terminating pregnancies with genetic or chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome. Once more, women and feminist bioethicists seemed to be trapped between Scylla and Charybdis—between the obligation to set aside their (possibly conflicting) personal interests in favor of caring for a child with disabilities, or the necessity to ignore any bond between themselves and their (originally wanted) child by following the argument of parental responsibility as prevention.

Two social-ethical factors are given too little attention here. First, the pressure on women or couples to undergo tests and procedures in order to assure a “healthy” child is underestimated, and needs further analysis, especially in regard to class and race. Second, the normative concept of parenthood must be reconsidered in general in relation to the new challenges of social and technological changes. Reproductive medicine endorses a concept of parenthood that is sufficient for the libertarian autonomy model of individual choice, but is insufficient for an autonomy model based on relationality and moral responsibility. The tension between these understandings of autonomy will haunt the discussion about reproductive rights in the next few decades.

In the context of regenerative medicine, namely, of embryonic stem cell research, the concept of parenthood seems to disappear almost completely. In this field the rhetoric of encouraging the altruistic collaboration of couples with research and science is complemented by the rhetoric of autonomy as the claim of property rights (on human embryos) and commodification (of body parts), where women (and couples) are considered the “owners” of surplus embryos after in vitro fertilization procedures and “owners” of egg cells, which they should be free to make available on the market of bioscience. 5

Apart from many problems, especially concerning the market for egg cells, this approach divides the moral perception of an embryo into being the object of property in the pre-implantation phase, and being a person with its own rights after birth. 6 Contrary to this biomedical neutralizing tendency with respect to embryos, especially those with genetic risks or chromosomal symptoms, pregnant women of “normal,” “healthy” embryos are confronted with more and more norms of social conduct in order to protect and support their embryo’s or fetus’s development. It seems that the current practice is ethically contradictory in its judgments of how to deal with embryos and fetuses in general, and how to deal with specific embryos in particular. In this situation, ethical reflection based on the notion of reproductive rights must seek to offer arguments to orient moral agents in their own deliberation. And these must go well beyond the well-known reductions of pro-life or pro-choice positions.

As I have argued, autonomy refers not only to a self-determined life’s involving no (violent) interference by another person or institution, but also to the concept of moral responsibility. Likewise, moral autonomy does not emphasize the rights of the players in the bio-economic market, couples and women among them, but rather the dimension of responsibility on the basis of the individual’s freedom to decide for herself or himself. Moral autonomy connects the responsibility to lead one’s own life with the responsibility to take into consideration the goals, needs, interests, and rights of others. Thus, responsibility does not contradict freedom, but rather it is the moral approach to freedom: Freedom without the concept of responsibility is merely egoism, but responsibility without freedom is force.

The desire for a child is a goal that can be, but is not necessarily, part of a person’s identity. Many aspects of the feminist discussion of motherhood and female identity can be interpreted as the search for a pluralistic and tolerant model to empower women to live a life they choose for themselves, with or without children. This liberal presupposition of feminist ethics, based on the concept of negative freedom and the right to autonomy, remains valid.

Asymmetrical relations call for a model that liberalism cannot offer; they call for social deliberation on what kind of response is right, good, and possible without violating the parents’ interests.

To explore parental responsibility, the consideration of actual parenthood is constructive for either pre-pregnancy or prenatal prospective parenthood. Parents, perhaps more than any other people in various social relations and constellations, are irreplaceable in their responsibility, though replaceable as individuals. This is the reason social parenthood faces no serious ethical problem, as history teaches. What is indispensable is the concept of parenthood itself, changing over the years with the child’s physical and psychic development. 7 The specific asymmetry of the parent-child relationship places the child in absolute dependency on his or her parents; the way parents interact with their child has radical effects on personal development. Conversely, in addressing the parents and showing the need to be cared for, the child is implicitly or explicitly urging them to respond responsibly.

Considered from a moral point of view, parents who are indeed free to respond or refrain from their responsibility are nevertheless confronted with a moral quest, which ethics reflects upon as a moral claim: What can be demanded of parents? Where are the limits? What kind of institutional support do parents need to be able to respond responsibly? The parents’ responsibility cannot be shaped by the model of contractualism or reciprocal relationships between the partners. Asymmetrical relations call for a model that liberalism cannot offer; rather, they call for the self-reflective and social deliberation of what kind of response is right, good, and possible without violating the parents’ own justified interests.

What must be clarified in the coming decades is whether new technologies will force us to extend this concept to prospective parenthood, rather than referring to the traditional borderline of birth as the beginning of actual parenthood. To me, the focus on birth is both misogynic—the child must be perceivable by the public eye—and obsolete in regard to the new visualization of the fetus in vivo. What we need today is a reflection on the particularities of prospective and prenatal parenthood, and this turn of the perspective should correct the focus on the moral status of the embryo—a question that in my view is too much influenced by the concept of reciprocal respect of persons.

It is quite evident that parental responsibility in the era of ART and genetic diagnosis starts earlier than pregnancy. In the case of assisted procreation, it starts with medical intervention in the woman’s body. Already in this phase (hormone treatment and monitoring, retrieval of ova, etc.), the “future child” is envisioned, similar to the imagination in any planned pregnancy. Prospective parental perception is strongly entangled with aesthetic and ethical imagination about a future child, so that this biographical perspective should at least complement the biomedical perspective.

Apart from these hermeneutical aspects, the normative question today is whether the recognition of, and respect for, an embryo as such, or respect for the condition of a future child’s assumed health, on the condition of his or her sex or other features couples might seek, affects the general concept of autonomy and responsibility in parenthood. Regarding the effects on the moral concept of parental responsibility, there is some evidence that, independent of progress in other fields concerning disability rights, social tolerance of children with genetic health risks or disabilities is declining. 8 On the reflective level, the influence of the prevention model in biomedical ethics is growing, although it is rarely discussed thoroughly. To me, it seems to be in conflict with the individual and societal care and solidarity for those children (and families) who in fact have a positive right to different kinds of medical, educational, and professional services. Is this care to be limited to born children, while the birth of children with hereditary or chromosomal disabilities is to be avoided even if this goal can only be achieved by way of health risks for their mothers? These questions need to be addressed in public discourses, as well as in the discourses of academic ethicists.

The liberal model of promoting technological progress and at the same time not interfering in family-planning decisions—well intended to broaden couples’ reproductive choices—might in fact reduce the options of prospective “parents at risk,” to become parents without medical intervention, if it becomes more unacceptable to give birth to a child that does not meet the health conditions the couples themselves, physicians, and the society behind them consider necessary for general quality of life. Who will decide the thresholds of “quality of life”? How will just access to the reproductive services be possible, once the prevention model is endorsed in the sphere of public health? The liberal approach does not yet have satisfying answers, and mere reference to “private choices” is not a solution but rather the expression of the problem. Here again, the social-ethical perspective—emphasizing the interdependence of individual and social norms and socially disadvantaged groups’ lack of a chance to live up to social expectations—should prevent feminist ethics from being uncritical.

The desire to bear children makes women vulnerable, because the desire may be (and socially still is) tightly connected to their identity as women. In the context of clinical biomedicine, infertility is viewed as a technical problem, which can be repaired by a highly sophisticated medical procedure. Even though women are asked for their consent to all kinds of biomedical procedures, it is obvious that there is a technological domino effect, especially when alternatives are rarely discussed. In vitro research on embryos turns the traditionally necessary connection of an embryo and a woman (and a man or another prospective parent) into a contingent relation. With the new developments of embryonic stem cell research and non-reproductive cloning, women are made to play a specific role as “donors” or “sellers” of ova that are “harvested” from their body after hormone stimulation, and thus are turned into the owners of bodily property. And couples are asked to donate “surplus” embryos once considered possible future children. Traditional (modern) concepts of embodiment and asymmetrical relationships are challenged—and answers are demanded by the whole society, not just the scientific community.

Seen in the light of biographical and social constructions of the family, the precedence of the scientific construction of the embryo is an expropriation from prospective parents rather than an enforcement of their autonomy. To (re-)claim the relational understanding of prospective parenthood would, first, (re-)connect the embryo to the concept of parenthood, and, second, would encourage further reflection on the normative implications for the parent-child relation given ART, genetic diagnosis, and regenerative medicine.

With reference to the notion of reproductive autonomy in an ethical dimension, it might be instructive to stress the connection between the (dominantly Western) perspective on reproductive and predictive technologies and the international agenda of women’s reproductive rights, which is much broader than the biomedical focus suggests. Here, the concept of reproductive autonomy has a very different connotation, for the individual moral autonomy as well as for the social-ethical consequences: If all parents are responsible for their (present and future) children, and all societies must ensure that they are capable of living up to these responsibilities, the moral burden today rests much more on societies and institutions than on women and parents.

Moral respect toward children and the moral concept of parental responsibility are only recent normative claims, resulting in the United Nations Declaration of Children’s Rights in the 1990s. As is well known, in many contexts societies do not in fact fulfill their obligations to support parents in their family planning (e.g., access to birth control information), not to mention assisting them in caring for their children, be it in providing health services, education, or even food or clean water. Millions of parents, but in particular mothers, are left alone in their struggle to provide children with their most basic needs, and lack basic quality of life themselves.

• For a critique of the “mainstream” ideology of individual autonomy as a consumerist concept, see Onora O’Neill, Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
• The shift from using genetics for infertile couples to fertile couples was not difficult, since several genetic dispositions are accompanied with subfertility.
• It would be erroneous to assume that there are no major concerns in developed countries, too. The example of the United States may suffice: here, more than 40 million people have no health insurance. Given that poverty hits women and children more often and usually harder than men, this grievance is as important a consideration as the introduction of art and genetic technologies into private health sectors of developing countries.
• For a thorough analysis, see Hille Haker, Ethik der genetischen Frühdiagnostik. Sozialethische Reflexionen zur Verantwortung am menschlichen Lebensbeginn (Paderborn 2002).
• Donna Dickenson, “Commodification of Human Tissue: Implications for Feminist and Development Ethics,” Developing World Bioethics , vol. 2, no. 1 (May 2002): 55-63.
• I borrow the term “object of property” from Patricia Williams who has related this to the history of slavery; The Alchemy of Race and Rights (Cambridge University Press, 1991, 216-238). The analogy is not meant to identify slavery with embryo research—this would obviously ridicule the former; rather, it is the neutralization of human beings that is at stake here. This, I would hold, is unethical in its arbitrariness of moral respect. Sadly, it is part of the history of the concept of human rights that it did not live up to its own universal claim, but was based initially on the arbitrary exclusion of women, children, and minorities. Thus, the critical approach to ethics requires the self-reflective questioning of one’s own assumptions.
• The development from an asymmetrical to a symmetrical relationship between parents and children, enabling children to become “autonomous” selves, is a continuous process; hence Hans Jonas’s emphasis on this “telos” of parenthood, in The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age (University of Chicago Press, 1985). Jürgen Habermas similarly stresses reciprocity as part of the concept of parenthood, in The Future of Human Nature (Polity Press, 2003).
• Some ethicists have argued that a certain borderline of the future child’s life quality and life expectancy must not be crossed lest the concept of responsibility and (societal) solidarity be ridiculed. Others have gone further and claimed a future child’s right not to live in cases of (severe) disorders. The quality of life argument can be seen from the parents’ perspective, from the child’s perspective, or from the societal perspective. Here, I am only concerned with the notion of parenthood. The future child’s right to health becomes a problematic claim, however, if life itself is undermined by judgments about the health status usually only based on probabilistic genetic data.

Hille Haker , the author and editor of many articles and books on bioethics, was Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Harvard Divinity School from 2003 to 2005. She is now Professor of Moral Theology and Social Ethics at the University of Frankfurt.

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Public Health Notes

Your partner for better health, responsible parenthood and 10 principles of responsible parenting .

November 8, 2018 Kusum Wagle Ageing and Health 0

Table of Contents

What is responsible parenthood?

• Responsibility parenthood is an ability of parents to detect the need of happiness and desire of children and helping them to become responsible and responsible children.
• It is the shared responsibility of husband and wife to determine and achieve the desired number, spacing, and timing of their children according to their own family life aspirations, and concerns.
• Responsible parenthood doesn’t limit only on fulfilling the demand of children and rearing them up properly but goes beyond that

Qualities of responsible parenthood:

• Marriage should be done at the right age as right age at marriage helps to start a new life and new family in a right time.
• The size of a family should be decided by both parents together.
• Being responsible parents also refers to becoming parents at the right age where both of them are physically and mentally mature to start a family.
• Proper spacing between the births of children is also necessary for health of a mother and child. This also assures that every child receives the attention and care they deserve.

10 principles of the responsible parenting:

1. what you do matters.

• This is one of the most important principles
• Children learn from the parents
• They see, observe, imitate and adapt the behavior of the parents
• One needs to act the same way that they want their children to be

2. You cannot be too loving

• Everybody loves their child
• But the love of parents should never spoil them
• In fact it’s the things like leniency, material possession that spoils them
• Parents need to be careful on that matters

3. Be involved in your child’s life

• It is necessary for parents to be involved in child’s life in both physical way and mental way
• Parents needs to talk to them and also listen them carefully
• Patents should manage to provide at least 15 minutes of undivided attention towards children every day.

4. Adapt your parenting to fit your child

• Parents needs to keep the track and pace with the child’s development
• Parents need to understand the children milestone as per the age

5. Establish and set rules

• Parent need to maintain and regulate the child’s behavior.
• Strict actions and punishment may also be required.
• Parents can set up the rules and make children follow them.
• Rules can simply vary from table rules to curfew rules.

6. Foster your child’s independence

• A responsible parent needs to teach their children self-control and encourage independence.
• Parents should teach them to make responsible decisions and shouldn’t frequently intervene in their choices.

7. Be consistent

• Consistency is the key to disciplines.
• Rules for children shouldn’t change from day to day. This makes the children confuse.
• Before that, the parents need to make sure that the rules made are logical and based on valid reason and are not just imposition of power.

8. Avoid harsh discipline

• Parents should never adopt the harsh way.
• They should never hit a child, under any circumstances.
• This has negative impacts on child.
• Punishment should be mild and used carefully.

9. Explain your rules and decisions

• Good parents have clear expectations
• They communicate this to their children in clear way and explain them as per their age.

10. Treat your child with respect

• Children should be treated with equal respect.
• Their views, opinions should be listened and valued.
• Speak politely.
• Treat him kindly.
• This is the best way to teach them how to treat and respect others.

Necessities of Responsible parenthood:

A) maintain healthy family size.

• Responsible parenting is concerned with the maintaining the desired size of family, maintaining the spacing and having desired family size
• The decision is made based on the health status, social and economic concerns
• This will further help parents in responsibly handling the situation in the future and also prepares them to face challenge
• Children require the support of the parents
• Responsible parenting will help in building the supportive relation between children and parents
• Parents would be able to support their children in every steps of their life

c) Morality

• Children learns from the parents
• They become what their parents are
• Responsible parenting is necessary to teach children the right behavior, culture the healthy habits and morals and also to guide in right direction throughout.
• Encouraging independent thought. It is duty of parents for better controlling over the children.
• Responsible parenting is also necessary to avoid the financial burden and stay prepared.

References and for More Information:

https://passnownow.com/civic-education-responsible-parenthood/

http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00—off-0hdl–00-0—-0-10-0—0—0direct-10—4——-0-1l–11-en-50—20-about—00-0-1-00-0–4—-0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL1.15&d=HASH1d77a56dc5f042300a664f&gt=1

http://www.karinu.org/sites/default/files/PARENTING%20TIPS_0.pdf

https://www.medicinenet.com/parenting/article.htm#what_are_the_10_principles_of_good_parenting

http://ftisb.org/articles-and-resources/principles-of-effective-parenting/

http://www.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_importance_of_responsible_parenthood_in_national_development

https://www.importantindia.com/24220/parenthood/

https://www.importantindia.com/24126/reasons-why-responsible-parenthood-is-so-important-in-the-society/

https://www.modernghana.com/lifestyle/9178/responsible-parenting.html

• 10 principles of the responsible parenting
• concept of responsible parenthood
• Necessities of Responsible parenthood
• Qualities of responsible parenthood
• What is responsible parenthood
• why is responsible parenthood needed?

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How Reflective Parenting Helps Manage Stressful Situations

Parents play a crucial role in helping teens who are experiencing stress..

Posted May 5, 2022 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

• What Is Stress?
• Take our Burnout Test
• Find counselling to overcome stress
• Reflection enables parents to be responsive rather than just being reactive to their children.
• Reflective parenting promotes children’s well-being and their achievement.
• Being a reflective parent helps protect children from the negative impact of the stress caused by the Covid pandemic.
• Research shows that reflective parents better help children cope with the stress caused by difficult life situations like the Covid pandemic.

This piece was co-authored by Dr. Regina Pally, a psychiatrist, and founder of the Center for Reflective Communities.

A recent tweet by Conan O’Brien made us smile: “Raising two teenagers is a tough job. Kudos to my assistant.” While clearly a joke, it gets to something big that we all know: Raising teenagers is a tough job. And at no time in recent memory has that job been more complicated than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We've all suffered from the stress of the pandemic. Teenagers most especially have shown an upsurge of depression and anxiety .

During times like these, it is especially important to keep in mind that teen mental health matters as much, if not more, than achievement. A well-researched approach called reflective parenting provides specific tools that serve as protective factors against the negative impact of stress. These tools also strengthen the parent-teen relationship, promote resilience , and help parents feel less stressed and more confident.

Success Without Well-Being Is Not Worth Having

Quoting the UCLA neuroscientist Alex Korb, “Success without well-being is not worth having.” We take that as our core philosophy when working with parents.

In 1998, a groundbreaking study found that when children suffer long periods of stress it can have a life-long negative impact, potentially resulting in poor health, substance abuse , and impaired school performance. All are caused by a stress system out of control, causing excessive adrenaline and cortisol, which are unhealthy for the brain and for the body.

Teens have gone through years of excessive stress from Covid. Fortunately, research has identified certain features of the parent-child relationship that can help.

What is Reflective Parenting?

Reflective capacity is the natural way we make sense of ourselves and each other. When parents are reflective, children do better—emotionally, socially, academically, and physically. It also serves a protective function against the negative impact of too much stress.

Reflective capacity has three core elements:

• Parents and children have separate minds with their own unique perspectives.
• Behavior has meaning and is dictated by what is going on inside our minds.
• Misunderstandings and conflict are normal and common.

