First Published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The study of parent-child relationships has long been of interest to behavioral scientists, both for its theoretical importance and for its practice and policy implications. There are, however, certain limitations to the knowledge in this area. First, research on parents and children is spread throughout a number of disciplines and as a consequence is not well integrated. Further, there has been little dialogue among researchers concerned with parents of young children and those interested in middle-aged and elderly parents and their offspring. The present volume predicates the notion that there is considerable similarity in the issues explored by researchers on different points of the life course. Contributions by leading scholars in psychology, sociology, and anthropology are organized into four sections, each of which contains a treatment of at least two stages in the life course. The sections cover attachment in early childhood and in later life, life course transitions, relationships within families, and the influence of social structural factors on parent-child relations. Although the chapters make important contributions to basic research and theory, many also deal with issues of public concern, such as day care, maternal employment, gay and lesbian relationships, and care of the elderly.

This life-course analysis of family development focuses on the social dynamics among family members. It features parent-child relationships in a larger context, by examining the help exchange between kin and nonkin and the intergenerational transmission of family characteristics.

Modern families face challenges unprecedented in human history. The time, attention and vigilance required of parents is exhausting and consuming family life. Parents are required to balance complex schedules, be technology aware, social media informed, constantly monitor children’s screen time and media communication, cope with academic problems, shield them from the dangers of immorality, find inventive ways to overcome their boredom, organize extracurricular activities, and handle everything within financially constrained circumstances that increasingly require both to be working. Little wonder that anxiety is on the rise and parents are increasingly fearing for their children’s future. The authors in this book attempt to address parents’ concerns and equip them with the confidence and tools necessary to work towards understanding and addressing the real needs of both themselves and their children, to nurture the child’s character, self-confidence, life skills, moral boundaries, spiritual development and much more. There is no quick-fix. Myths are debunked, and practical tips offered throughout which can be implemented immediately, with fun activities outlined at the end of each chapter with the aim of improving parent-child relationships through bonding, love, patience, openness, respect and communication.

This handbook provides an interdisciplinary perspective on theory, research and methodology on dynamic processes in parent-child relations. It focuses on cognitive, behavioural and relational processes that govern immediate parent-child interactions and long-term relationships.

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Now in the Ninth Edition, Jerry Bigner's Parent-Child Relations, the classic resource for child development professionals and parents themselves, has undergone a thorough revision anchored by the vision of the late Dr. Bigner and executed by new co-author, Clara Gerhardt. Maintaining its fundamental structure and unique approach, the text uses family systems and systemic family development theory as a framework to explore how parent-child re.

'The history of childhood is an area so full of errors, distortion and misinterpretation that I thought it vital, if progress were to be made, to supply a clear review of the information on childhood contained in such sources as diaries and autobiographies.' Dr Pollock's statement in her Preface will startle readers who have not questioned the validity of recent theories on the evolution of childhood and the treatment of children, theories which see a movement from a situation where the concept of childhood was almost absent, and children were cruelly treated, to our present western recognition that children are different and should be treated with love and affection. Linda examines this thesis particularly through the close and careful analysis of some hundreds of English and American primary sources. Through these sources, she has been able to reconstruct, probably for the first time, a genuine picture of childhood in the past, and it is a much more humane and optimistic picture than the current stereotype. Her book contains a mass of novel and original material on child-rearing practices and the relations of parents and children, and sets this in the wider framework of developmental psychology, socio-biology and social anthropology. Forgotten Children admirably fulfils the aim of its author. In the face of this scholarly and elegant account of the continuity of parental care, few will now be able to argue for dramatic transformations in the twentieth century.