Conclusion

Parenting factors include characteristics of the parent, such as gender and personality, as well as characteristics of the child, such as age. Parenting style provides a robust indicator of parental functioning that predicts child well-being across a wide spectrum of environments and across diverse communities of children. Both parental responsiveness and parental demandingness are important components of good parenting. Furthermore, parenting influences not just a child’s development, but also the development of the caregiver. The interaction among all these factors creates many different patterns of parenting behavior. As caregivers are faced with new challenges, they change their parenting strategies and construct new aspects of their identity. The goals and tasks of caregivers change over time as their children develop (Darling & Steinberg, 1993; Baumrind, 1991; and Barber, 1996).