Reflective capacity is not a perfect system. When we observe our child’s behavior, we often jump to conclusions. Then we respond to our conclusion, not to the reason why the behavior is happening. To complicate things further, when we feel an intense emotion , such as sadness, rejection, or embarrassment , we are more likely to respond based on our own feelings than to what is actually going on inside the child.

Stress reduces our reflective capacity. So what can parents do? Slow down, push pause, and reflect on what might be going on inside the child and themselves. When we are reflective, we are better able to recognize mistakes, clarify misunderstandings, and resolve conflicts—all of which are stress-reducing and promote resilience.

Reflective Parenting has countless benefits, including:

• Reducing stress;
• Parents feeling more confident;
• Regulating the child’s emotions;
• Improving self-regulating emotions;
• Children become more cooperative;
• Reducing depression and anxiety.

Parents Play a Crucial Role Helping Teens Who are Experiencing Stress

Stress is caused by anything that is a challenge to cope with. Often, stress is activated by negative emotions such as fear , anxiety, and frustration. Stress also manifests during times of rejection, failure, overwork, unpredictability, and uncertainty. And clearly, stress has been amplified because of Covid.

But stress isn’t always negative. Stress is okay as long as people can calm themselves down from the stress response. In fact, having a stress response followed by a calming down phase is a sign of physical and mental health. It is when stress is prolonged and we don’t recover that problems arise.

This is where parents come in. Even though teenagers act like they don’t need or want parents, we know that deep down they actually depend on parents a lot. They just can’t always let us know about it.

When kids are young, parents do the regulating. But as kids mature, parents can start to teach skills for self-regulation . Self-regulation is crucial for being able to pay attention and learn, pursue tasks in the face of frustration, and manage disappointment without giving up. Self-regulation is the basis for getting along with others and leads to a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Tips for What to Do and What to Say

While there are never simple solutions, the best advice we can offer is fairly simple:

• Empathize, Validate, Support
• Teach Coping Skills
• Balance Empathy with Coping

Be There . It’s crucial for parents to slow down and reflect on what might be going on inside the child and themselves. Just being present has profound implications. And it’s not possible to truly be present if we are reacting without thinking.

Accept . We can’t change things until we first accept they are happening. Our tendency is to want to change situations we don't like. Humans hate uncertainty and will twist reality to make it feel more predictable, even when it isn’t. But when nature presents us with a situation that is outside our control, like Covid, it causes stress. Acceptance of our fundamental powerlessness in the face of natural forces is calming.

Empathize, Validate, Support . Parents need to let teens know they understand the (sometimes extreme) feelings their teen is experiencing are real and okay. Parents need to support teens as they sit with those feelings. We often want to roll our eyes or tell our teens they are being ridiculous, but we have to recall that parents and children have separate minds with their own unique perspectives. Remember that the teenager is experiencing their feelings and they seem all too real in the moment.

Teach Coping Skills . Teens need help seeing that current situations will not last forever and that the future will be okay. By understanding the temporary nature of what they are experiencing, teens can build the resilience necessary to cope with whatever comes their way without it incapacitating them.

Balance Empathy with Coping . Empathy is calming but too much of it can lead a parent to over-identify and experience as much pain as their child. 'Over-empathy’ can keep a child stuck in the painful feeling. This is why reflective parenting emphasizes the separateness of minds. In other words, it is the child’s pain, not the parent's. This enables the parent to empathize but still be able to offer coping strategies that would be adaptive for the child.

In Conclusion

Stressful or painful experiences are not in themselves harmful. What is harmful is for a child to lack support for learning how to cope. Sometimes, just being there is enough to help calm a child. Parents cannot fix it. They can only be there and help reduce some of the painful feelings.

By being reflective, parents are much better equipped with the tools necessary to help teens through difficult times. Reflecting can become protecting. But these tools are part of a larger process. Being reflective one time and then reverting to old habits won’t help. Parents need to commit to reflective parenting over time. When they do, the results can be astonishing.

Pally, R. (2017). The reflective parent: How to do less and relate more with your kids. W.W Norton & Company.

Matt Albert, Ed.D. , is the director of the Teshinsky Family Foundation and the author of An Educated Guess .

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Parenthood and Well-Being: A Decade in Review

Kei nomaguchi.

Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, 231 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403

Melissa A. Milkie

Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON M5S 2J4 Canada

Understanding social aspects of parental well-being is vital, because parents’ welfare has implications not only for parents themselves but also for child development, fertility, and the overall health of a society. This article provides a critical review of scholarship on parenthood and well-being in advanced economies published from 2010 to 2019. It focuses on the role of social, economic, cultural, and institutional contexts of parenting in influencing adult well-being. We identify major themes, achievements, and challenges and organize the review around the demands-rewards perspective and two theoretical frameworks: the stress process model and life course perspectives. The analysis shows that rising economic insecurities and inequalities and a diffusion of intensive parenting ideology were major social contexts of parenting in the 2010s. Scholarship linking parenting contexts and parental well-being illuminated how stressors related to providing and caring for children could unjustly burden some parents, especially mothers, those with fewer socioeconomic resources, and those with marginalized statuses. In that vein, researchers continued to emphasize how stressors diverged by parents’ socioeconomic status, gender, and partnership status, with new attention to strains experienced by racial/ethnic minority, immigrant, and LGBTQ parents. Scholars’ comparisons of parents’ positions in various countries expanded, enhancing knowledge regarding specific policy supports that allow parents to thrive. Articulating future research within a stress process model framework, we showed vibrant theoretical pathways, including conceptualizing potential parental social supports at multiple levels, attending to the intersection of multiple social locations of parents, and renewing attention to local contextual factors and parenting life stages.

A common saying—that being a parent is the most difficult and the most rewarding job in the world—resonates with many people. Parents shoulder a myriad of challenging responsibilities in raising the next generation over a long stretch of their adulthoods, but having children also provides adults with a sense of purpose and meaning in life ( Musick, Meier, & Flood, 2016 ; Nelson, Kushlev, & Lyubomirsky, 2014 ; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2017 ). Parental well-being has implications for child well-being, fertility, and society more broadly. Parenting strains, defined as felt difficulties with the demands and conflicts within the parenting role, and poor parental well-being can have significant implications for children’s developmental outcomes ( Mackler et al., 2015 ; Turney, 2011 ). Moreover, a decline in subjective well-being after a first birth decreases the odds of having subsequent births ( Margolis & Myrskylä, 2015 ). Thus, investigating social patterns in how parenthood and parenting affect adults’ well-being is imperative in order to create supports that allow parents to thrive. In this review, “parenthood” refers to being a parent versus remaining childless. “Parenting” refers to what parents do in terms of raising, supporting, and socializing children throughout their lives. We define “well-being” broadly to include subjective well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, life meaning, loneliness), emotional health (e.g., anger, guilt), mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety), and physical heath.

During the 2010s, research on parenthood, parenting, and well-being produced a rich, diverse body of work, attesting to the importance of understanding this central adult role. The decade started in the aftermath of the Great Recession when people in advanced economies were reminded of the harsh reality of economic insecurity, economic inequalities, and thus uncertainties regarding children’s futures ( Cooper, 2014 ). The recognition of the diffusion and deepening of intensive parenting norms, seemingly accelerated by the rise of economic insecurities ( Lan, 2018 ; Nelson, 2010 ; Ramey & Ramey, 2010 ), spurred researchers to investigate parental well-being, as mothers and fathers appeared to be under pressure. The decade saw an increase in cross-national studies and work by European scholars on parental well-being, many of which were motivated by understanding reasons for low fertility (e.g., Aassve, Mencarini, & Sironi, 2015 ). These studies found that whether parents were less happy and more depressed than non-parents depended on social contexts, including the types and level of support that the nation provides to help raise children (e.g., Glass, Simon, & Andersson, 2016 ). Research continued to emphasize diverse experiences of parenting strains by gender, social class, and marital/partnership status, with expanded attention to other major social statuses such as race-ethnicity, immigrant status, and LGBTQ identities (e.g., Goldberg & Smith, 2013 ). And understanding the variations in parenting strains and parental well-being by child age went beyond the dichotomy of minor versus adult children (e.g., Meier et al., 2018 ; Nomaguchi, 2012 a ; Simon & Caputo, 2019 ).

This review focuses on studies that examined the role of social, economic, cultural, and institutional contexts in shaping parenting strains and the well-being of parents. We reviewed hundreds of scholarly works published as peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters from 2010 to 2019. Most studies focused on North America, a few Western European countries and Australia, due to the nature of the works reviewed. Because of space restrictions, the present review is highly selective, centering on major themes in the past decade’s research. We begin with highlighting economic and cultural contexts of parenting in the 2010s and how these trends relate to scholarship on parental well-being. We then review studies that examined variations in parenting strain and the well-being of parents by major social statuses and life stages based on our demands-rewards perspective, as well as two theoretical frameworks: the stress process model (SPM) and life course perspectives. Finally, we provide critique and future research directions.

CHANGING NORMS OF PARENTING

Parenting research during the 2010s pointed to a diffusion of intensive parenting ( Faircloth 2014 ; Hays, 1996 ), a cultural backdrop of the era. Intensive parenting is a child-centered approach that demands great parental time, financial, and emotional investments in childrearing ( Hays, 1996 ). Hays argued that though a child-centered approach already appeared in childrearing advice around World War II (e.g., Benjamin Spock), the emphasis on a parent’s constant involvement became more extensive during the 1980s (e.g., Berry Brazelton and Penlope Leach). Intensive parenting, also called sensitive or responsive parenting ( Belsky, Lerner, & Spanier, 1984 ), posits that a caregiver’s—or a mother’s, as Hays (1996) pointed to its gendered nature—consistent involvement, her emotional and verbal responsiveness, and her provisions of age-appropriate stimulations that are uniquely tailored to each child are essential for a child’s healthy development. An important aspect of intensive parenting, which can undermine parents’ well-being, is its assumption of parental determinism— that individual parents’ actions to cultivate children’s abilities and skills determine children’s developmental and educational outcomes ( Faircloth, 2014 ; Milkie & Warner, 2014 ; Villalobos, 2014 ). Another key feature of the ideology is that children are seen as innocent and vulnerable; and parents are held accountable for protecting their children from any potential harms that undermine their adequate development ( Nelson, 2010 ). These two assumptions make parents—especially mothers—feel as if they must attend to minute details of a child’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development to the point of exhaustion ( Villalobos, 2014 ; Wall, 2018 ).

Studies in the 2010s recognized that the ideology of intensive parenting and its practice expanded further from the 1990s to the present ( Faircloth, 2014 ; Nelson, 2010 ; Ramey & Ramey, 2010 ). In recent decades, the increases in income inequality and competition in the labor market have made adults feel insecure about children’s futures ( Cooper, 2014 ). The rise of economic insecurity for the next generation have reflected in Americans’ changing values for children: A study using the General Social Survey found that from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s, an increasing proportion of Americans emphasized that hard work is an important trait for children to prepare themselves for life ( Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2019 ). In earlier decades, although Hays (1996) saw it across the class spectrum, intensive parenting was often considered more of a norm among more economically privileged parents ( Lareau, 2011 ). Lareau’s ethnography of families with third-grade children in the 1990s, identified the practice of concerted cultivation—a childrearing approach wherein parents painstakingly and methodically cultivated children’s talents, academics, and futures—used predominantly by the more educated and affluent. A growing number of studies in the past decade, however, suggest that intensive parenting ideology has been diffused across social class ( Dotti Sani & Treas, 2016 ; Elliott, Powell, & Brenton, 2015 ; Ishizuka, 2019 ; Putnam, 2015 ), although its practice takes different forms and its implications for parental strain and well-being differ by social class.

For middle-class and affluent parents, rising global competition and income inequalities have made them worry that their children could tumble down the social class ladder ( Lan, 2018 ; Nelson, 2010 ). An increase in the perceived economic return to attaining degrees from selective universities has driven parents to invest time and money to cultivate their children’s talents and skills to build up children’s extracurricular resumes ( Doepke & Zilibotti, 2019 ; Ramey & Ramey, 2010 ). Indeed whereas the rise of intensive parenting is evident in research findings that mothers’ and fathers’ time in childcare increased from the 1980s to the mid-2000s ( Bianchi, 2011 ), the increase was most prominent among the highly-educated ( Altintas, 2016 ; Dotti Sani & Treas, 2016 ). U.S. parents’ increase in child-related spending in recent decades is also concentrated in higher-income households ( Kornrich & Furstenburg, 2013 ; Schneider, Hastings, & LaBriola, 2018 ). While researchers have rightly voiced concerns about the increasing class disparities in parental investments for the reproduction of social class inequalities ( Calarco, 2014 ; Putnam, 2015 ), ironically, intensified parental investments among the affluent are in part prompted by their perceptions of uncertainty about their children’s securing middle- or upper-middle-class status.

Parents with fewer economic resources emphasize the importance of “being there” and making sacrifices to meet their children’s needs ( Edin & Nelson, 2013 ; Elliott, Powell, & Brenton, 2015 ). They are worried about their children’s safety ( Nomaguchi & Brown, 2011 ) and recognize it as their responsibility to protect their children from harmful influences ( Elliott & Aseltine, 2013 ). Parents express desire to place their children in extracurricular activities to keep their children safe and busy, yet face financial constraints to have their children particulate in quality programs ( Elliott & Aseltine, 2013 ). More ominously, the notion of children’s innocence evolved into the idea that the state—local child protective services—must intervene to punish “neglectful” parents to protect “innocent” children ( Elliott & Bowen, 2018 ). The increasing surveillance by the state has made parents with lower economic resources, especially mothers who are on public assistance or formerly incarcerated, feel the need to guard themselves from the risk of being judged as neglectful parents, wherein they could receive a dire sanction of losing custody of the child ( Desmond, 2016 ; Elliott & Bowen, 2018 ; Gurusami, 2018 ).

Still, to what extent intensive parenting is the framework for mothers’ decisions and emotions across all social groups continues to be debated. For example, Dow’s (2019) study of African-American mothers shows that the ideology surrounding childcare is mother-focused but includes expectations that kin and community are a key part of raising children. In contrast, Elliott and colleagues ( Elliott, Powell, & Brenton, 2015 ; Elliott & Reed, 2019 ) emphasize that low-income Black mothers feel pressure from having sole responsibility for protecting children from making unwise decisions and getting into trouble, make various efforts to monitor or teach their children, and blame themselves when children cannot succeed. More research, which examines aspects of intensive parenting ideology and its felt pressures on parents by race/ethnicity and other social statuses as well as region, is warranted.

The scholarly discourse elucidating intensive parenting norms indicates that parenting is more stressful today than in prior decades. A couple of studies examined changes in parental well-being over the past several decades. One study, using U.S. national surveys collected in 1976 and 2002 respectively, found that mothers in the early 2000s, despite perceiving better neighborhood quality and better health of their children, reported feeling more exhausted from raising children than mothers in the mid-1970s ( Nomaguchi & Fettro, 2018 ). Another study, using the 1981 to 2008 European Values Survey (EVS), showed that the positive effects of parental status on life satisfaction decreased during this period ( Ugur, 2019 ). Several studies, using convenience samples, examined the effects of intensive parenting beliefs on mothers’ well-being and found that mothers who believe in or enact intensive parenting ideologies were more likely to report feeling anxious, guilty, stressed, and depressed (e.g., Gunderson & Barrett, 2017 ; Liss et al., 2013 ; Rizzo, Schiffrin, & Liss, 2013 ). Yet, concepts and measures of intensive parenting ideology varied widely across these studies. Moreover, it may be problematic if researchers included items tapping parenting exhaustion in a measure of intensive parenting ideology (e.g., Liss et al., 2013 ) to examine its link to parents’ mental health. Although Hays (1996) indicated emotionally exhausting as one of the features of intensive parenting, this is a possible consequence of intensive parenting ideology that should be examined as an outcome.

THE STRESS PROCESS MODEL: THE DEMANDS AND REWARDS OF PARENTING

Many scholars conceptualize parenting strain and parental well-being using a framework that we call the demands-rewards perspective . Parenthood brings both demands and rewards to adult lives ( Nelson, Kushlev, & Lyubomirsky, 2014 ; Nomaguchi, 2012a ; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2017 ). Demands refer to the aspects of parenting that require sustained physical, mental, and financial investments and effort. Rewards refer to the aspects of parenting that facilitate achievement of parenting goals or stimulate personal growth and self-concept. As Musick, Meier, and Flood (2016) put it, parenting is a “mixed bag” with joyful, meaningful, and rewarding experiences interwoven with frustrating challenges and exhausting workloads of care. Although it is difficult to compare parents’ lives with non-parents’, in part because of data limitations, the demands-rewards perspective potentially provides pathways to a more complete analysis. For example, recent studies examined the effects of parenthood on aspects of healthy living, such as body weight ( Umberson et al., 2011 ), men’s body mass ( Syrda, 2017 ), health behaviors such as diet and exercise ( Reczek et al., 2014 ), alcohol use ( Paradis, 2011 ; Simon & Caputo, 2019 ), and health check-ups ( Anezaki & Hashimoto, 2018 ). Using the demands-rewards perspective on parenthood and well-being is illuminating—it shows how scholarship in this area collectively pointed to the paradox that parenthood promotes healthy life style orientations through paying more attention to diet and reducing risk-taking behaviors, whereas the demands of parenting curtail parents’ time to take care of themselves.

Researchers concur that the balance sheet between demands and rewards varies across social statuses and life course contexts, as the demands of parenting as well as the resources available for parents to use to cope with the demands are distributed unevenly across social statuses and life stages ( Musick, Meier, & Flood, 2016 ; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2017 ; Simon & Caputo, 2019 ). Moreover, the resources for parents vary across countries with diverse social policy contexts, with parents faring better when supports from the state aid them in raising children ( Glass, Simon, & Andersson, 2016 ). Understanding unequal distributions of parenting demands and rewards, as well as parenting resources, across these contexts is one of the key purposes of research in this area. Specific findings can inform policy makers about challenges and needs of parents that may differ across various social and life contexts ( Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2017 ).

