How Parenting Affects Child Development
Parenting and Child Development
Parents want the best for their children, so it makes sense that as a parent you want to do your best to support your child to develop to meet their full potential. Parenting Research shows us that parenting plays a pivotal role in child development, particularly when it comes to academic performance, self esteem and overall happiness.
Core aspects of child development
The 'Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8 (2016) paper identifies the following core areas of child development
1. Physical health and safety
Receiving care that leads to normative standards for growth and physical development.
2. Emotional wellbeing and Behavioural competence
Receiving care that leads to a healthy sense of self, an ability to cope with stress and the ability to regulate emotions accordingly.
3. Social competence
Receiving care that supports children to be able to develop and maintain positive relationships, including developing empathy, cooperation and sharing skills.
4. Cognitive competence
Receiving care that leads to skills and capabilities needed to succeed in school and the wider world.
How well you as a parent support your child to achieve these core competencies will be dependent on your parenting knowledge, attitudes and practices.
Parenting Practices
A number of studies have shown that eating dinner as a family not only reduces the risk of children being overweight or obese, but also results in better relationships, better academic performance and better social outcomes.
The importance of the first 7 years of your child's development
The first 7 years of life have been described as the most crucial as this is when your child's brain is developing its mapping system. Whilst this period doesn't determine your child's happiness for life (many factors influence this), brain development in the first 7 years provides the foundation for communication and interaction with the world by constantly reviewing the ways in which they are being responded to. This period makes a time when parents/caregivers spend the most time with their children (pre-school) and thus have the most influence on brain development during this critical developmental period.
Before children turn 3 years old, they’re already forming 1 million neural connections every minute
The impact of stress in the first 7 years of child development
Ongoing stress is unhealthy for everyone. However, when toxic, ongoing stress is experienced in early childhood, it interferes with the brain's architure. If children do not have supportive relationships to counteract stress, it can become toxic for the brain. This toxitity can damage brain connections dedicated to higher-order skills.
The Centre of the developing child at Harvard University notes:
How parenting affects child development - through reading and positive wellbeing
A study published in 2020 looked into the early learning and development of young children in England, Estonia and the United States. The study found that parenting behaviour played a pivotal role in child development. Positive impacts were observed in literacy, nuermacy, self regulation and social-emotional skills in 5 year olds were observed when parents engaged in activities like regularly reading to children.
Another 2016 study found that there was a strong association between parent's health and their corresponding child's health. This association is likely to be caused by a range of factors such as genetics, culture, role modelling and lifestyle.
How parenting affects child development - through parenting styles
There are four parenting styles that are often spoken about in the literature. Gerenall there is consensus that the Authoritative parenting style tends to result in the best outcome for children, particularly when it comes to feeling secure, performing well academically and being more independent. Below is a summary of each of the four parenting styles, how parents tend to project these and a few commonly observed outcomes in children as a result of these parenting styles. It should be noted, however, that these are not always cause and effect. they are trends and as noted throughout this article, child development is heavily influenced by parenting, but many other factors come into play and can have an impact on child development.
Source: Psychreg
Remember - there are a range of factors that impact a child's development
According to psychologist Yuko Munakata, science shows us that parenting plays an important role in parenting, but is not the whole picture. So it's important to keep this in mind. You have a major role to play, but you can't control everything. Good parenting directly impacts your child's happiness, self esteem and academic motivation, however, you cannot control everything in your child's life.
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