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Parenting

father teaching his son how to ride a bike

Parenting practices around the world share three major goals: ensuring children’s health and safety, preparing children for life as productive adults, and transmitting cultural values. A high-quality parent-child relationship is critical for healthy development.

Researchers have described different human parenting styles—ways in which parents interact with their children—with most classifications varying on the dimensions of emotional warmth and control.

Adapted from the Encyclopedia of Psychology and the APA Dictionary of Psychology

Resources from APA

Coping with family estrangement

Lucy Blake, PhD, talks about why family estrangement happens and the stigma around estrangement.

Nurturing children through grief with Elmo

New Sesame Workshop resources guided by psychological science help caregivers support children as they navigate the grieving process

young mother in a wheelchair encouraging a child to go down a playground slide

Resolution on parents with disabilities

APA supports increased psychological research, intervention, advocacy, and policy to inform and guide decisions and to reduce disparities and biases faced by this population

Workplace racial composition is an important factor for Black parents’ communication of racial socialization messages

Spotlight: Black parents’ communication of racial socialization messages

In an article in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Lorraine E. Scott and Fatima Varner explored how the parent–adolescent gender dyad (e.g., mothers of boys, fathers of girls) and the racial composition of familial contexts (i.e., neighborhood, school, workplace) influenced the relationship between parent and adolescent racial discrimination experiences and parental communication of racial socialization messages.

What APA is doing

Advocacy

Children, youth, and families

APA Services advocates for policies to prevent children’s exposure to violence and expand access to treatment and essential services for children who have experienced violence.

Offices

Children, youth, and families portfolio

The Children, Youth, and Families office aims to advance the creation, communication, and application of psychological knowledge on child development issues to benefit society and improve the lives of all children and their families.

teacher and student in preschool classroom

Divisions

Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice

APA’s Division 37 is committed to the application of psychological knowledge to advocacy, social justice, service delivery, and public policies affecting children, youth, and families in a diverse and inclusive society.

Divisions

Society for Couple and Family Psychology

APA’s Division 43 provides a home for psychologists interested in families in their many forms. Clinical, scientific, educational, and public policy perspectives are well represented in the wide range of divisional activities.