Aligned with our perspective, the SPM provides an insightful framework for assessing differences in the nature and the level of strains, defined as individuals’ perceived difficulties in satisfying demands, and resources derived from various social and institutional contexts ( Pearlin, 1989 ; 1999 ; Pearlin & Bierman, 2013 ). The SPM regards stress as a process, which includes three core components—stressors, resources, and stress outcomes ( Pearlin, 1989 ). Stressors , defined as sources of stress, generally appear in two forms: major life events and more chronic problems. Chronic stressors are often rooted in social roles, which are called role strains, including parenting strain, marital/partner strain, and work strain. Other major chronic strains are indirectly tied to social roles, such as financial strain, time strain, and neighborhood stressors. Resources involve coping, defined as a behavioral or cognitive response to a stressor that helps to prevent or allay the harm otherwise caused by the stressor, social support, defined as the satisfying of one’s needs through the actions of others, and personal resources, such as mastery, defined as individuals’ self-perception of their ability to control the demands that confront them. Resources may suppress or prevent, interact with, or mediate the effects of stressors on well-being outcomes. Thus, even at the same level of exposure to stressors, whether these stressors lead to poorer well-being varies, depending on the availability and deployment of resources. Although the SPM focuses on individual-level resources like self-efficacy and felt social support ( Milkie, 2010 ), we consider the supports that states, workplaces, or other institutions provide to help raise children as key resources that help reduce burdens of parenting, as we will discuss in a later section (e.g., Glass, Simon, & Andersson, 2016 ). Stress outcomes include mental health, physical health, and subjective well-being.

Two other concepts in the SPM are also relevant in the present review. First, the effects of stressors originating in the parenting role on stress outcomes depend on the extent to which stressors proliferate into other life domains ( Pearlin, 1999 ). That is, parenthood not only generates stressors that derive directly from parenting and the parent-child relationship, but also can exacerbate problems or produces new stressors, most centrally financial strain, time strains, and conflicts with partners, which may result in poorer health and less subjective well-being of parents compared to non-parents (e.g., Pollmann-Schult, 2014 ). Second, a crucial part of the SPM is that every component of the stress process is conditioned by social statuses , such as social class, gender and sexuality, marital status, race/ethnicity, and immigration status ( Pearlin & Bierman, 2013 ). In the following section, we discuss selected types of parenting role strains examined in the past decade’s body of research.

Parenting Role Strain

Drawing on role strain theory, the SPM originally identified four types of parenting role strain, or chronic stressors rooted in the parenting role: role overload, interpersonal conflict, role captivity, and inter-role conflict ( Pearlin, 1989 ). Parenting role overload , defined as the perception that the amount of child care demands exceeds the individual’s capacity, is often measured as respondents’ perceptions of feeling overwhelmed (e.g., “Being a parent is harder than I thought it would be.”) ( Luthar & Ciciolla, 2016 ). Parent-child relationship conflict is a strong stressor that affects parents’ mental health negatively ( Gunderson & Barrett, 2017 ; Luther & Ciciolla, 2016 ; Reczek & Zhang, 2016 ). On the flip side, underscoring a demands-rewards perspective, close parent-child relationships act as “rewards” which enhance parents’ well-being ( Nomaguchi, 2012a ). Parenting role captivity , or parenting role restriction, refers to the extent to which people feel stuck because of parenting responsibilities (e.g., “I feel as if I am trapped in the parenting role”) ( Beernink et al., 2012 ; Nomaguchi & Brown, 2011 ). Future work could examine the level of thriving in parenting identities, which may provide rewarding experiences for many adults. Similar to Abidin’s (1995) parenting stress index, parenting strain scales in national surveys, such as the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCWS), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), and the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), combine items that tap into these three types of strain. Finally, inter-role conflict , especially work-parenting conflict , is a major challenge for today’s parents, which many studies in the 2010s examined, as we will discuss in the section on the contexts of job characteristics and work-family integration.

Besides the conventional forms of stressors, research has advanced through examining unique stressors that parents experience today. One example is time deficits with children , which refers to parents’ appraisals of not spending enough time with children, a form of parenting role strain that is pervasive in contemporary North America ( Milkie, Nomaguchi, & Schieman, 2019 ). In the intensive parenting era, parental time with children is considered precious, and perhaps necessary to foster close parent-child relationships and children’s proper development ( Milkie, Nomaguchi, & Denny, 2015 ). Parents enjoy spending time with children, reporting feeling happier when they are with children than when they are without them ( Musick, Meier, & Flood, 2016 ). Time spent with children in fun or enrichment activities is positively related to parents’ sense of work-family balance ( Milkie et al., 2010 ), less work-family conflict ( Nomaguchi, 2012 b ), and better emotional well-being ( Offer, 2014 ). Spending more days per week singing songs, reading or telling stories, or playing together with preschool children is related to less parenting strain for both fathers and mothers ( Nomaguchi & Johnson, 2016 ) and fewer depressive symptoms for fathers ( Kotila & Kamp Dush, 2013 ). As intensive parenting ideology has escalated, the standard for the amount of parental time with children has become high ( Milkie & Warner, 2014 ). Many employed parents find it difficult to achieve the ideal. Using the 2011 Canadian Work, Stress, and Health Study, Milkie, Nomaguchi, and Schieman (2019) found that almost half of employed mothers and fathers felt as if their time with children was not enough, which in turn related to parents’ sleep problems, anger, and psychological distress. Future research that addresses new types of parenting strain that emerge in changing social and cultural contexts is needed.

PARENTING MINOR CHILDREN IN SOCIAL CONTEXT

Consistent with the SPM’s emphasis, research in the past decade demonstrated that parenting strains and the well-being of parents vary by social, economic, and national contexts. We articulate broad themes, which include: (a) parenting children with special needs, (b) parenting in combination with paid jobs, especially those with pernicious characteristics and (c) challenges related to parents’ key social statuses. Considering social statuses, research advanced through investigating divergent challenges that parents with various social status positions face, especially parents with racial/ethnic minority status, immigrants, and parents who are LGBTQ, while continuing to examine variations by gender and marital/partnership status. In addition, an important area of research has emerged on (d) national contexts influencing parental well-being.

Children with Special Needs

Parenting strain is greater when child care demands are higher. One line of research that advanced in the past decade focused on challenges of raising children with special health care needs or emotional and behavioral problems. Arranging and providing care for children with special health care needs imposes time burdens ( Miller, Nugent, & Russell, 2015 ) as well as financial costs ( Stabile & Allin, 2012 ) far beyond the time and money required by raising healthy children. Primary caregivers (often mothers) of children with special needs tend to reduce or stop paid work activities, which, in addition to children’s health care costs, places these families into a lifelong financial deprivation. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the Children of the NLSY79, Houle and Berger (2017) found that mothers whose children had a disabling condition by age 4 were more likely than those whose children did not have disability to have unsecured debts (i.e., debts that are owed to banks, stores, hospitals, and other institutions and are not tied to an asset) that they were unable to repay for decades following the birth of a child with a disability.

Social stigma, referring to people’s adverse reactions that often involve stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, is another major stressor that parents raising children with physical disabilities or mental disorders must endure daily during encounters with medical professionals, school officials, neighbors, strangers, and friends ( Farkas et al., 2019 ). In response to other people’s stigmatizing attitudes, parents tend to blame themselves for their children’s conditions and isolate themselves and their family from social interactions ( Moses, 2010 ). Having a child with emotional problems or aggressive behaviors increases mothers’ parenting strain ( Vaughan et al., 2013 ), in part because it increases mothers’ social isolation and role captivity ( Beernink et al., 2012 ) and it affects the mother-child relationship negatively ( Krahé et al., 2015 ). Support from family members helps reduce mothers’ self-blame and parenting strain ( Lutz et al., 2012 ; Moses, 2010 ). Yet, because not everyone has resourceful family members who can help, scholars should investigate how institutional resources in medical or health care services, or educational facilities, can help reduce burdens of raising children with special needs.

Researchers might expand the investigation of financial, time, and psychological demands of raising children with special needs to variations by various social statuses. For example, while much research focuses on mothers, Hartley and colleagues (2012) focused on the psychological well-being of fathers of adolescent or young adult children with disabilities. A marriage/partnership is more fragile when children have special needs ( Kvist et al., 2013 ). The burdens of caring for children with special needs may differ depending on whether there is a supportive spouse/partner who shares them. Disparities in the diagnosis and care for children with special needs by race/ethnicity and immigration status have been documented ( Coker, Rodriguez, & Flores, 2010 ). More research is needed to understand differences in the effects of children’s special needs on parents by race/ethnicity and immigration status.

Job Characteristics, Attitudes toward Maternal Employment, and Work-Family Integration

In general, employed mothers and fathers with minor children report less parenting strain than their non-employed counterparts ( Buehler & O’Brien, 2011 ; Meier et al., 2016 ; Nomaguchi & Brown, 2011 ; Nomaguchi & Johnson 2016 ), perhaps because of material, social, and psychological resources that employment may provide. The positive effects of employment depend on job characteristics, however. Long work hours make it difficult for parents to fulfill parenting responsibilities, and increase parents’ feelings of time deficits with children, which relates to poorer mental health ( Milkie, Nomaguchi, & Schieman, 2019 ; Roxburgh, 2012 ). Workplace policies can make a difference, however. In general, schedule control is a key job resource that helps parents integrate work and family responsibilities ( Kelly et al., 2014 ). Employed parents with schedule control report more time spent with children ( Lee et al., 2017 ; Milkie, Nomaguchi, & Schieman, 2019 ), lower parenting strain ( Nomaguchi & Johnson, 2016 ), and better well-being ( Lee et al., 2017 ) than those without schedule control.

Socioeconomic status (SES) differences in issues of work-family stress cannot be ignored. For low-wage workers, schedule control is rare ( Bianchi, 2011 ). Even worse, in the 24-hour economy, low-wage workers in the service sector increasingly are placed on unpredictable work schedules, which is difficult for parents who must arrange childcare ( Carrillo et al., 2017 ). Indeed, child care arrangements are a central factor influencing parents’ work-family integration. Parents are concerned about the quality of child care arrangements, and if they have to choose a particular arrangement for its convenience or price, rather than its quality, it affects their mental health negatively ( Gordon et al., 2011 ). Child care instability is stressful even if back-up care is available ( Pilarz & Hill, 2017 ), perhaps because of hassles in making last-minute changes. Even after children become school age, how to supervise children when they are not in school but parents are at work continues to be an issue, especially when parents work long hours ( Barnett et al., 2010 ), and presumably when they have no schedule control. More research is needed to investigate the role of after school care in lessening strain of employed parents.

For parents with professional jobs, who often have some schedule control, a main issue is blurred work-nonwork boundaries via work emails and other electronic notifications that allow job-related tasks to spill into family time, which make them feel pressure to be always available and attending to paid work around the clock ( Bianchi, 2011 ). In the face of dual pressures of the ideal worker norm and intensive parenting ideology, employed parents with professional careers use various individual coping strategies, including prioritizing family time, scaling back paid work or non-paid work obligations, blocking out paid work or non-paid work time, and moving paid work time around ( Moen et al., 2013 ). As Moen and colleagues (2013) noted, however, individuals’ options are limited by the structural conditions and culture of their jobs and workplaces, underscoring the need for understanding the role of institutional and state resources in influencing parental strains and well-being.

For mothers, cultural beliefs regarding maternal employment are also relevant to the pressures that they face and thus their emotional health ( Collins, 2019 ). Intensive mothering is in conflict with ideal worker norms, pushing many mothers to make difficult choices and often sacrifice careers ( Orgad, 2019 ) or feel much guilt ( Collins, 2019 ). Yet Christopher (2012) showed how some employed mothers actively respond to cultural pressures by reframing the meaning of a “good mother” and a “good worker” to fit their situations, illuminating how “extensive mothering” meant being in charge of children’s lives and well-being while delegating some care to others. Similarly, Dow (2016) argues that African-American middle-class mothers’ “integrated mothering” ideologies were based in beliefs that mothers should be employed and extended family and community members could provide good care for children. This ideology supported mothers’ abilities to work and raise children with less angst. Yet for mothers who wished to stay home with children, tensions arose due to concern of their being viewed by others in their community as taking an “easy” route ( Dow, 2016 ).

Social Class—Parenting with Limited Economic Resources

Men and women with lower SES generally value children and parenthood highly ( Edin & Nelson, 2013 ). Mothers without college degrees are more likely than mothers with college degrees to report that parenting young children has brought them new life meaning ( Nomaguchi & Brown, 2011 ). Yet, parents with lower SES experience many tribulations in raising children that higher-income families do not ( Cooper, 2014 ). Among men and women in impoverished areas, pregnancy sometimes occurs before relationships are established ( Edin & Nelson, 2013 ). Couples who spent a limited length of time with each other before becoming parents are more likely to report a decline in relationship satisfaction after childbirth ( Trillingsgaard et al., 2014 ). Research in the 2010s highlighted the issue of living conditions and housing insecurity for parents with low-wage jobs, including home clutter ( Thornock et al., 2013 ) and fears about children’s outdoor play ( Kimbro & Schachter, 2011 ). Children make it harder to rent a home and increase the risk of being evicted in part because landlords see children as troublesome ( Desmond, 2016 ); and parenting while homeless is very challenging ( Alleyne-Green et al., 2019 ). In addition to structural barriers to providing healthy housing and food for their children, cultural ideals that set unrealistically high standards to reach, such as for mothers to make tailored home-cooked meals from scratch for their families, can make low-income mothers feel depressed ( Bowen, Brown, & Elliott, 2019 ).

In the U.S., mass incarceration has made parenting in impoverished areas even more difficult. Using data from the FFCWS, Wildman et al. (2012) found that fathers’ recent incarceration increased mothers’ risk of experiencing major depressive symptoms and life dissatisfaction even after economic hardship and relationship instabilities were controlled for. Formerly incarcerated fathers face a vicious cycle of material challenges that prevent them from seeing their children because of child support arrears, which make these fathers frustrated, discouraged, and depressed ( Haney, 2018 ). Gurusami (2018) found that formerly incarcerated mothers, who faced various obstacles in resuming daily parenting, were under constant pressure to prove to state agencies—social workers and parole or probation officers—that they were fit to have custody of their children. Stringer and Barnes (2012) found that regular contact with their children through letter writing and phone calls helps imprisoned mothers maintain positive views about their role as a parent. More research should investigate parenting strain while in prison, and what helps alleviate it.

Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration

Researchers in the 2010s made strides in documenting racial/ethnic minority parents’ unique challenges with raising their children in a society where racial prejudice remains entrenched. Using the 1998–99 ECLS-K, Nomaguchi and House (2013) found that Black mothers experienced elevated parenting strain from kindergarten to third grade, while White, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American mothers did not. Several qualitative studies documented that as their children get older, Black parents, regardless of SES, became increasingly concerned about their children’s encounters with racial biases by police officers, school personnel, or other people in the community ( Elliott & Aseltine, 2013 ; Dow, 2019 ; Warner, 2010 ). These studies highlight that Black parents actively respond to these fears and protect their children from potential threats through various strategies, such as drilling them about how to interact with police officers, monitoring their children’s friends, and carefully selecting school or extracurricular environments ( Elliott & Aseltine, 2013 ). However, this vigilance work takes energy ( Dow, 2019 ) and may influence the well-being of Black parents. Types of parenting challenges of Black children may differ by SES. For example, middle-class Black parents may face the difficult trade-off of choosing academically better schools that are predominantly White environments where their children may be marginalized ( Allers, 2019 ), whereas working-class Black parents may face the dilemma between letting their children choose friends and their concern about their children’s neighborhood peers being bad influences ( Elliott & Aseltine, 2013 ). We need more research that examines how the intersection of race and class shapes parenting experiences.

Given the unique role of immigration status in influencing parenting as well as mental health ( Diaz & Niño, 2019 ), we urge researchers to disentangle the effects of immigration status from the effects of race/ethnicity. A couple of studies using the 2003 NSCH and the 1998–1999 ECLS-K, respectively, found that foreign-born Hispanic and Asian mothers are more likely than U.S. native-born counterparts to report higher parenting strain ( Yu & Singh, 2012 ), largely because of an authoritarian parenting style (which is related to greater parenting strain in part because it is more likely to create parent-child conflict than an authoritative style), low English proficiency, and, for Latinx mothers, lower family income ( Nomaguchi & House, 2013 ). In contrast, there is little difference in parenting strain across U.S-born Hispanic, Asian, and non-Hispanic White mothers ( Nomaguchi & House, 2013 ). Legal status and neighborhood contexts shape strains of immigrant parents. Using the 2000 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, Noah and Landale (2018) found that among Mexican-origin mothers, parenting strain was higher among undocumented immigrant mothers than U.S. born or naturalized/documented immigrant mothers. The percentage of foreign-born residents in the neighborhood, which did not affect U.S.-born mothers and was associated with less parenting strain for naturalized or documented mothers, was linked to greater parenting strain for undocumented mothers. This may be because of the fear that the geographic area with a higher concentration of immigrants could be targeted by Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE). Undocumented immigrant parents feel constrained in performing simple parenting activities such as taking their children to school, parks, or trips because lack of driver’s licenses and fear of the police limit their mobility ( Cardoso et al., 2018 ). Recent changes in immigration policies, such as deportation, family separation, and uncertainties related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and anti-immigrant sentiment spurred by the Trump administration in the U.S., call for further research.

Hays (1996) called the ideology of sensitive parenting intensive mothering , underscoring gendered aspects of this parenting ideology. More than 20 years later, research suggests that the stressors and the well-being of parents remain gendered in several ways. Mothers feel more time pressure than fathers during the transition to parenthood ( Ruppanner et al., 2019 ). Mothers spend more hours multitasking than fathers, and mothers’ multitasking activities are more likely than fathers’ to involve housework and childcare and are more likely to be related to negative emotions, distress, and work-family conflict ( Offer & Schneider, 2011 ). Mothers, but not fathers, experience greater parenting strain when partners work long hours ( Craig & Brown, 2017 ), perhaps because mothers still serve their families even when working long hours, which protects fathers from experiencing parenting strains. Studies using data from the American Time Use Study (ATUS) suggest that when spending time with children, mothers are less happy, more stressed, and more fatigued compared with fathers ( Connelly & Kimmel, 2015 ; Musick, Meier, & Flood, 2016 ). Finally, mothers and fathers differ in the types of parenting strains that challenge their mental health. For example, fathers’ happiness is compromised by financial strain, whereas mothers’ happiness is compromised by time demands of parenting ( Pollmann-Schult, 2014 ) and forging careers successfully ( Orgad, 2019 ).

