Behavioral health in child and youth: the importance of parental influence

Parenting is, currently, one of the most addressed processes from research in developmental sciences, often even as a predictor of children’s and youth’s welfare along the entire lifecycle [1]. In fact, parent practices have been highlighted as a major public health issue related to the community health [2]. In the empirical field, nowadays there is significant accumulated evidence about the influence of parental resources and behaviors on children’s later outcomes [3]. In short, different studies have demonstrated the undisputable role of what children and youth observe and learn from parents on their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in many spheres of life [4]. For instance, different processes such as educational success, crime, (un)employability, physical and mental health, have been considered as significantly-predicted outcomes from parenting performance and parenting styles [1,2,5].