Assessing parenting behaviors to improve child outcomes.

Parenting is increasingly recognized as an upstream, near-universal determinant of social, economic, and health outcomes. Pediatricians know that effective parenting can buffer many adverse childhood events, thereby decreasing toxic stress and improving health. Unlike many other determinants of health, parenting behaviors are modifiable. The upstream and modifiable nature of parenting combine to make it an effective, although underused, lever of pediatric outcomes.