Yet, there are some indications that the gender gap in parenting strains and rewards has shrunk. Fathers report that becoming a father is a transformative experience which makes them reorient their world views, values, relationships, and perceptions of work ( Daly, Ashbourne, & Brown, 2013 ). Employed fathers’ felt work-family conflict has increased to the level of employed mothers’ ( Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2013 ), perhaps because more fathers today than in the past feel the need to modify their work hours to be responsive to family needs, but still find it difficult to confront the ideal worker norm ( Kelly et al., 2010 ). Both employed fathers and mothers desire to spend more time with children, and when they are unable to do so it affects their well-being negatively ( Milkie, Nomaguchi, & Schieman, 2019 ). Working-class fathers in the FFCWS feel more parenting strain when their job is not flexible enough to allow them to care for their children, just as working-class mothers do ( Nomaguchi & Johnson, 2016 ).

Past research has made advances in examining gender differences in time with children, types of physical parenting tasks, and their influences on parental well-being. We know less about gender divisions of non-physical parenting activities, such as planning and managing children’s needs, and to what extent such invisible parenting activities may become a strain that affects adults’ well-being. Using a convenience sample of middle-class couples with young children, Daminger (2019) found that cognitive labor, referring to mental activities such as anticipating needs, making decisions, and overseeing family logistics, was disproportionally done by mothers, and cognitive labor could be stressful especially when it was unnoticed and unappreciated. Among couples where men were the primary caregivers and women were the primary breadwinners, Doucet (2015) found that gender divisions of non-physical parenting activities were more fluid and situated in specific relationship, community, and life stage contexts. Future research that examines how non-physical parenting activities are related to parenting strains and rewards and whether such associations vary by gender will advance our understanding of the role of gender in the association between parenting and adult well-being.

Marital/Partnership Status

Marital or partnership status affects parenting experiences greatly. The relationship of parenthood status with happiness is less positive for single s than partnered adults ( Angeles, 2010 ; Aassve, Goisis, & Sironi, 2012 ; Meier et al., 2016 ; Ugur, 2019 ). Single parenting is related to more work-family conflict ( Nomaguchi, 2012b ), greater parenting strain ( Nomaguchi & House, 2013 ), and more sadness, stress, and fatigue while spending time with children ( Meier et al., 2016 ) than partnered parenting. These single parenthood penalties can be reduced if institutional support for raising children to all parents is available, however. Pollmann-Schult (2018) found that among 24 European countries, generous financial benefits for children, child care provisions for children under age 3, and higher levels of gender equality were related to a smaller life satisfaction gap between single and partnered mothers. In the U.S., where mother-father relationships are fragile while repartnering rates are high, the focus of research has shifted from single parenthood to family instability, or the number of relationship transitions, as a factor that increases parenting strain ( Beck, Copper, McLanahan, & Brooks-Gunn, 2010 ; Halpern-Meekin & Turney, 2016 ). Despite the increases in cohabiting parents ( Sassler & Lichter, 2020 ), few studies have examined differences in parenting strain and parental well-being between cohabiting and married parents. In the U.S., where cohabitors are more likely than the married to be economically disadvantaged ( Sassler & Lichter, 2020 ), cohabiting parents’ greater parenting strains at the descriptive level appear to be largely accounted for economic disadvantages and relationship strains ( Nomaguchi & Johnson, 2016 ). In Europe, differences in life satisfaction between cohabiting and married parents vary across countries, depending on social norms regarding childbearing outside of marriage (Stavrova & Fetchenhauer, 2014).

As divorced parents increasingly share physical custody of their children, how coparenting after divorce affects parental well-being is of great interest. Co-parenting ex-couples typically feel that their relationship is contentious ( Markham & Coleman, 2012 ); still, fathers’ involvement in children’s lives and share of parental responsibilities lighten mothers’ parenting strain after separation ( Nomaguchi, Brown, & Layman, 2017 ). Joint physical custody reduces mothers’ sense of time pressure, compared with sole physical custody, while it does not increase fathers’ time pressure ( Van der Heijden et al., 2016 ). We do not know much about how parents adjust to their new roles as divorced parents, especially when they do not live with their children ( Troilo & Coleman, 2012 ). Parenting stepchildren may be more stressful than parenting biological children in part because there are no institutionalized rules about the roles of stepparents and stepchildren ( Raley & Sweeney, 2020 ). One common stressor for stepparents is that children reject stepparents’ parental authority ( Ganong, Coleman, & Jamison, 2011 ). Shapiro and Stewart (2011) found that stepmothers were more likely than biological mothers to report parenting strain and depressive symptoms, largely because of their children’s negativity toward them. Other research found that mothers living with stepchildren were more likely than those who had no stepchildren living in the household to report feeling that the division of childcare with their partner was unfair ( Guzzo et al., 2019 ), suggesting that coparenting strain may be greater for stepmothers than biological mothers. Some research has investigated the effects of family complexity—i.e., partners live with various combinations of shared biological, half-biological, and/or step children while also having other children outside the home—on parents’ depression (e.g., Pace & Shafer, 2015 ; Turney & Carlson, 2011 ). The challenge is how to allocate respondents to mutually exclusive groups when there are so many different types of parents. It is also crucial to isolate the effects of parenting strain from other compounded strains, particularly strains from relationship turbulence, which are known predictors of poor mental health ( Umberson & Thomeer, 2020 ).

LGBTQ Parents

The movement toward legalization of same-sex marriage and increased acceptance of LGBTQ families has helped spur research assessing the lives of sexual minorities who wanted to become or were parents. For gay and lesbian adults wishing to raise children through adoption or using other means such as insemination, the process can be stressful because of discrimination and fraught within legal and medical systems that render certain decisions infeasible ( Frost et al., 2017 ; Goldberg & Scheib, 2015 ; Karpman et al., 2018 ; Vinjamuri, 2015 ). Many LGBTQ individuals have had children in prior heterosexual relationships or through becoming partners with someone who is already raising children ( Gates, 2011 ). Due to discriminatory policies, and because heteronormativity remains strong in parenting roles, negotiating co-parental identities can be a complex task ( Padavic & Butterfield, 2011 ) and unique strains arise. For example, how receptive workplaces and supervisors were to LGBTQ families mattered for how work-related stressors affect parents ( Goldberg & Smith, 2013 ) and parents had to determine whether and how insurance covered a stepchild within the same-sex partnership ( Frost et al., 2017 ). Vigilance is necessary—gay parents faced pressures to consider finding and moving to the “right” neighborhood prior to having children in order to reduce discrimination ( Goldberg, Downing & Moyer, 2012 ). Gay parents’ decision making depends on other intersecting social statuses, such as gender, social class, and race/ethnicity ( Moore, 2011 ). In choosing schools for children, for example, White urban gay male parents focused on available financial resources, whereas Black lower-income lesbian mothers centered decisions around racial-ethnic diversity ( Goldberg et al., 2018 ). Unique combinations of social statuses, including how their family was formed (through unions, adoption, or insemination), were also linked to how LGBTQ parents were marginalized and resisted negative discourses ( Carroll, 2018 ). Research on the diversity of experiences within the population of LGBTQ parents will continue to be important in the coming years ( Reczek, 2020 ).

National Contexts

The past decade saw a growing body of research using cross-national data to examine the role of the support that societies provide to help raise children, such as expansive work-family policies, quality child care provision, and child tax allowances, in reducing burdens of parenting ( Aassve, Mencarini, & Sironi, 2015 ; Glass, Simon, & Andersson, 2016 ; Margolis & Myrskylä, 2011 ; Ugur, 2019 ). For example, among men and women aged 20 to 50 in 19 European countries from the European Social Survey (ESS), Aassve, Mencarini, and Sironi (2015) found that although fathers were happier than non-fathers regardless of institutional contexts, mothers were happier than non-mothers when institutional support for parents raising children was available, such as higher rates of child care provisions for children under 3 years of age; when women’s representation in policy making was higher; and when the overall measure of development was higher. Examining 22 counties including the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Israel, and 18 European countries, Glass, Simon, and Andersson (2016) showed that the gap in happiness between parents living with at least one child and nonparents (i.e., all other adults) varied across countries, with parents reporting less happiness than nonparents in 14 countries, while parents reporting more happiness in 8 countries. The U.S. stood out in the size of the difference between the happiness of parents, who were worse off, compared with non-parents. This gap was in part because of the lack of policies that can make workers’ lives easier—for example, the U.S. has little paid vacation time from work and little public early childhood education compared with the other developed countries analyzed. Although there is a concern that social programs that lend support for childrearing may decrease the well-being of non-parents ( Ono & Lee, 2013 ), Glass, Simon, and Andersson (2016) found that the work-family policies they examined were related to greater happiness among both parents and non-parents in all countries. Collins (2019) conducted in-depth interviews with middle-class mothers in Sweden, the former East and West Germany, Italy, and the U.S. She argues that strong work-family policies are important for mothers’ well-being, but transformations in cultural values like gender equality in childrearing also would help mothers feel content with the way they integrate paid work and parenting responsibilities.

A LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE

A life course perspective is another major framework important in parenthood, parenting, and well-being research ( Umberson, Pudurovska, & Reczek, 2010 ). We note that the historical time period is highly relevant to the types of parenting strains experienced. As we discussed earlier, the current intensive parenting culture amid economic insecurities are relevant to parents’ experiences of strain in the 2010s. Further, the idea of linked lives gives researchers a framework to see how increases in economic insecurity among young adults at the national level influence aging parents’ economic well-being and mental health through their adult children’s struggles with maintaining independent living or romantic partnerships ( Kalmijn & De Graaf, 2012 ; Maroto, 2017 ). Consistent with the perspective’s concern with the consequences of an early life event or transition to later experiences , research suggests that early parenting experiences have lasting influences on parents’ well-being throughout mid- to later life. For instance, Williams and colleagues (2011) found that women who had a first birth outside of marriage had worse self-reported health at age 40 than women who had a first birth within marriage. The number of troubles that children had during adolescence (e.g., substance use, troubles at school) can have a long reach, even into elderly parents’ psychological well-being ( Milkie, Norris, & Bierman, 2011 ). Using the concept of the timing of events , researchers have shown that “off-time” transitions to parenthood, either early or late, have adverse effects on women’s mental health at age 40 ( Carlson, 2011 ). Lee and Ryff (2016) found that early childbearing was related to an early onset of heart problems using the 1995 Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey. In contrast, using the NLSY79, Williams and colleagues (2015) found that a first birth in the early 20s was related to worse self-reported health, whereas a first birth prior to age 20 was not related to health after controlling for marital status at childbirth, suggesting the importance of considering the intersection of timing and contextual factors of childbearing in influencing adult well-being. Future research using life course perspectives should elucidate the process and possible protective factors for the effects of early life events on the well-being of parents and children later in the life course. For example, Williams and Finch (2019) found that the detrimental effects of nonmarital childbearing on women’s health we mentioned above were in fact largely explained by earlier experiences—adverse childhood experiences—which led to both nonmarital childbearing and poor health. Finally, the emphasis on age-graded life patterns underscores that parenting stains and rewards take different forms across different life stages. Below, we review major research themes and findings from the past decade in three life stages: (a) the transition to parenthood, (b) minor children’s developmental stages, and (c) parenting adult children.

The Transition to Parenthood

Research in the 2010s made strides in scrutinizing how adult well-being changes during the transition to parenthood using longitudinal data collected in different countries. Studies using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) ( Myrskylä & Margolis, 2014 ) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey ( Matysiak, Mencarini, & Vignoli, 2016 ) found that pregnancy and a first birth were related to increases in life satisfaction for both men and women, but two years later life satisfaction declined to the pre-pregnancy level. A similar pattern was found for a second birth, but life satisfaction levels returned to pre-pregnancy levels faster. Using the SOEP, Pollmann-Schult (2014) found that parenthood was related to increased life satisfaction only after controlling for increases in time demands and financial pressure, underscoring the demands-rewards perspective of parenthood. Gender differences were found in these studies. Women were more likely than men to experience larger increases and drops around a first birth in life satisfaction ( Myrskylä & Margolis, 2014 ) and mental health ( Ruppanner et al., 2019 ) and more likely to experience a decline in life satisfaction to below the pre-pregnancy levels a few years after a second or third birth ( Matysiak, Mencarini, & Vignoli, 2016 ). Using the HILDA, Ruppanner and colleagues (2019) found that women showed greater increases in time pressure than fathers during the transition to parenthood and after a second birth. With Swiss panel data, Roeters, Mandemakers, and Voorpostel (2016) found that becoming a parent was associated with better mental health for women but not for men.

Other contexts shape how the transition to parenthood influences adult well-being. Births following unintended pregnancy may be more stressful than planned births, because adjustments are more difficult ( Kavanaugh et al., 2017 ). Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), Su (2012) found that unintended parenthood was related to an increase in depressive symptoms among men and a decrease in happiness among women. As Style (2019) noted, partners may disagree with each other on birth intentions and thus it is important to consider the effects of couple-level dynamics of birth intentions on individual well-being. Time spent in leisure activities before parenthood is related to a smaller gain or a decline in life satisfaction after becoming a parent ( Roeters, Mandemakers, & Voorpostel, 2016 ). Older parents—those who postponed parenthood—were more likely than younger ones to experience an increase in life satisfaction around the time of childbirth ( Myrskylä & Margolis, 2014 ). The decline in life satisfaction was greater when parents felt more work-family conflict ( Matysiak, Mencarini, & Vignoli, 2016 ). Some studies have shown family-friendly policies that help parents to reduce time pressure or financial pressure can moderate the adverse effects of the transition to parenthood on mental health. Hewitt, Strazdins, and Martin (2017) found that mothers who gave birth after the introduction of the 2011 Australian Government paid parental leave (PPL) scheme reported better physical and mental health one year after childbirth than mothers who gave birth before the PPL did. Among working-class parents with infants, Perry-Jenkins et al. (2017) found that the availability of schedule flexibility was related to fewer depressive symptoms for mothers, although for fathers, greater financial support for child care costs were related to fewer depressive symptoms.

Research continues to show that the arrival of a child affects mother-father relationship quality. One shortcoming of prior research was the lack of comparison with change in relationship quality among childless couples, which made it unclear whether any change in relationship quality was due to the transition to parenthood or due to the duration of the relationship. Using the BHPS, Keizer and Schenk (2012) found a U-shaped pattern of relationship satisfaction for parents: it decreased sharply after the transition to parenthood but started to rise about seven years after to the pre-parenthood level, whereas relationship satisfaction among childless couples changed little for men and decreased gradually for women over time. A sense of unfairness with the division of household labor and child care within their partnerships, and a decline in time together alone may be key reasons for the decline in relationship quality among parents ( Dew & Wilcox, 2011 ; Schieman, Ruppanner, & Milkie, 2018 ). Fathers’ taking paternity leave, which presumably helps to reduce the sense of unfairness with the division of labor, was positively associated with both parents’ reports of relationship satisfaction; and length of paternity leave was positively associated with mothers’ (but not fathers’) reports of relationship satisfaction ( Petts & Knoester, 2018 ). Gender differences in the effects of the transition to parenthood on perceived relationship quality were mixed ( Don & Michelson, 2014 ; Holmes, Sasaki, & Hazen, 2013 ; Keizer & Schenk, 2012 ), which could be attributed to differences in sample characteristics.

Children’s Developmental Stage

Parenting lasts throughout adult life, while tasks of parenting and expectations in the parent-child relationship change significantly across life stages, along with types of parenting strain. Although earlier research tended to emphasize that having younger children is stressful, more recent studies have shown that parents’ well-being may be better when children are very young than when children are elementary-, middle-, or high-school ages. Indeed, physical care of young children is labor intensive and demanding; and parents with younger minor children sleep less than parents with older minor children ( Hagen et al, 2013 ). Employed mothers feel more work-family conflict when children are infants or toddlers than when children are in third or fifth grade, in part because mothers with very young children feel less support in the workplace ( Nomaguchi & Fettro, 2019 ). Yet, caring for very young children is related to greater self-esteem, self-efficacy, and less depression than caring for preschoolers ( Myrskylä & Margolis, 2014 ; Pollmann-Schult, 2014 ) as well as school-age and teenage children ( Nomaguchi, 2012a ), in part because many parents see the quality of relationships with their children is more satisfactory when their children are younger than when their children are school-age or teenage ( Nomaguchi, 2012a ). Luthar and Ciciolla (2016) suggest that although mothers’ sense of parenting role overload is highest when children are preschoolers, mothers’ parenting satisfaction is lowest when children are in middle school, when children’s rejection, negativity, and maladjustment are relatively high. Similarly, parents report that caring for infants is more meaningful than caring for children ages 4 to 11 whereas caring for adolescents is most stressful ( Meier et al., 2018 ); and both mothers and fathers with teenagers report less happiness than mothers and fathers with infants or toddlers while spending time with children ( Meier et al., 2018 ). Although some of these studies used longitudinal data ( Myrskylä & Margolis, 2014 ; Nomaguchi & Fettro, 2018 ; Pollmann-Schult, 2014 ), other studies used cross-sectional data. We urge researchers to include parental strain questions in large-scale longitudinal data collections.

Parenting Adult Children

Research in earlier decades emphasized that adult children bring more resources than strains to parents and thus foster better well-being of parents ( Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010 ). Research in the 2010s suggests that this is a question that merits reexamination. Given the transformation of the labor market, which now requires college degrees for decent jobs, it takes longer for young people to achieve economic independence than in the past ( Danziger & Ratner, 2010 ). These changes in the economic climate have stretched the years of active parenting, which can produce burdens for mid-life and aging parents ( Newman, 2012 ). Using data from the MIDUS, Simon and Caputo (2019) found that already in the mid-1990s, parents with children aged 18 to 29 did not seem to fare better than parents with younger children in various well-being outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, life satisfaction, and self-rated physical health). Research using more recent data that examine the well-being of parents with young adults compared to parents with younger children is needed.

