This book addresses what parents believe about children—both children in general and their own children in particular. Its scope is broad, encompassing beliefs directed to numerous aspects of children’s development in both the cognitive and social realms, developments that span the age periods from birth through adolescence. Although the focus is on typical development, departures from the norm in both children’s functioning and parental practices are also discussed. Four questions are addressed for every topic considered: What is the nature of parents’ beliefs? What are the origins of parents’ beliefs? How do parents’ beliefs relate to parents’ behavior? And how do parents’ beliefs relate to children’s development? These questions tie in to long-standing theoretical issues in psychology, they are central to our understanding of both parenting practices and children’s development, and they speak to some of the most important pragmatic issues for which psychology can provide answers. The major goal of the book is to convey the main conclusions from the large body of work that has addressed these questions. Because much still remains to be learned, a second goal is to identify needed directions for further study.
Editorial: Children's Development During Social Transition
