Parenting Programs and Their Impact on the Social and Emotional Development of Young Children

Introduction Modifying parenting attitudes and behaviours has been a central focus of many programs designed to improve the social and emotional development of young children. The impetus for focusing on parenting is based on common sense and a large body of research demonstrating associations between parenting in early childhood and a number of later socio-emotional outcomes. Even before formal research studies were initiated on the effects of early socialization practices in relation to children’s later psychosocial outcomes, many community-based programs focused on parenting because of young children’s physical and psychological dependence on caregivers. This emphasis on parenting has been bolstered since the 1940s, when research on the effects of early parenting was formally initiated. Since then a plethora of studies, including those utilizing genetically informed designs, have found associations between caregiving behaviours in early childhood and later child outcomes. A number of parenting dimensions have been associated with various types of child adjustment. On the positive side, early caregiving characterized as sensitive, responsive, involved, proactive and providing structure has been associated with positive socio-emotional adjustment. Conversely, parenting in early childhood (from birth to five years) characterized as neglectful, harsh, distant, punitive, intrusive and reactive has been associated with various types of maladjustment. In general, parenting programs for young children have varied based on the theoretical orientation of the intervention model (e.g. social learning, attachment), the developmental status of the child (e.g. prenatal, infancy, preschool-age), and the breadth of child behaviours targeted for intervention (e.g. externalizing problems, social and cognitive outcomes). Some programs are held with groups of parents, others work with individual parents and are typically home-based, while others incorporate parenting as part of a schoolor daycare-based program.