Some middle- and upper-middle class parents, sometimes termed “helicopter parents” feel obliged to continue to invest instrumentally and emotionally to ensure children’s academic and social success throughout the young adult years. Helicopter parents typically refer to parents who are overly protective of their young adult children, mostly college students, providing substantial emotional and instrumental support to them ( Reed et al., 2016 ). Studies have examined the effects of helicopter parenting on adult children’s well-being, mostly using convenience samples of college students (e.g., LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011 ; Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012 ); yet, the effects of helicopter parenting adult children on parental well-being are not well investigated. Using a convenience sample, Fingerman et al. (2012a) found that providing intense emotional and practical support to adult children was related to parents’ poorer life satisfaction only when parents felt that their adult children needed more support than others of similar age. As in the case of intensive parenting, concepts and measures of helicopter parenting vary across studies, from children’s reports of their parents’ interventions with interpersonal problems, their parents’ making important decisions for them, or their parents’ emotional control, to parents’ reports of the degree of their emotional or financial help for their young adult children. Researchers should be clear what aspects of parenting they are measuring and how they differ from or are similar to other studies.

Even after children are well into adulthood, parents serve as a safety net for adult children who experience economic difficulties or other setbacks ( Swartz et al., 2011 ). Parents in the 2000s gave more support to their adult children than their counterparts in earlier years ( Kahn, Goldscheider, & Garcia-Manglano, 2013 ). Parents often welcome adult children moving into their home to deal with economic insecurity ( Kahn, Goldscheider, & Garcia-Manglano, 2013 ), yet co-residence with adult children may have negative implications for parents’ well-being. Maroto (2017) found that co-residence with adult children decreases parents’ assets and savings. Tosi and Grundy (2018) found that adult children’s return to an “empty nest” home is related to a decline in parents’ quality of life, especially when adult children are unemployed.

Underscoring the linked lives concept, adult children’s life course transitions that are socially desirable, such as educational attainment, union formation, and parenthood, are generally related to parents’ better mental and physical health ( Kalmijn & De Graaf, 2012 ). Parents typically provide childcare and household chore assistance to children who became parents ( Bucx, Van Wel, & Knijin, 2012 ). Caring for grandchildren is related to better cognitive functioning of aging parents ( Arpino & Bordone, 2014 ) and increases the odds of receiving support from adult children later on ( Geurts et al., 2012 ), although its effects on the quality of parent-child relationship are not always positive ( Tanskanen, 2017 ). In contrast, various setbacks that adult children experience in life affect parents’ well-being. Kalmijn and De Graaf (2012) found that children’s breakups with partners were related to more frequent depressive symptoms for parents, especially mothers. Barr and colleagues (2018) found that African-American young adults’ challenges during the transition to adulthood, such as unemployment, romantic relationship problems, and arrests, were related to parents’ poor mental and physical health. Reczek and Zhang (2016) found that regardless of actual setbacks in adult children’s lives, parents’ feelings of dissatisfaction with how their children turned out were related to parents’ poor psychological well-being, suggesting the significance of parents’ perceptions of how adult children are doing in influencing their mental health. Despite the increase in awareness of substance use problems as a public health issue, we know little about the strains of parents whose adult children suffer from substance abuse problems. A Swedish qualitative study found that parents in this situation suffered from fear that their children might die of an overdose, struggled with getting support for their children from social and medical services, observed stigma toward their drug-addicted children, and felt guilty and ashamed for being a “failed” parent ( Richert, Johnson, & Svensson, 2018 ).

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

In this section, we employ a critical stress process approach to select several promising future research directions in order to advance knowledge and inform policy makers to support parents. The SPM focuses on identifying pathways among stressors, resources, and stress outcomes, with social statuses influencing the entire process. We argue that the conceptualization of stressors should be expanded. In addition to the structural stressors created by workplaces and economic conditions as well as the strains inherent in everyday lives with children, cultural pressures should be theorized and measured more fully using a stress process approach ( McLeod, 2012 ). As mentioned earlier, more rigorous conceptualization and empirical research on the effects of intensive parenting culture on parental well-being are needed. Intensive parenting is a multifaceted concept, including the norms of parental determinism (i.e., the belief that how children will turn out depends largely on parenting), gendered beliefs about childcare, views of the sacredness of the child, and an investing mentally, financially and emotionally in children’s academics and talents in order to attempt to secure their futures ( Milkie & Warner, 2014 ). It appears not only as practices ( Lareau, 2011 ), beliefs ( Ishizuka, 2019 ), or identities ( Faircloth, 2014 ) of individual parents, but also as a dominant ideology ( Faircloth, 2014 ; Hays, 1996 ) that has been shaping social policies ( Elliot & Brown, 2018 ). These differences should be carefully articulated when researchers theorize, measure, and analyze the concept of intensive parenting ( Milkie & Warner, 2014 ). Questions that the next decade’s researchers might address include when and how intensive parenting beliefs or efforts, or “overinvolvement” may be linked to lower well-being of parents and how these patterns vary by parents’ social statuses.

For resources protecting well-being, as we articulated in this review, the SPM should be expanded to incorporate meso- and macro-level resources rather than just focused on individual-level ones. In addition to employer resources, workplace cultures, and state policies, a major institutional context that deserves more attention when assessing parenting resources as well as challenges is education. What functions of school and characteristics of teachers can help or hinder parental well-being? For employed parents, school hours, breaks and holidays, as well as special events are hard to coordinate with their work schedules. U.S. schools have been emphasizing the importance of parental involvement for children’s academic success ( Epstein et al., 2018 ). While research has shown that parental involvement in school—predominantly by affluent parents—facilitates reproduction of SES inequalities ( Calarco, 2014 ), less is known about the possibility that such school policies reinforce the emphasis of parental responsibility and place pressures on parents. In the U.S., parents deal with fallout from the increase in high-profile mass school shootings. How do increasing concerns about school safety and security affect parents? For example, research has shown that the use of security measures (e.g., metal detectors) within schools to improve student safety make parents more wary of potential threats to children’s safety at school ( Mowen & Freng, 2019 ). How do differential disciplinary and surveillance practices at school by SES and race/ethnicity ( Welch & Payne, 2010 ) affect parenting strains and well-being differently? How are parenting inequalities and well-being exacerbated by school segregation, funding mechanisms, and parallel systems of private and public schooling? Many important research questions in this realm deserve attention.

Similarly, we argue that more knowledge regarding the role of resources that local communities provide to help raise children in reducing parenting strains is needed. Neighborhoods for parents vary widely, and they can be both resources and detriment to parents’ wellbeing. More focus on how built environments can help create community and trust of fellow parents in the neighborhood is an area ripe for research. Learning how neighborhood groups, as well as mothers’ groups, day cares, religious organizations, and others can provide a safety network of nearby others who support parents instrumentally and emotionally during the many smaller and larger challenges of raising children, is vital ( Small, 2009 ). Specific resources that are salient to parents may vary by children’s developmental stage as well as social status. For example, for parents with young children, the availability of affordable, quality child care centers and family daycare homes may help reduce work-family conflict ( Young, 2019 ). For parents with school-age children, the availability of enrichment programs as well as the quality of schools in the local school district may be of importance. Local contexts may be especially relevant for minority parents in that some may expose them or protect them from specific stressors such as discrimination directed toward themselves and/or their children ( Dow, 2019 ). For example, the U.S. legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 has changed the legal landscape that surrounds gay parents. Yet, social acceptance remains varied by region of residence. Examining LGBTQ parents’ experiences and well-being across geographic contexts is crucial ( Stone, 2018 ).

Moreover, although past research is clear that, consistent with the SPM’s major emphasis, challenges in parenting are not the same across different social status positions, future scholarship should continue to investigate complex intersections of social status, as indicated in earlier sections on race/ethnicity as well as LGBTQ status. Studies that examined variation in parenting strains by social class or race/ethnicity reviewed earlier focused on mothers, leaving the intersectionality among race, class, and gender less examined. Gender is a central axis of childrearing, and yet child-based national surveys, which provide rich information about children, parent-child relationships, and parenting, typically ask questions only for one “primary parent” who tends to be the child’s mother (e.g., ECLS-K, NSCH). More focus on fathers’ relationships with children and the effects of intensive parenting culture and practices on fathers (e.g., Shirani, Henwood, & Coltart, 2012 ), and whether such patterns vary by social class, can advance the field.

Aligned with a life course approach, future research should focus more on the well-being of parents with middle-school and adolescent children. The influences of electronic device use among parents and children alike on parenting strain, parent-child relationships, and parental well-being should be further investigated ( Fingerman, Huo, & Birditt, 2020 ; Nelson, 2010 ). Although work-family policy debates tend to focus on parental leave upon the birth or adoption of a child, issues of work-family conflict for parents may continue all the way through children’s high school years, as adolescents have key events that parents are expected to attend, and still need supervision, rides to school or extracurricular activities, and support in arranging and attending doctor, dentist, and other appointments. Investigating work-family strains among parents with pre-teen or teenage children and what could help support parents’ complex time, energy and emotional commitments to older offspring is warranted.

Parenthood, once embarked upon, lasts for all the remaining years of an adult’s life. Research in the 2010s indicates that children’s young adulthood can be challenging for parents, and may be exacerbated by uncertain economic conditions facing offspring. Research on grandparents providing regular care around the new birth of a child to their employed adult children, living in a multigenerational household, and being the guardian of grandchildren are all vital areas of research in understanding intergenerational relations and its links to parents’ well-being. Because of the increases in cohabitation, non-marital childbearing, divorce, and repartnering, family contexts of adults in mid- to later-life today are different from those in earlier generations ( Brown & Lin, 2012 ). The effects of parenthood on adult well-being in later life might have changed accordingly.

How multiple family member dynamics influence parenting strains and well-being is another question that has been less-often examined, largely because of data limitations. For example, while a majority of parents have multiple children, most studies ask parents about one focal child or any children, but rarely ask about each of all the children they have. When parents have a mixture of children with various successes and problems, how does it affect parents’ well-being? Is the old adage—parents are only as happy as their least happy child—correct? Fingerman and colleagues (2012 b ) found that having at least one adult child who had problems was related to parents’ poorer well-being measured as a scale combining life satisfaction and depression; and that parents who had multiple children with problems reported even worse well-being. Data collection of each child’s major life events and problems is critical to better understand the effects of adult children’s lives on parental well-being.

Finally, we point out major methodological advances and challenges. Research on parents’ well-being demands appropriate comparison groups, and complexities abound ( Deaton & Stone, 2014 ). When comparing “parents” with “non-parents,” researchers should pay careful attention to how “non-parents” are defined. Research defines “parents” in various ways including the number of children under 18 living in the household (e.g., Herbst & Ifcher, 2016 ), the number of children of any age living in the household (e.g., Angeles, 2010 ; Aassve, Mencarini, & Sironi, 2015 ; Glass, Simon, & Andersson, 2016 ), and the number of children respondents have regardless of age and residential status (e.g., Margolis & Myrskylä, 2011 ; Nelson et al., 2013 ; Ugur, 2019 ). Because parenting demands vary by child age and residential status, “parents” should be defined carefully according to the purpose of study (e.g., Umberson et al., 2011 ). The key question here is who should be the appropriate comparison group of “non-parents.” People who have never had children consist of at least two groups—those in their 20s and early 30s, many of whom will have children in subsequent years and those in their 50s or older who will very likely never have children. These two groups are very different not only in age, but also in economic conditions, both of which relate to mental health. To help solve this problem, some research limits the analytical sample to those who are aged under 50 (e.g., Aassve, Mencarini, & Sironi, 2015 ). Another question is whether parents with adult children, whether they live in or outside of the household, should be combined with the childless as the reference group (e.g., Herbst & Ifcher, 2016 ). Given the research finding that parents with young adult children report more strains and worse well-being than younger children for parents ( Simon & Caputo, 2019 ), researchers may need to make a careful decision as to whether this group of parents should be included in non-parents which serves as a reference group for parents. In terms of a theoretical expansion, the demands-rewards perspective calls on scholars to assess rewards as well as demands or challenges of parenting in a nuanced way. Indeed, some resources that serve to protect parents from strains such as overload—like social connections to other parents in a neighborhood—may also serve to build rewards for parents, such as increasing life satisfaction. Similarly, we expect that some social policies might not only act to alleviate strains of parenting, but also serve to increase rewards of the parental role. For example, policies enhancing quality pre-school education may endure children thrive in school, thereby increase parents’ pride in children’s achievements.

Although policy makers and the public emphasize the responsibility of parents for managing risks to and opportunities for their children’s future life chances, they tend to overlook the importance of parental well-being for children’s developmental outcomes. Research on parenthood, parenting, and well-being is crucial to generate knowledge of parenting experiences—the tremendous work and many challenges of raising the next generation—that may inform policy making about what helps parents to meet financial, time, and emotional demands of raising children while having other obligations such as paid work. Cross-national studies in the past decade suggest that parents enjoy better well-being in societies where they are provided more policy and institutional supports to raise the next generation of citizens. Research in the next decade should continue to pay attention to variations in parenting strains and rewards across social locations and life stages, as well as across different countries, and its link to the well-being of parents and children, as constraints and solutions for them may vary across these contexts. Parents supported by their local communities, workplaces, and states are able to raise healthier children, and thus help to create a better future.

Acknowledgement:

We thank Justina Beard, Leanne Confer, Marshal Fettro, and Cassandra Thompson for their research assistance. This research is supported by the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (P2CHD050959).

Contributor Information

Kei Nomaguchi, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, 231 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403.

Melissa A. Milkie, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON M5S 2J4 Canada.

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Responsible Parenting 101

January 15, 2023

Being a responsible parent is one of the most important jobs you will ever have. It can be challenging, but it is also very rewarding. This article will discuss what responsible parenting is and how to know if you are being a responsible parent. We will also discuss some of the challenges and responsibilities that come with being a responsible parent. If you are looking for guidance on being a better parent, then this article is for you!

Table of Contents

How Do You Know When You're Being A Responsible Parent?

It’s beyond difficult to trust that you are the best version of yourself at all times, especially when it comes to being a responsible parent. This is exactly why it is integral to find a sounding board you can trust, whether it’s a fellow parent, your partner, an educator, or your own parent! Find someone who has the same values and priorities when it comes to parenting, and let them help you stay on track.

What Are Some Of The Challenges Of Being A Responsible Parent?

Being a responsible parent can be difficult, but that’s not to say it’s more complex than being a parent of any other line of thought. Regarding responsible parenting, the biggest challenge is knowing when to set down rules or boundaries while ensuring your children understand why this is happening. Saying no to your children is challenging but communicating the reasoning behind it to the little ones makes it slightly easier (although that in itself is a tough challenge!

What Are The Benefits Of Being A Responsible Parent?

Being a responsible parent results in confidence. This confidence can be seen through the behaviors and attitudes of your children as well as your reactions in difficult situations. Children raised with responsible parents display confidence in asking for help, emotional regulation, and boundaries. Parents who practice responsible parenthood are confident in knowing and trusting that their children can and will actively communicate with them.

5 Roles Of Responsible Parenthood

Practice what you preach

Practicing what you preach is one of the most essential duties of a mother and the duties of a father. It requires patience and dedication to be able to act actively and respond the way you should rather than the way you want. Children actively mirror their parents, even when specifically told not to.

Active listening

Whether you believe it or not, children know when you’re only giving them 10% of your attention. They know when you’re multitasking and when you aren’t actively listening. Give your child the confidence that you are listening, that you care and that they matter simply by hearing them with more than your ears. Use your body language, expression, and tone to reassure your child that they are being heard actively.

Set boundaries and rules

Setting rules never gets easier because, well, no one wants to be the bad guy. The thing is, though, it’ll be worse if you don’t. The key is communicating the why to your children. For instance, you place a rule for your children that they must play educational games for 20 minutes before playing their favorite games. Naturally, the child will feel upset, confused, and possibly angry to have their routine suddenly changed for no fault of their own. When parents sit down with their children and explain that it is for their education, health, and improvement (in child-friendly terms), the child is more likely to actively adjust and respect the new rules.

Admit when you’re wrong

It takes a lot of guts to admit when you're wrong, but at the end of the day, it benefits everyone involved. It shows your children that making mistakes is okay, having lapses in judgment is okay, and changing your mind on something is okay. This builds character and helps your child believe that being wrong truly isn't the end of the world; after all, their parents do it.

Make mistakes

Many parents and individuals believe that they will be perceived as less by making mistakes in front of their children. This is highly untrue; in fact, all it does is help normalize the most human thing about us — making mistakes! It helps your child feel less ashamed of themselves when they make mistakes, as they will mirror your positive attitude towards the issue.

Responsible Parenting Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ #1: My child keeps throwing tantrums when I set down rules, what do I do?

Communication is truly key. It happened to all of us; our parents would suddenly turn off the telly or take away our video games and tell us that we've been spending too much time on them and that they've had enough. Consequently, we would get upset. On the other hand, if our parents had told us before TV time started that we had 30 minutes and that they would let us know when we had 5 minutes left, we wouldn't have been as upset when it was time to turn it off.

FAQ #2: My child doesn't listen to me when they're upset; I know how to fix it, but they don't care.

Let's be honest here: Do you want to listen to anyone when you're upset, even when the other person tells you they have a solution? Probably not, and the fact that they are telling you that they can fix the situation you are upset about could potentially trigger your emotions further. Kids feel the same way. Treat your child like you would anyone else and ask them how you can help. If they can't answer you, offer options, for example, "I can see that you are upset right now; Mommy can stay here and listen, give you a hug, or help you calm down. Tell me which one." If your child is still unable to answer you, just give them your presence. They will come to you when they are ready.

FAQ #3 My child doesn’t want to hug family members and runs away when they try, I feel embarrassed about it.

Think about it, would you want to be hugged by someone you don't know or barely recognize? I doubt it. Children, although they are children, have a stronger sense of what they need and want than adults. Our gut feelings are clouded by "What if" and "How will it look." Your child is building their boundaries and confidence in saying no while practicing listening to their gut feelings. Let them be and if possible, affirm their behavior.

FAQ #4 What are the characteristics of a responsible parent?

Responsible parenting sometimes means rebuilding your characteristics to fit the form of parenting you are practicing. 

The following characteristics often define responsible parents:

• Empathetic 
• Compassionate
• Responsible
• Cooperative

Having them all and actively practicing them in your day-to-day parenting may seem impossible. But, it's always better to work toward building a particular characteristic than blowing it off completely.

FAQ #5 How Can We Adopt a More Responsible Parenting Style?

Being a responsible parent means setting goals for yourself. Whether it’s “I will communicate more effectively with my child today” or “I will prioritize my mental health while parenting today.” Setting an expectation or goal for yourself helps you stay consistent in your beliefs, actions, and values. 

There are many ways to be responsible parents, but it starts with being honest with ourselves. Take some time to evaluate how we were parented, what worked and didn't work for us, and how that has made us into the people, we are today. From there, we can start making small changes in our parenting styles that will impact our children.

