Handbook of Parenting: Volume 3: Being and Becoming a Parent, Third Edition

Parenting is shaped by more than the parent–child relationship alone. Family structure, personal development, social context, and the experiences parents bring from their own upbringing all matter. This research-focused volume of the Handbook of Parenting examines those connections, bringing together specialist perspectives on who provides care and how people become and develop as parents.

Who takes on the work of parenting?

Part I, “The Parent,” explores the variety of people and relationships involved in caregiving. Its chapters address mothers and fathers, family systems, coparenting and parental gatekeeping, adolescent parents, grandparents, single parents, divorced and remarried parents, lesbian and gay parents, sibling caregivers, and nonparental care. Together, these topics offer a broad view of parenting across different family arrangements and caregiving roles.

Becoming and being a parent

Part II follows the experiences and characteristics of parents themselves. Topics include the intergenerational transmission of parenting, reproductive technologies, the transition to parenthood, stages of parental development, well-being, emotions, self-efficacy, cognitions, and attributions. Further chapters consider socialization and children’s values, personality in parenting, and psychoanalytic perspectives on parenthood.

Research placed in context

The handbook’s chapters are designed to examine their subjects through historical context, central questions and theory, established and contemporary research, and possible directions for future study. That structure makes the volume useful for readers who want more than a quick overview: it connects individual aspects of parenting to the wider questions and evidence surrounding them.

A scholarly reference for parenting and family research

Edited by Marc H. Bornstein, this third-edition volume is suited to students and researchers in psychology, child development, and family studies, as well as professionals and policymakers interested in research-based perspectives on parenting. Its wide-ranging chapters make it a substantial reference for exploring the people, relationships, and developmental processes behind the practice of parenting.