Parenting and Child Development

In recent years, parenting research has demonstrated that toxic stressors such as intimate partner violence, postpartum depression, and substance abuse significantly diminish the quality of mother-child interaction. Moreover, research has shown that childhood is a sensitive period, during which cumulative exposure to adversities inhibits relationship quality, mother-child interaction and subsequent child health and developmental outcomes. Researchers have focused upon identifying populations at risk and interventions to improve related outcomes.

Parenting and Child Development: Issues and Answers encompasses a collection of seminal studies by renowned researcher Dr Nicole Letourneau. The book starts with an examination of the mechanisms by which parent-child interaction and child developmental outcomes are diminished among high-risk families. Promising results of peer support and reflective functioning interventions to promote parent-child interaction and healthy child development are then presented. Finally, the book includes studies that investigate the relationship between genetics, parent-child relationships and child behaviour.

A unique collection of research papers that focuses on improving the quality of mother-child interaction and child developmental outcomes among high-risk populations. Demonstrates the efficacy and importance of related interventions.

Content

SECTION I - PREDICTORS OF PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Fostering Resiliency in Infants and Young Children through Parent-Infant Interaction; Postpartum Depression is a Family Affair: Addressing the Impact on Mothers, Fathers, and Children; Socioeconomic Status and Child Development: A Meta-analysis; Adolescent Mothers: Support Needs, Resources, and Support-education Interventions; Intergenerational Transmission of Adverse Childhood Experiences via Maternal Depression and Anxiety and Moderation by Child Sex; Mothering and Domestic Violence: A Longitudinal Analysis.

SECTION II - INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Improving Adolescent Parent-infant Interactions: A Pilot Study; Supporting Parents: Can Intervention Improve Parent-child Relationships?; Interventions with Depressed Mothers and their Infants: Modifying Interactive Behaviours; The Effect of Home-based Peer Support on Maternal-infant Interactions Among Women with Postpartum Depression: A Randomized, Controlled Trial; Quasi-experimental Evaluation of a Telephone-based Peer Support Intervention for Maternal Depression; A Narrative and Meta-analytic Review of Interventions Aiming to Improve Maternal-child Attachment Security.

SECTION III - EPIGENETICS AND NEW DIRECTIONS

How Do Interactions Between Early Caregiving Environment and Genes Influence Health and Behavior?; Parenting Interacts With Plasticity Genes in Predicting Behavioral Outcomes in Preschoolers; Epilogue - Relationships are the Antidote to Toxic Stress.