Here are some questions to get you started: 

• How did your parents handle conflict? 
• What was their parenting style – authoritarian, permissive, or somewhere in-between? 
• What kind of relationship do you have with your parents now? 
• How did they discipline you? 
• What are your siblings like? 

FAQ #6 What Are The 10 Responsibilities Of A Parent?

Although the responsibilities of a parent may seem obvious, some things tend to slip through the cracks due to the numerous responsibility a parent must manage. 

The top 10 responsibilities that should be made a priority include:

• Providing your child food 
• Providing your child with shelter
• Protecting your child from harm
• Providing your child with medical care
• Providing your child's education
• Provide your child with the tools and resources they need to thrive
• Provide your child with an emotionally stable environment
• Listening to your child
• Prioritizing your child's needs 
• Communicating with your child effectively

Practicing the roles of responsible parenthood can get hard when you feel overwhelmed with all the things you are responsible for. In those moments, take a deep breath, remember your top 10s, and keep going.

FAQ #7 What Are The Most Difficult Things Parents Have To Do?

Parents tend to forget that although they are now responsible for a little human, their own emotions, needs, and wants still need attention. Being a primary caretaker doesn't relinquish your own needs and wants. Paying attention to what you need to thrive is key to being the parent you want to be for your child.

When it comes to responsible parenting, no one answer or solution fits all families. What matters most is that you are doing what works best for your children and your family dynamic. If you ever have doubts about being a responsible parent, ask yourself if your decisions align with your child's best interests. If they are, then chances are you're doing something right. Responsible parenting is not easy, but it is worth it. Your children will thank you for it someday.

If you liked this article, be sure to check out our other articles for more tips and advice on responsible parenting. 

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5 things parents should know about responsible parenthood!

Responsible parenthood is a crucial part of our society and is vital for a healthy and secure future. It is a critical aspect of life that needs to be taken seriously by all parents.

As parents, it is our responsibility to provide a secure and nurturing environment for our children to grow, learn and develop. We must make sure that our children have the tools and resources they need to reach their full potential.

This includes providing them with quality education, guidance, and support. It also involves setting a good example and teaching our children the values, morals, and principles we believe in.

It also means staying mindful of our children’s physical, mental, emotional, and social needs and doing everything we can to meet them. By doing so, we can ensure that our children have the best possible chance of succeeding in life.

5 tips for a responsible parenthood 

1. set a good example for your children.

Setting a good example for your children is the cornerstone of responsible parenthood. Modeling the behaviors that you want your children to adopt is essential for them to learn and understand what is expected of them.

A parent’s actions can be a powerful influence on their children’s behavior and attitude. Children learn by example, so as a parent you must strive to be the best role model you can be. Lead by example in your words and actions and use positive reinforcement to encourage your children’s desired behaviors.

Image from Shutterstock

2. Foster a safe and loving home environment

As responsible parents, creating a safe and loving home environment is paramount. It is our duty to foster love and respect in our home, making sure that our children feel safe and secure.

We must provide them with unconditional support and understanding, as well as respect their autonomy. We must also practice positive discipline, guiding our children rather than punishing them for mistakes.

Ultimately, providing our children with a safe and loving home environment will ensure that their emotional needs are met, helping them to grow and develop into healthy, well-adjusted individuals.

3. Help children develop healthy habits

As responsible parents, it is our responsibility to help our children develop healthy habits. We can do this by modeling healthy habits in our own lives. Such as eating nutritious foods, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep.

We should also focus on teaching our children the importance of physical activity, healthy eating, and regular sleep. We should provide our children with the education and resources they need to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Finally, we should encourage our children to develop positive coping strategies. In order to help them manage stress and other difficult emotions.

4. Encourage positive social interactions

As a parent, it is your responsibility to foster the development of positive social interactions . This means helping your child to recognize, appreciate, and express positive emotions and relationships with other people.

Establishing healthy social relationships early on can have long-term impacts on your child’s development and self-confidence. So it is important to encourage positive social interactions in a healthy manner.

Make sure your child is exposed to a variety of positive experiences with other people, including peers, friends, and extended family members. Model the behavior you want your child to exhibit and provide the opportunity for them to practice these skills with others.

5. Prepare children for a successful future

As responsible parents, preparing our children for a successful future is paramount. It is up to us to equip them with the appropriate skills and knowledge to be successful in the long term.

This includes providing them with the necessary resources to excel academically. Such as books, tutors, and activities. Furthermore, teaching our children important life skills such as budgeting, problem-solving, and relationship-building are essential for a successful future. Building a strong foundation from a young age is an important part of responsible parenting.

Responsible parenthood is an important concept that all parents should strive to uphold. It involves taking time to plan and prepare for the addition of a child to the family, understanding the financial and emotional costs of raising a child, and making sure that the parent’s relationship is strong enough to ensure the well-being of the family. Parenting is a lifelong commitment, and it is important for all parents to remember that their decisions, Both in the present and in the future, will have an impact on their children.

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Natural Family Planning

Responsible parenthood.

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What does Responsible Parenthood, Love, Mercy, and Life have to do with Natural Family Planning?

Everything.

That's because the practice of NFP can help husband and wife open the heart of their marriage to all the gifts that God wishes to provide.

Because the natural methods of family planning respect God's design for married love!

Responsible Parenthood, Marital Love, and Natural Family Planning

Married love is the most deeply personal union found among men and women (see Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], no. 1643). Married love "involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter—appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of the will" ( Familiaris consortio [FC], no. 13). The marital union calls husband and wife to become one flesh, one heart and one soul (see FC, no. 13). It therefore "demands indissolubility and faithfulness in … mutual giving; and it is open to fertility" (FC, no. 13).

Married love is "caught up into divine love" which enriches the couple's relationship with grace (GS, no. 48). Marriage is for the good of husband and wife, the creation of new people, and the forming of the family. It therefore is good for society. Marriage bestows a unique dignity on husband and wife that contributes to their mutual salvation (see Gaudium et spes [GS], no. 48). Marriage is a vocation, a real calling from God to form a communion of persons, the one-flesh union spoken of in Genesis and reaffirmed by Jesus (see Gen 2:24; see also Matt 19:6). In fact, the Church teaches that when they marry, husband and wife receive a "kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state" (GS, no. 48). In other words, God prepares spouses to faithfully live their sacred union and become parents who will love and nurture their children.

What does NFP have to do with married love?

The methods of NFP are a support for married love. They are good tools for married couples to help them live in harmony with God's divine plan for human sexuality, marriage, conjugal love, and responsible parenthood. Let's take a closer look at responsible parenthood.

"Responsible parenthood" does not exclusively mean "avoiding pregnancy." Avoiding pregnancy, in the proper context, can be part of responsible parenthood. In itself, however, avoiding pregnancy in marriage can also be a sign of irresponsibility since it may lack generosity. In light of Catholic faith, responsible parenthood has a much wider meaning than avoiding or planning pregnancy. It relates to how God created men, women, human sexuality, and marriage.

Responsible parenthood is, first, a husband and wife's conscious acceptance of marriage as created by God (see Codex Iuris Canonici [CIC], Canon 1055 §1). This takes in the marital relationship (including the sexual act) as "ordered ... toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children" (CIC, c. 1055 §1). Responsible parenthood includes the just and prayerful decision-making exercised by spouses in light of this beautiful design of God, recognizing that God wants the best for husband and wife.

Responsible parenthood requires that husband and wife understand God's design for marriage—that it is love-giving (unitive) and life-giving (procreative). Spouses ought to be well-formed in understanding Church teaching and reflect upon their responsibilities toward each other, children already born, and the wider society when deciding when to attempt to conceive or not (see Humanae vitae [HV], no. 10).

Authentic responsible parenthood, therefore, only makes sense in light of the nature of married love as willed by God. That love is "total," a "very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything … not thinking solely of their own convenience" (HV, no. 9). This marital friendship means that spouses love each other not because they will get something from each other, but just because of who they are. This kind of generous, selfless love "leads the spouses to a free and mutual gift of themselves" to each other (GS, no. 49). It is precisely this gift of self which must be received in its wholeness—fertility included. In God's plan, the fertility of the couple is part of their gift of self to each other. To withhold one's fertility in marriage is like saying, "I accept everything about you except your hands—please keep them off of." Sounds like an extreme example? Well, that's what spouses are saying through their body language when using contraceptive barriers or chemicals! It's saying, "I will give you my whole self–except for this." Using contraception harms the spousal union as well as the procreative good that is part of God's will for their marriage. If spouses want their marriage to grow, they will have to strive to love rightly. Inviting the Lord God into their marital love and honoring his design is foundational for a happy marriage.

Responsible Parenthood, Mercy, and Natural Family Planning

Mercy is love as expressed in an imperfect world. It helps men and women see and cherish each other—gifts and weaknesses included! It calls forth patience and bestows forgiveness. Mercy is a blessing. So, how does practicing a method of NFP encourage spousal mercy?

NFP requires effort since husband and wife must live their sexuality in a way that respects the gift of their combined fertility. Through the use of periodic sexual abstinence (the NFP means to postpone pregnancy), husband and wife practice individual and couple self-discipline for the good of each other and for their family. This can be difficult; it may quickly reveal their weaknesses and may even result in discord. Ideally, husband and wife should discuss with each other why they may be attempting to postpone a pregnancy and also any underlying issues that make periodic sexual abstinence difficult, (e.g., family stress, loneliness, emotional immaturity, etc.). They can discover whether their reasons are in line with what God wants for their marriage. This will need honesty and lots of "give and take." In the end, NFP always requires sacrifice and forgiveness. If lived well, this honest struggle can deepen a couple's spousal relationship, as the demands of love help them to rise above their own desires.

Marital love puts the well-being of the beloved before personal desires. Pope Francis explains that marital love is a powerful love that is "infused by the Holy Spirit," and "a reflection of the unbroken covenant between Christ and humanity that culminated in his self-sacrifice on the cross" ( Amoris laetitia , no. 120). God himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit, "gives a new heart and renders man and woman capable of loving one another as Christ loved us" (FC, no. 13). It follows then that the meaning of marital love is intimately tied to the concept of self-gift , which also hearkens back to men and women being created in God's image: "This likeness…reveals" that no one "can fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself" (GS, no. 24). To be a gift to another person requires self-sacrifice, putting the other person's needs before one's own. It means that spouses live true charity, grounded in generosity and regard for the well-being of the other person.

When husband and wife work with God and his design, they will honor the power to unite in a holistic and procreative way and be enabled to maintain the "integrity of the powers of life and love" placed in them by the Lord God (CCC, no. 2338). They will ensure the unity of their persons and marriage, thus living chastely (see CCC, no. 2338). In addition, through the use of periodic sexual abstinence, spouses will be able to "experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception," thereby acknowledging that they are "not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator" (HV, no. 13).

Responsible Parenthood, Life, and Natural Family Planning

How does nfp use in marriage support life.

The methods of NFP respect God's design for married love. They do nothing to oppose God's gift of human fertility. NFP education teaches husband and wife to value their fertility as their gift from God. NFP teaches husband and wife to prayerfully discern when to attempt to conceive a new baby or not. Each NFP method helps couples understand their "fertile window." This is the time of fertility which includes the wife's ovulation (when her ovary releases an egg, or ovum) and the number of days that her husband's sperm can live in her body when fertile. No other method of family planning does that; NFP methods therefore clearly value procreation!

The methods of NFP can be used both to achieve and avoid a pregnancy. As St. John Paul II said, they are a "valuable help to responsible parenthood" (see Evangelium vitae [EV], no. 88). That's because NFP education teaches husband and wife to consider each other and the child who may come from their sexual union, not merely their individual desires in the moment. NFP methods help couples to recognize and respect each other and their future children "in their own right" (EV, no. 88). Through the practice of NFP, couples are encouraged to make decisions about the size of their families "guided by the ideal of the sincere gift of self" (EV, no. 88).

When we consider that marriage and conjugal love are "by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children" (GS, no. 50), we can more easily see the value of NFP methods. Husband and wife can participate in a lifestyle that reminds them that they are "cooperators with the love of God the Creator, and are, so to speak, the interpreters of that love" (GS, no. 50). When lived well, the methods of NFP can assist married couples to "fulfill their task with human and Christian responsibility, and, with docile reverence toward God," make their family planning "decisions by common counsel and effort"  (GS, no. 50).

Natural Family Planning Opening the Heart of Marriage

The Church teaches that in marriage, "Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state" (GS, no. 48). Through the practice of the methods of Natural Family Planning, married couples can integrate God's design for life and love in their daily lives. At times it won't be easy, since sacrifice and honest communication will have to happen. If couples persevere, the benefits are well worth the effort! Husband and wife will see their love grow and deepen. Their hearts, and the heart of their marriage, will be open to all good gifts that the Lord God wishes to give them!  

The above text is also published in an eight panel brochure. It is produced by the NFP Program, Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and is sold through the USCCB's Respect Life Catalog. Ask for publication no. 1626. To order, write to [email protected] or in the U.S.A. call, 1-866-582-0943. Questions? Contact us: [email protected]; 1-202-541-3240.  

Download an abbreviated two-page bulletin insert of the above text: Responsible Parenthood, Bulletin insert, Front Responsible Parenthood, Bulletin insert, Back  

Back to Theology of NFP

439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples

Get a good parenting topic for any assignment – from essays to speeches – on this page.

🔮 Top 10 Parenting Topics to Write about

🏆 best parenting topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on parenting, ⭐ amazing parenting research topics, 🎓 interesting parenting essay topics, 📑 good research topics about parenting, 🔎 most interesting parenting topics to write about, 📌 simple & easy parenting essay topics, ❓ research questions about parenting.

Sometimes, finding the right idea is half the battle. It can be the case when it comes to writing about parenting. Topics on this subject can cover anything from parent-child relationships to children’s behavior and parenting styles. Thus, picking one good title to discuss, research, and write about can be essential. That’s why our experts have gathered this list of topics on parenting. Find your perfect idea on this page!

