Parenting Under Stress

All parents experience stress as they attempt to meet the challenges of caring for their children. This comprehensive book examines the causes and consequences of parenting distress, drawing on a wide array of findings in current empirical research. Kirby Deater-Deckard explores normal and pathological parenting stress, the influences of parents on their children as well as children on their parents, and the effects of biological and environmental factors. Beginning with an overview of theories of stress and coping, Deater-Deckard goes on to describe how parenting stress is linked with problems in adult and child health (emotional problems, developmental disorders, illness); parental behaviors (warmth, harsh discipline); and factors outside the family (marital quality, work roles, cultural influences). The book concludes with a useful review of coping strategies and interventions that have been demonstrated to alleviate parenting stress.

This book is intended to raise parents awareness of stress they and their children go through as they face the pressures of modern life. When parents become aware of these pressures they can deal with them, model a positive attitude to their children, and help children express and manage their emotions in order to ensure a healthier development of children and a better relationship in the family. The book is divided into four chapters: Chapter 1 explores sources of stress in modern life while Chapter 2 demonstrates how stress impacts parenting through the elements: academic pressure, extracurricular activities, and toys. Chapter 3 lays out the intellectual, emotional, physical and social symptoms suffered by children of stressed-out parents. Ways out of the rat race are portrayed in Chapter 4.

A study of the effect of poor environments on parenting. The authors explore what professionals and policy-makers can do to assist families living in poverty.

This book examines the complex impact of parenting stress and the effects of its transmission on young children’s development and well-being (e.g., emotion self-regulation; executive functioning; maltreatment; future parenting practices). It analyzes current findings on acute and chronic psychological and socioeconomic stressors affecting parents, including those associated with poverty and cultural disparities, pregnancy and motherhood, and caring for children with developmental disabilities. Contributors explore how parental stress affects cognitive, affective, behavioral, and neurological development in children while pinpointing core adaptation, resilience, and coping skills parents need to reduce abusive and other negative behaviors and promote optimal outcomes in their children. These nuanced bidirectional perspectives on parent/child dynamics aim to inform clinical strategies and future research targeting parental stress and its cyclical impact on subsequent generations. Included in the coverage: Parental stress and child temperament. How social structure and culture shape parental strain and the well-being of parents and children. The stress of parenting children with developmental disabilities. Consequences and mechanisms of child maltreatment and the implications for parenting. How being mothered affects the development of mothering. Prenatal maternal stress and psychobiological development during childhood. Parenting Stress and Early Child Development is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians and related professionals, and graduate students in infancy and early childhood development, developmental psychology, pediatrics, family studies, and developmental neuroscience.

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.

GIVE YOUR CHILDREN BACK THEIR CHILDHOOD. We like to think of childhood as a carefree, relaxed time of life, but the truth is, children today experience more stress than ever before: parents' fast-paced lifestyles, the frequent breakup of families, urban crime, schools in turmoil, and a host of other problems. However, according to Bettie B. Youngs, Ph.D., Ed.D, one of America's most admired experts on child psychology, children--by mastering skills of coping and self-awareness--can actually draw vitality from stress and channel it to promote health, fitness, and self-esteem. Stress and Your Child helps parents understand the pressures that their children face and explores the essential ways to reduce, manage, and prevent stress from birth to age twenty. Dr. Youngs leads parents through each stage of their child's emotional and social development and teaches them: -- How to recognize the physical and emotional signs of stress in children -- How to understand school-related stress, including social pressures, personal safety, and test-taking -- How parental stress affects children--and what parents can do to alleviate t -- How teaching kids self-esteem and emotional honesty can help them cope wth stress -- How diet, physical activity, and realistic schedules can help to minimize stress in children Stress and Your Child is an invaluable parenting guide. No family can afford to be without it!