Parenting Matters
Parenting Matters

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-11-21

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13: 0309388570

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Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Restoration Therapy
Restoration Therapy

Author: Terry D. Hargrave

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011-05-09

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1136727795

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How can a therapist help his or her clients and ensure that they continue to maintain the insights and motivations learned during therapy in everyday life, beyond termination? Restoration Therapy is a professional resource that introduces the reader to the essential elements of its namesake, and from there guides clinicians to a systemic understanding of how certain forces lead to destructive cycles in relationships, which perpetuate more and more dysfunction among members. Clients and therapists both will understand issues more clearly, experience the impacts that emotion can have on insight, and practice the process so more loving and trustworthy relationships can take hold in the intergenerational family.

Christian Parenting
Christian Parenting

Author: David P. Setran

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2022-06-21

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 1467465410

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What can the past teach us about what it means to be a “good” Christian parent today? Today’s parenting guidance can sometimes feel timeless and inviolable—especially when it comes to the spiritual formation of children in Christian households. But even in the recent past, parenting philosophies have differed widely among Christians in ways that reflect the contexts from which they emerged. In this illuminating historical study, David Setran catalogs the varying ways American Protestants envisioned the task of childrearing in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Comparing two main historical time periods—the colonial era and the Victorian era—Setran uncovers common threads, opposing viewpoints, and the cultural and religious influences behind the dominant parenting “postures” of each era. The implications of his findings matter for today’s big questions about parenting: Should children be viewed as basically good, in need of protection from corruption, or as fundamentally sinful, in need of moral correction? How should parents address misbehavior? Should a parent’s primary role be that of teacher, disciplinarian, or nurturer? What importance should be attributed to devotions and prayer, church involvement, Sabbath-keeping, home decorating, and fun family activities? What consideration should be given to gender? Should boys and girls be raised differently? Do mothers and fathers have essentially different responsibilities? As he surveys these historical perspectives, Setran reflects on the legacy and future of Christian parenting, concluding that the Protestant heritage encourages the importance of intentional devotional practices, the development of close parent-child bonds, and the creation of godly household environments. In the end, he argues that all of these historical values are critical to the full expression of Christian parental love. This is a love that teaches because it wants to help children understand true goodness; that admonishes and restrains because it wants to protect children from whatever keeps them from true pleasure and joy; that fosters strong relationships so children might experience the lavishness of God’s love; that models Christlike sacrifice and guides children into the arms of their Creator.