• Discussing Boundaries with Kids.
• Link Between Marriage and Children.
• Choosing a Parenting Style.
• When You Realize Yourself as a Parent.
• Explaining Divorce to Children.
• Important Aspects of Family.
• How to Influence Your Teens.
• Improving Parent-Child Relationships.
• Steps to Adulthood.
• Loveless Marriage vs. Single Parenthood.
• Are Parents Responsible for Their Children’s Behavior? Consequently, parents should create time for their children in order to establish a close relationship that can have a long influence on the child’s behavior.
• Are Women Better Parents Than Men? Essay Another reason why women are better parents is that they are more conscious and conscientious to the needs of their children than men.
• Why I Am a Good Son to My Parents The third reason why I believe I am a good son to both my parents is grounded on the fact that I have been, and will always be, a shining star in academics and extra-curricular […]
• Parents’ Influence on a Child Essay: How Parents Affect Behavior and Development 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.
• Comparison Parenting Between Asian Parents and Western Parents Concerning authoritarian parenting, children are expected to be submissive to their parents and the demands of their parents; in this regard, the parents are supposed to be strict and emotionally detached.
• Parental Rejection and Its Severe Consequences Parental rejection can either be from a mother, a father, or a guardian. However, rejection from a mother seems to have more severe consequences of the three categories.
• Spoiled Children and Parenting Mistakes However, in order to bring a child who will earn the respect of the society at present and in the future, it is important for the parents to reverse this trend in spoiled brats by […]
• Parenting Styles: Advantages and Disadvantages Kids do what they are made to do because they want to escape the punishment. As parents support children, they become independent and strong-willed.
• Communication Between Parents and Teenagers Communication between parents and their children, especially teenagers, is an ongoing process that can be developed and modified in order to create a sense of openness and support that will become a basis for the […]
• Importance of Parenting Concepts In this case, the child is aware of the conflict transpiring between parents and may be torn between whom to follow and who not to.
• Personal Reflection on Parenting It is important for the parents to ensure that they are open-minded to their children. Therefore, it is important for the parents to ensure that they do not dictate everything to their children.
• Single-Parent Families The chief materials that are to be used in the proposed experiment are the measurement scale to evaluate changes in adolescents’ attitudes towards single-parent families and the source of information about single-parent households.
• Role of Parents in Physical Education and Sport The involvement of parents in physical education and sports is viewed differently in regard to how it affects the child’s participation in sports even later in life.
• How Do Teenagers Deal With Problems and Consequence Without Parent’s Support? This is because the parents are not in a position to be of good guidance during the period of the problems and they are not reliable and therefore teenagers tend to rely on themselves.
• Cybernetics and Parenting Styles in Family Therapy This concept will be very helpful in my future work since I will be able to notice negative behavior in children that is the result of the parenting style adopted by the parents.
• The Teacher Speech With Parents These instances are broadly meant to ensure that the parents get the best understanding of the information concerning the school and more importantly enable them to fully participate in the education of their children.
• The Three Parenting Styles This style of parenting is where the parents let their children to make decisions on their own. The good thing about this style is the fact that communication is always open and parents are able […]
• Collectivist and Individualist Parents The grandparent’s role in a collectivist family would be similar to that of parents, and they would be expected to help with the upbringing, and children would need to bey them.
• How Does Society View Single Parents? A single parent refers to one who cares for one or more children without the help of one of the biological parents of the child or children. It is therefore important to note that society […]
• Are Peers More Important Than Parents During the Process of Development? On the other hand, children need to understand that they are under the authority of the parents. In the life of a human being, most of his/her time is spent with peers and not the […]
• Parent-Child Relationships in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker The more distant and fractious relationship is between the narrator and Dee. The narrator is referred to as “Mama,” and a mama she is.
• Parental Responsibility for Childhood Obesity It is widely known and proven by numerous studies that parents have the most significant influence on their children’s lifestyles, especially their eating habits; in addition to the fact that children copy everything their parents […]
• Parenting Education Programs: Pros and Cons To ensure that new pregnant couples are prepared to handle the responsibilities associated with raising kids and with helping alleviate stress and support families, it is essential that parents take parenting education programs.
• Parents Should Spank Their Children While some parents uphold spanking as the most appropriate mode of disciplining their children, others argue that inflicting physical pain to the child can lead to negative consequences in the future. The parents should be […]
• What Is a Parent? In the cases wherein the egg and sperm do not come from the couple, and a surrogate is used to carry the child, who is the real parent of the child?
• Good Parent-Children Relationship Characteristics of the children compared to those of the parents can also influence the relationships between the parents and the children.
• Parents’ Involvement in Schoolwork Parent involvement is important in improving academic performance as students have to prove to teachers and parents that they are working hard at school.
• The Role of Parents in Children’s Life The effect that was brought up in the life of Lopez is that of a person who became bitter with life and looked forward to developing the life that he would value.
• Parental Differential Treatment and Favoritism As such, parents embrace differential treatment and favoritism of children based on age of the child, gender of the child, the personality of the child, or order of birth.
• Helicopter Parents In the event of a problem, such parents are usually available to save the situation and ensure that the issue is solved amicably on behalf of the child.
• Respect, Honor, & Love Children for Their Parents They should never disrespect them or talk to them rudely and calmly listen to whatever they say. Children must always accompany their parents to the temples and worship wholeheartedly in front of the Gods.
• Parental Responsibility for Crimes of Children Parents should be held responsible for the crime of their children because in most cases criminal involvement of children is the result of lack of parental control.
• Parental Involvement in Teenage Relationships Parents can monitor their child’s academic progress, engage them in conversations about romance and relationships, and give them career advice and guidance. Parental involvement in their children’s academic and social lives helps parents to understand […]
• Child Obesity and Parental Negligence Purpose of the study The proposed study is aimed at establishing the influence of neglect on the part of the parents to childhood obesity.
• Parenting Styles and Their Influence on Adulthood The family context is regarded as essential because it helps to establish the link between childhood and the relationships of a person with their parents with future behavior and performance.
• What Is a Concept Good Parent? Overall, a good parent is a parent who can offer one’s child love and affection which is important for his or her normal development as a dignified and contented person, and is also successful in […]
• The Struggles of Single Parenting The associated unavailability of proper housing, insecurity and abuse increase the influence of single-parenthood to development of a child in spite of the fact that wealth is no guarantee of positive outcome in character of […]
• Parenting Style in Japan and USA Parenting encompasses the growth ecology of a growing up child, and hence it is very important in shaping up the behavior of the child and in their physical survival, social growth, cognitive development, and emotional […]
• Nuclear Family vs. Single Parenting Effects on Child The family is the main environment that contributes to the behavior of a person. The family environment in which these individuals are is the key contributor to the character and behavior of individuals.
• Hamlet’s Parental Relationships The death of his father, the actions of his mother and his existing relationship with his uncle all have Hamlet confused regarding the true nature of the world.
• Authoritarian vs. Permissive Parenting Styles Authoritarian and permissive styles are parenting approaches that are commonly used and that have varied effects on children because they approach the concepts of discipline, warmth, nurturance, and communication differently.
• Marital and Parental Subsystems in Family In a conventional family system, these members include the husband and wife, the siblings, and the relatives who make up the extended family.
• Good Parents Traits and Raising Children – Psychology Some of the traits of a good parent include being a good listener, readiness to guide, self-discipline, setting time aside to spend with the children, and meeting the physical needs of children. In addition, good […]
• How Ineffective Parenting Affects a Child’s Future In addition to impairing a child’s social skills, ineffective parenting may result in a codependent relationship between a parent and their child.
• Academic Performance and Parental Influence This paper will explicate the idea that the approaches, used by Chinese mothers to foster the performance of their children in academics, are effective.
• Why Chinese Parents Are Superior They deny their children many forms of popular leisure, are not shy to criticize them when they fail and drill them until they are perfect at whatever given task.’Western parents’ on the other hand, the […]
• How Divorce and Single Parenting Affects Children With the disturbances in the homeostatic balances in the family, there is a need to set up a new balance in at least the following important areas: The loving relationships between the single parent and […]
• Relationship Between Parents and Children The book is based on the story of a farmer and his family, who, due to the problematic nature of the head of the family, are forced to change their place of residence: “None of […]
• Parenting Styles and Authority Problems Authority or the right to influence the actions and opinions of other people plays an important part in many areas of our life, including the relations between a parent and a child.
• Why Are Young People Living Longer With Their Parents? When referring to a young adult, who is “living at home with their parents,” “living at parental home,” “stays with parents,” the research means that the mentioned adult is a child or a stepchild of […]
• Parental Care and Responsibilities In such a case, it is only logical for both parties to be involved in fending for, and taking care of the family.
• Parent-Child Relationship in Early Modern England Moreover, the influence that parents had was significant, and it would not be an easy task for the government to monitor and review all the cases of unfair treatment. The author suggests that parents loved […]
• Cartoons, Young Children, and Parental Involvement This paper claims that parents should be more aware of the type of animations that are being watched by their children and need to become involved in their children’s cartoon experience; the following sections present […]
• Parents Need Help: Restricting Access to Video Games If a parent watches video games in the presence of the children, he can not be able to restrict the children from doing the same.
• Communication Plan for Students, Teachers and Parents The overwhelming majority of educators believe that the student should not be excluded from the communication between teachers and parents; they usually describe the interactions between student, home, and the school as some triangle.
• Parent-Teacher Conferences and Their Forms The picture is a great example of a successful parent-teacher conference as all factors presented in it can greatly contribute to the mutual understanding and further cooperation of parents and a teacher.
• Role of Parents in the Education of Young Children The paper will examine the role of parents in the education of young children. It is therefore, the conscientiousness of parents to provide these basic needs to their children.
• Four Styles of Parenting The authors continue to explain that parenting styles are affected by children’s and parents’ dispositions and mainly based on the influence of one’s culture, traditions and origins. The four types of parenting styles include Authoritarian […]
• Parents’ Role in Children-Technology Relations The aim of pilot study was to apply Day in the Life as method of research to understand how young children use technology in their daily lives.
• Old-Young and Parent-Child Relationships in Early Chinese Society It is possible to apply the same principle to the relationships of the parent and the child, where the child should always respect the parent and follow their orders and advice.
• A Generational Dance: How Parents and Kids Relate In summation, it is vital to note that the well-being and development of a child depend on the wholesome relations with their parents.
• “Blood Wedding” by F. G. Lorca and “The Metamorphosis” by F. Kafka: The Impact of Roles of Parents To compare the role of parents in the stories, we must first get a brief background of the parents in both stories.
• Single Parent and Child Language Development The first-born child in a family is more likely to have a higher chance of better language development than the remaining children that follow him.
• Children’s Right to Be Parented by the Best Parent If we attempt to answer what the parent really is, we are likely to touch upon the assumptions about the grounds, on which the right to parent a child is based.
• Parents and Community Involvement In 2013, Abu Dhabi launched the “Abu Dhabi Reads” program, which is a program for students and children to be acquainted with national and world literature and enhances their reading and writing skills.
• Parent-Teacher Interaction Strategies Despite this fundamental importance, the reality on the ground is that these interactions are often feared by parents and educators alike due to a variety of issues that need to be understood in order to […]
• Plans for Caring for Elderly Parents Davis in his article, “Caring for the Elderly”, brings up 4 specific points that he states need to be addressed when taking care of the elderly, namely: the financial status of the parents that need […]
• Parents Attitude Towards the Importance of Childhood Nutrition In most of the cases, the attitude of the parent towards childhood nutrition may be influenced by factors outside the scope of the parent.
• The Relationship Between Parental Influence and Juvenile Delinquency Parents that do not allow their children to play with their neighbors, or discourage their children from associating with particular families lead to the children developing a negative attitude towards the families.
• Cooperation Between Teachers and Parents To guarantee the parents’ responsiveness and interest in the children’s activities, it is necessary to inform them about all the significant events and children’s successes.
• Parental Dietary Behaviors and Children’s Eating Habits The child forms eating behavior based on the parental example and the traditions adopted in the house. I think the article is based on the theory that children tend to adopt their parents’ patterns of […]
• Parental Control as a Guarantee of Children’s Safety on the Internet Parents are liable for the safety of children on the Net and therefore are obliged to control and expand their knowledge in this field constantly.
• Infantilization: Adult Children Living With Parents When the time comes to leave home, young people are petrified of the idea of living on their own and not having the same level of everyday care and support that they are used to.
• Parent Interview: Through the Generations I was wondering about her understanding of the roles of mothers and fathers in a family and society, as well as the changes modern parenting undergoes. The development of family relationships is a choice a […]
• School Communication and Interaction With Parents Communication in education is the connection between teachers, their students, and the inverse process of connecting parents to the school life of their children.
• Parental Investment Theory In this theory, Trivers linked the levels of parental investment in their offspring with the potential of this offspring’s survival in the future, as well as the parental ability to invest in a new offspring […]
• Emotions in Parent of a Child With Special Needs It is due to this that parents who have children that have special needs are often relegated to the role of a caregiver resulting in them having to bathe, feed and even change the clothes […]
• Parent Interview and Infant Observation Describe your diet regimen during pregnancy The mother ensured a steady and consistent intake of a balanced diet during pregnancy. According to her, the intake of a balanced diet helped in reducing the effects and […]
• Parental Involvement in Education From the analysis of the positive relation, research studies make of two-parent families and student achievement, it is correct to note that parental involvement in two-parent family setups is more preferred to single-parent family setups.
• “Dating and the Single Parent” by Ron Deal The features involved in any premarital counseling include steps to bring the couples together, issues that entail the roles of the couples, occurrences of grounding the religious marriages, and the resources helping pastors during counseling.
• Parental Involvement in Adolescent’s Life: Contributing to Identity Formation The aim of the paper will be to explore the role of active involvement of parents in raising their children through adolescence and the impact on the formation of identity.
• Effects of a Parental Death on Younger Children The impacts of paternal and maternal death on young children are premised on the child’s health, school enrollment and educational attainment of the child in comparison to adverse poverty.
• Adolescent Self-Perception and Parental Care Based on this, we will analyze the roles and self-perceptions of teenagers, as well as adults’ perceptions of adolescents, and the parent-child communication styles that are prevalent in the society to understand what communication patterns […]
• Parental Behavior in the Great Apes In contrast to chimpanzees, orangutan and gorilla newborns are less frequently separated from their mothers and have highly developed motor skills.
• Impact of Free Childcare on Working Parents At the same time, having a free caregiver can improve the financial situation of parents and the child, as they can return to work.
• Parenting Practices and Theories in Early Childhood While modern parenting practices and thoughts do not specify precisely how to interact with children through the ages of 6-11, they suggest that parents can develop knowledge about children’s development process.
• Parenting Behaviors and Their Impact on Children The final research paper on the effect of good and bad parenting is the most important part of the portfolio. The question regarding the effects of good and bad parenting appears provocative and uncertain, and […]
• Parenting: Plan for a Program Evaluation The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the changes to the parenting style of foster parents. The data collected at the end of the evaluation will provide the valuable information on the effectiveness of […]
• Understanding and Addressing Family Stress: Parental Responses and Impact on Children The spousal relationship, employment, a lack of structure in the household, and psychological suffering all contribute to stress. They are regarded as potent mediators, and therefore, offending elders indicates disrespecting the father and may lead […]
• Parenting: The Role of Socioeconomic Level and Discipline The influence of stress on discipline was modulated by the parent’s perceptions and thought functions such as concerns about the future of the child and the availability of alternative correctional tactics.
• Parental Perception of Weight Management Barriers The study examined the parents’ perception on factors that contribute to childhood obesity and sort their suggestions on the possible ways of overcoming the barriers.
• Society and Parenting: Survey Results Among the participants, the age group category of 30-40 was the highest, followed by 40+ years, then the 20-30 years category, and finally, the below 20 years.
• Good Parenting and Strong Social Development As a result, it is debatable whether the idea of rewarding children does or does not lead to an increase in their pro-social conduct.
• Parental Knowledge, Attitudes, and Cultural Beliefs Regarding Oral Health A good understanding of parental knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and awareness regarding oral health is important for improving health promotion efforts focused on elevating the dental health of young children.
• The Role of Parental Involvement in School Life The expert states the pointlessness of the argument and the joint work of the institutions that are important in the education and life of the child.
• Safety Promotion for Parents and Caregivers of Infants Recognizing and assessing the risk involved leads to the containment of the matter by identifying the plan required to promote infant safety.
• Parental Education on Overweight and Obese Children The search term used includes “Effect of parental education on BMI,” “the importance of parental Education in reducing Obesity,” and “BMI, parental education, and Bodyweight”.
• The Partnership With Parents and Community The relationship between parents and children is a complex system of relationships, the subject of the study of the psychology of parenthood, the purpose of which is to determine the mechanisms of the development of […]
• “Black Parents Ask for a Second Look” by Adjei & Minka The authors claimed that the lack of understanding of the former often results in children of color being taken away from their families by Child and Family Services.
• Child-Parent Relationships in Contemporary International Cinema Understanding the quality of the relationships between parents and children plays an important role in modern society, and various methods are used to deliver the message and share opinions.
• Ethical Dilemma of Parental Refusal From Children’s Vaccination Kerry attempts to convince the Smiths of the relevance of vaccination in preventing infection by chronic diseases. Autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice are ethical principles applicable in resolving the moral issue of whether or not […]
• Epilepsy and Seizure Disorder: A Guide for Parents The use of electrodes is completely painless, and it allows the detection of the movement of neurons in the patient’s brain. First, a child is likely to experience challenges in learning due to seizures and […]
• Parental Role in Adolescents’ Phone Addiction In other words, the connection between the guardian and the teenagers is critical and should be maintained to allow children experience the love of their parents.
• Education for Parents of Children With Cancer The hospital was selected because I am have been working there for a long time, and the personnel is willing to help me with the implementation of the process.
• “Parental Characteristics and Offspring Mental Health” by Jami The title of the article is “Parental characteristics and offspring mental health and related outcomes: A systematic review of genetically informative literature”.
• Teachers-Parents Partnership and Children’s Literature The literature also allows children to learn and appreciate their differences with other kids and families, facilitating the establishment and maintenance of friendship.
• Parental Leaves for Both Parents in the US and Other Countries In the absence of federal paid leave policies in the U. As of 2018, in addition to the FMLA, four states had paid family leave laws in place, and three more were determined to pass […]
• Minors Seeking Treatment for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Without Parental Consent Due to the severity of sexually transmitted diseases, it is very important for doctors to provide minors with the necessary care.
• The Four Basic Parenting Practices This type of parent listens to their children and provides love and comfort in conjunction with boundaries and reasonable chastisement. Children that have authoritarian parents are more personality and capable of thinking for themselves.
• Parental Differences in Eastern and Western Cultures The main finding of this study was that children of Chinese families were better equipped for school, when the family employed greater parental involvement combined with high authoritative parenting style.
• Should the Church Baptize Babies of Commited Christian Parents? One of the most common is the idea of the unity of the believers that surpass any genetic or race accessory.
• Adolescent Shoplifting: Infographics for Parents The consequences of unaddressed juvenile shoplifting are the involvement of teenagers in organized theft, other serious gang activities, and placement in a youth detention center.
• The Impact of Parental Incarceration and Foster Children to Delinquency It was proved that the causal relationship between events such as parental incarceration and foster care and the social phenomenon of juvenile delinquency truly exists.
• Case Study: Parental Dispute The threshold criteria are the evidence and facts that are to be proven by the social services in order for the court to consider making the Care and Supervision Order.
• How Does Having a Child With Autism Affects Parents’ Lifestyle? The creation of a system of psychological, pedagogical and social support can reduce the risk of a complete family life dedication to a child with autism.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Parenting Style On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being lowest and 10 being highest, how much do you believe that kids need to learn early who the boss is in the family?
• Parental Corporal Punishment of Young Children But did you know that the States is the only permanent and non-permanent member of the United Nations that is not a signatory to Article 19, which condemns and prohibits all forms of physical abuse […]
• Parenthub as Resource for Parent-Child Relationships Building Unfortunately, not all parents understand effective methods of upbringing, do not realize the value of a favorable environment for the child’s independence, and neglect the appearance of the youth’s emotional anticipation.
• Conditioning in Parenting: Getting Kids to Do Chores One of those is an attempt to teach the child the love to the core and develop the initiative of helping with the housekeeping duties.
• How Parents of Color Transcend Nightmare of Racism Even after President Abraham Lincoln outlawed enslavement and won the American Civil War in 1965, prejudice toward black people remained engrained in both the northern and southern cultural structures of the United States.
• Parenting Counseling in the New York City Community Overall, Cap4Kids has developed a wide range of resources and opportunities for children and their parents, thus, addressing the parenting issues that New York City community members are likely to experience presently.
• The Relationships Between Parents and Children and Keys to Their Success The key points, which people frequently neglect, are the need for parents to be nurturers, never-ending personal development, and the risks with which the prevalence of emotional motives for parenthood is associated.
• Impact of Free Childcare on Parents Willingness to Go Back to Work or College The study is unique in that it assesses the impact of free childcare in aiding parents to get back to college and work, unlike existing literature that focuses on parental return to work only.
• Children and Parent’s Adjustment Process The adjustment process of new children and their parents can be challenging for them and the teacher. Inviting the parents to the classroom can help with the separation anxiety in both children and their parents.
• The Experience of Parents of Children With Disabilities Enhancing support for the mental well-being of parents of children with a disability: developing a resource based on the perspectives of parents and professionals.
• “Home, School, and Community Relations”: The Complex Role Nature of Parenting However, emphasizing work sometimes leads to a lack of attention to the educator’s role, which can also hurt a child. From my perspective, such behavior is a warning signal, which has to be taken seriously […]
• The Sandwich Generation: Caring for Children and Parents The definition indicates a person “sandwiched” between managing the responsibilities of a parent and a caring child at the same time.
• Raising the Standards for Children of Incarcerated Parents The sources of their hardships extend to social, economic, and emotional levels, and it is up to the community to recognize that and affect change by advocating for appropriate programs, policies, and practices.
• The Relationship Between Single-Parent Households and Poverty The given literature review will primarily focus on the theoretical and empirical aspects of the relationship between single-parent households and poverty, as well as the implications of the latter on mental health issues, such as […]
• Parental Intervention on Self-Management of an Adolescent With Diabetes Diabetes development and exposure are strongly tied to lifestyle, and the increasing incidents rate emphasizes the severity of the population’s health problem.
• Parenting and Its Influence on Adult Children My parents have different views and character traits from my grandparents, and sometimes these contrasts cause difficulties in their relationships. Thus, love in the bonds between children and parents is essential, but it is sometimes […]
• The Difference in Parenting an Adolescent Similarly, the father, who appears to be a disconnected and distant parent, has to support the mother and the child psychologically bonded to their adolescent to improve parenting.
• Parenting Models in Modern Family Unit of Emigrants in the USA The fact is that the Lee family has three children, one of whom is just a baby, and the other two are studying at the moment in high school.
• Empathy in Parent-Child Relationships It is the responsibility of parents to explain to their children what is right and what is wrong so that they can form their own opinion and develop a sense of self-worth.
• Single, Low-Income, or Homeless Mothers’ Health and Parenting Problems To promote their wellbeing, health professionals may support homeless mothers in practices such as the use of strengths-anchored nursing, supporting ideas of good parenting, overcoming stigma, and discovering and eliminating the unsurmountable hindrances encountered within […]
• A Quality All Parents Should Cultivate Parents should be able to show their love to their children since they are not able to express themselves when they need it most. Parents’ love for their children is unparalleled, and they need to […]
• Parent-Child Relationships in Later Life My mother, in turn, seeks to demonstrate that she is not a child anymore, and the patronage of that kind insults her.
• What Every New Parent Should Know Undoubtedly, the issue of preparing for the baby is essential, and it touches almost every young couple, so the majority of people are familiar with it. For instance, the conflict between the parents and their […]
• Parenting Styles and Overweight Status The authoritarian parenting style has a strict disciplinarian and a high expectation of the child’s self-control from the parent but a low sensitivity.
• Analysis of Bullying and Parenting Style Since the given topic usually refers to children and adolescents, it is evident that their parents hold a portion of responsibility because the adults affect the growth and development of young individuals.
• Parent’s Right to Travel Out of the Country This paper seeks to analyze the parent’s right to travel out of the country and outlines why traveling has been an issue for the courts In the US, the Supreme Court acknowledges that every citizen […]
• Parent Involvement and Student Achievement The purpose of the study is to investigate whether parental involvement plays a role in elementary school student achievement.
• Autism and Vaccination Refusal Management Among Somalian Parents Somalian parents in their community in Minnesota refuse from their children being vaccinated, as they believe that vaccination causes autism.
• Parents’ Immunization Decisions and Complex Issues in Toddlers The child and family health nurse can collaborate with diverse professionals, including the state’s immunization specialists, to improve the child’s health prospects while also empowering the mother to get updated information from national authorities in […]
• The Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters Aarash said that children’s well-being is his priority and mentioned that the family needs proper food for Hamdiya and a washing machine and iron to ensure the children look neat.
• Parents’ Perception of Attending an ADHD Clinic The main principles of the clinic’s specialists should be an objective diagnosis of the neurological status of the child and the characteristics of his/her behavior, the selection of drug treatment only on the basis of […]
• Assessment and Communicating With Parents Technology allows for an accurate quantitative measurement of the students’ progress. Technology helps compare and contrast the results of two assessments.
• Childhood Obesity and Parental Education The thesis is as follows: parents should cooperate with local organizations to receive and provide their children with education on healthy living and the dangers of obesity because they are responsible for their children’s diet.
• The Importance of Parenting Aspects First, it is essential to note the critical periods of prenatal development, when the mother and the baby are the most vulnerable.
• Success: How to Parent? Therefore, it is crucial to choose a competent approach to raising a child to not injure them in this way. This will help in choosing a profession and the entire path of life.
• Technology and Parenting: Gaming and Social Media The current project is a social media campaign report targeted at addressing the increased use of social media and gaming among the growing generation.
• Parent-School Communication The current paper includes an interview with the school’s principal regarding the opportunities for parent-school partnership.
• Positive Parenting Tips for Young Child’s Safety So to keep your child healthy and safe, the first two years of a child’s growth are very important and hence should be taken care of cautiously.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences With Incarcerated Parents The Method of Data Collection: Mixed: survey and secondary data will both be utilized. The Research Design: First, there will be a survey of families in which there are incarcerated parents.
• Jennifer Morse: Parents or Prisons Among the many reasons cited to have led to high the number of cases of juvenile offending is divorce and single parenthood.
• Teen Pregnancy and Early Parental Care The scholars established the high value of prenatal care for the teenage mothers that was likely to save thousands of dollars invested in the newborn care and support of the pregnancies.
• Parental Consent in Minors’ Abortions Thus, the parents or guardians of the teenage girl ought to be aware of the planned abortion and explain the possible consequences of abortion to the girl.
• Vicarious Liability of Parents for Their Children Vicarious liability is a term used to refer to situations where parents are punished because of the offenses committed by their children.
• Music in Parental Participation in Pediatric Laceration The check list forms facilitate the giving out of answers by the subjects while the tables allow for easy recording of the numerical data collection from the recorded forms, and this would translate to lessening […]
• Conjugal Visits: Programs for Inmate Parents These visits are offered to inmates with the supervision of correctional officers in the prisons, “they are private meeting between inmates and their wife and during those meeting they are allowed to engage in anything […]
• Care Needs of Children Whose Parents Have Incurable Cancer
• Disability Equality of a Disabled Lone Parent
• Parental Agony in Natal Alienation in Chesnutt’s The Sheriff’s Children & Harper’s The Slave Mother
• The Challenges of Teen Parenting: Socioeconomic Consequences and Child Development Risks
• Ethical Dilemma: Parental Notification
• Teens Talking With Their Partners About Sex: The Role of Parent Communication
• Parent-Teacher-Youth Mediation Program Analysis
• “Gender Differences in Work-Family Guilt in Parents of Young Children”: Quantitative Research Critique
• The Parent-Involvement Research
• Toddlers and Tiaras: Have Parents Gone Too Far
• “When Couples Become Parents” by Bonnie Fox
• Family Systems Theory: Parenting and Family Diversity Issues
• College Planning Brochure for Parents
• Incarceration of a Parent or a Guardian of Recidivist
• The Influence of Parents on Schoolchildren and Students
• Parenting in Battered Women: The Effects of Domestic Violence
• Lone Parents: Social Work and Exclusion
• Gender-Schema and Social Cognitive Theory in Parenting Styles
• Parents’ Duty to Monitor Children’s Online Activities
• The Issue of Parents’ Censorship
• Should Parents Use Monitoring Software?
• Parenting Training Classes: A Psychology Experiment
• Pilgrims and Puritanism Parenting
• “Home, School and Playroom” by Claire Etaugh: The Combined Effects and Interactions Among Parental Child-Rearing Practices
• Why Spanking Is Acceptable in Parenting
• Parental Rights Terminating: Reasons and Procedures
• Parental Rejection Effects on Homosexuals
• Parents Influence Sexuality, Based on Two Novels
• Parental Intervention for Abnormal Pubescence
• The Relationships Between Physiotherapists and Educators, Parents, and Service Providers
• Fine and Lee on Psychoeducational Program for Parents
• Male and Female Parents: Is There a Difference?
• The Idea of Gay Parenting
• A Critical Review of Corporal Punishment as a Form of Parental Discipline
• Problems of Learning and Mutual Understanding of Students, Teachers and Parents
• African-American Community: Parental Involvement
• Parental Roles and Changes in the Last 50 Years
• Parent-Child Relations in Poetry
• Single Parents in the Alcoholic Classification
• Parent Involvement in the Elementary School Setting
• Parent-School Online Communication Platforms
• Antibiotic and Analgesic Self-Medication Practices Among Parents for Childhood Problems
• Parenting in “Hey, Kiddo” by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
• Parental Beliefs’ Impact on Children’s Therapy
• Parental Hopes and Standards for Sons and Daughters
• Parental Divorce and Its Impact on Teenagers
• Parental Report of Vaccine Receipt in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Schools and Parents’ Fight Against Cyberbullying
• Parenting Topic in Developmental Psychology
• Low-Functioning Parents: Resolving the Issue
• Parental Disclosure of Artificial Conception
• Mental Illness in Children and Its Effects on Parents
• Parental Responsibilities and Related Conflicts
• Parenting, Child Development, and Socialization
• Family, Marriage, and Parenting Concepts Nowadays
• Children With Disabilities and Parental Mistreatment
• Relations of Parents and Teenagers
• Abbreviated Plans: Parent or Guardian Incarceration
• The Importance of Right Parenting in America
• Productive Communication With Parents
• Parents as Teachers Program From Educator’s View
• Parent Volunteering in the Early Education Centers
• Disabled Child Guidance Through the Parents’ Eyes
• “The Economic Benefits of Paid Parental Leave” by C. Miller
• Being a Father: Parenting Roles and Experiences
• Grandparents as Parental Figures in Modern Families
• Group Counseling for Children of Addicted Parents
• Child Counseling and Parenting Problems
• Sources of Conflict Between Parents and Teenagers
• Infant-Parent Attachment: Secure or Insecure?
• Parenting Styles and Academic Motivation
• Vegan Parents’ Influence on Their Children’s Diet
• Parenting Style and the Development
• Computer Literacy: Parents and Guardians Role
• Parenting Styles: China vs. North America
• Children’s Success Requirements in Parents’ Views
• Parenting Children With Learning Disabilities
• Self-Concept, Parental Labeling, and Delinquency
• Child Parenting Guide and Challenges
• Parental Care and Its Role in Poor Families
• Teacher-Parent Collaboration in Special Education
• Young Adults Increasingly Moving in With Parents
• Parental Narcissism and Adolescent Development
• Why Young People Live Longer With Their Parents
• Adolescents’ Decision-Making and Parenting Concerns
• Parenting, Divorce, Dating in the Dear Abby Letter
• Parental Participation in Educational Activities
• Parents’ Reasons Allowing Their Newborns to Die
• Parental Involvement and Children’s Aspirations
• Parental Non-Involvement in Children’s Education
• Parent-Teen Relations in the United States and Denmark
• Parents Challenges: Raising Bilingual Children
• Children Reading Skills: Parents and Babysitters Effect
• Parental Involvement in School-To-Work Transition
• Parents’ Education and Children’s Achievement
• Parenting: Learning That an Adolescent Is Gay or Lesbian
• Association of Parenting Factors With Bullying
• Group Therapy for Pregnant and Parenting Teenagers
• Parenting Methods: Pros and Challenges
• Parents’ Depression and Toddler Behaviors
• Children Mental Illness and Its Effects on Parents
• Parenting and Its Major Styles
• Styles of Parenting as a Psychological Strategies
• Cross-Cultural Study: Parenting and Psychological Disorders in Adolescents
• Parents Impact on Children Obesity – Nutrition
• Parents Need Help on Snow Days
• Chinese Parenting Style in Raising Successful Children
• Parents Conferences Role in Education
• Parenting Behavior Supporting Obesity in School-Aged Children
• Children Obesity Issues and Role of Parents in It
• The Lived Experiences of Native American Indian Women Parenting off the Reservation
• Parents’ Involvement and Factors Important for Children’s Growth and Development
• Different Parenting Styles
• Suggestions for Future Strategies in Analysis of Parental Involvement in School Administration
• Parenting Variables in Antenatal Education
• Parent–Child and Sibling Relationships
• Single Parents Raise Kids
• “Dating and the Single Parent” by Deal
• Designing Educational Spaces: A Birth-To-Eighteen-Year-Old Training for a Rich Parent
• Parenting for Healthy Emotional Development
• Should Parents Be Allowed to Choose the Characteristics of Their Children Through Genetic Manipulation?
• First Time Parenting
• Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Children’s Motivation
• Abortion and Parental Consent
• The Effects of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement
• Teach Your Parents Well
• How Children of Incarcerated Parents Are Affected
• Does Parental Involvement and Poverty Affect Children’s Education and Their Overall Performance?
• When Couples Become Parents
• Analysis of Psychoeducational Program for Parents of Dysfunctional Backgrounds
• Reflective Entry of “Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing Children, Parenting and the Family Series” and “Udaan”
• Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Parenting, And America’s Children
• Parents and Families as Partners
• Parenting: Managing and Controlling Behavior of a Child
• Families and Young Children: What Constitutes Effective Parental Discipline?
• “Against the Grain: Couples, Gender, and the Reframing of Parenting”
• Principles of Parenting in Psychology
• The Development Psychology: Parents’ Probability of Having Another Children
• Milwaukee Parental Choice Program
• Psychology: Parents’ Decisions on Having the Second Child
• The Mothers Who Are Not Single: Striving to Avoid Poverty in Single-Parent Families
• The Relationship Between Shin and His Parents. Escape From Camp 14
• What Defines Parental Techniques and Strategies: The Case of Soccer Moms
• Chinese Mothers and Their Incredible Parenting
• Parent Involvement Interview
• Effects of Parental Promotion of the Santa Myth
• Freakonomics and Parenting: A Position Paper
• Parental Issues in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Reading the Science of Law Into a Cautious Tale About the Return Into the Lapse of Nature
• Parents’ Influence on the Life of the Main Characters
• Harsh Parenting in Relation to Child Emotion Regulation and Aggression.
• Harsh Parenting: Emotion Regulation and Aggression
• Parent Involvement and Educational Outcomes
• Gay Marriage and Parenting
• Adopted Children With Gay Parents Have Better Chances of Succeeding
• How Parents in Different Cultures Scaffold Their Children’s Learning
• The Impact of Media on Adolescents, and the Roles Played by School and Parents
• Family Issues: Parents Should Stay at Home When They Have Babies
• Parents as Failed Role Models: A Doll’s House and Fight Club
• Parenting’s Skills, Values and Styles
• Teenage Alcoholism: Parental Influence and How to Get Rid of Vice
• Gay Parenting and the Issue of Adoption
• Western and Eastern Parenting Styles
• Foster Parenting Together: Foster Parent Couples
• The Five Major Parenting Modes and the Most Effective Parenting Style
• Parenting Techniques and Their Influences on Their Child’s Behavior and Habits
• Family, Parenting and Child Conduct Problems
• Social and Legal Obstacles of Gay and Lesbian Parenting
• Work-Family Conflict and Mindful Parenting: The Mediating Role of Parental Psychopathology Symptoms and Parenting Stress in a Sample of Employed Parents
• Parenting and Family: What’s Intergenerational Transmission
• Valuable Strategies for Parenting an Impulsive Child
• The Correlation Between Cyberbullying and Parenting Style, the Gender Differences in Cyberbullying
• Same-Sex Couples, Adoption, and Parenting
• Gender Equality and Inequality in Parenting Other Chapter
• Parenting Styles According to Social Class
• Authoritarian Parenting- Negative Effects of Authoritarian Parenting
• The Relationship Between Teen Pregnancy and Parenting
• Health and Social Services for Pregnant and High-Risk Parenting Teens
• Socioeconomic Status and Parenting Styles
• Different Parenting Styles and Their Effect on Children’s Behavior
• Economic Deprivation, Maternal Depression, Parenting and Children’s Cognitive and Emotional Development in Early Childhood
• Single Parenting Versus Double Parenting
• Low-Income Single Mothers’ Community Violence Exposure and Aggressive Parenting Practices
• Parenting Stress and Emotional or Behavioral Problems in Adolescents
• Relationships Between Parenting Style and Self Reliance
• Homeownership and Parenting Practices: Evidence From the Community Advantage Panel
• Parenting Styles: Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, and Uninvolved
• Parenting and Education During Early Childhood
• Effective Parenting-Early Development, Various Parenting Styles and Discipline
• Implementing Parenting Programmes Across Cultural Contexts: A Perspective on the Deficit Narrative
• The Social Norm for Parenting and the Three Classic Parenting Patterns
• Family Income, Parenting Styles, and Child Behavioral-Emotional Outcomes
• Parenting Stress Among Child Welfare Involved Families: Differences by Child Placement
• Bidirectional Longitudinal Relations Between Parent and Grandparent and Co-parenting Relationships
• Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Anxiety Sensitivity
• Attachment Theory and Maternal Drug Addiction: The Contribution to Parenting Interventions
• Ideal Family and Parenting Configurations
• Social Behavior, Crime, and Poor Parenting
• The Psychosocial Variables Associated With the Parenting a Child Having Special Needs
• Attachment and Parental Reflective Functioning Features in ADHD: Enhancing the Knowledge on Parenting Characteristics
• Adoptive Parenting and Attachment: Association of the Internal Working Models Between Adoptive Mothers and Their Late-Adopted Children During Adolescence
• Does Strength-Based Parenting Predict Academic Achievement?
• What Are the Different Parenting Types Used by Families?
• How Does Social Class Influence Parenting and Child Development?
• How Has Parenting Changed Over the Generations?
• What Challenges Do Parents Face by Their Gender or Sexual Identities?
• Are the Major Causes of Juvenile Crime Lack of Parenting?
• How Does Culture Affect Parenting Styles?
• What Are the Effect of Bad Parenting?
• What Unites All Parenting Styles?
• Are Testosterone Levels and Depression Risk Linked Based on Partnering and Parenting?
• How Parenting Styles Around With How Culture and Religion?
• When Children Rule: Parenting in Modern Families?
• How Has Technology Impacted Parenting?
• When Behavioral Barriers Are Too High or Low – How Timing Matters for Parenting Interventions?
• Does Parenting Style Matter?
• Does Mothers Self-Construal Contribute to Parenting Beyond Socioeconomic Status and Maternal Efficacy?
• Who Helps With Homework? Parenting Inequality and Relationship Quality Among Employed Mothers and Fathers?
• How Does Parenting Styles Influence a Child’s Development?
• Does Parenting Affect Children’s Eating and Weight Status?
• How Parenting Styles Affect the Psychological Growth of a Child?
• Does Homosexual Parenting Have Adverse Effects?
• How Different Parenting Styles Affect Children?
• When Parenting Fails: Alexithymia and Attachment States of Mind in Mothers of Female Patients With Eating Disorders?
• Does Authoritative Parenting Impact Juvenile Delinquency?
• Why Doesn’t Single Parenting Always Mean Tough Life for Children?
• Are Our Parenting Classes Needed?
• Why Has Parenting Gotten More Difficult?
• How Is Parenting Role and Parental Status Influence on Impatience?
• What Are Parenting Styles?
• How Does Gender and Sexuality Condition Influence Parenting?
• Child Development Research Ideas
• Attachment Theory Essay Topics
• Child Abuse Essay Topics
• Motherhood Ideas
• Spanking Ideas
• Child Welfare Essay Ideas
• Surrogacy Questions
• Caregiver Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/parenting-essay-topics/

"439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/parenting-essay-topics/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/parenting-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/parenting-essay-topics/.

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IvyPanda . "439 Parenting Essay Topics & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/parenting-essay-topics/.

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