Supporting Parents: How Six Decades of Parenting Research Can Inform Policy and Best Practice

n this paper, we call attention to the need to expand existing efforts and to develop policies, programs, and best practices in the United States designed to support parents at risk and promote parenting competence. Despite the existence of some services offered to parents of children at risk due to developmental delay or at economic risk, the United States lags behind many other industrialized countries in the level and quality of support provided to families and parents. We outline in this paper what 60 years of research has informed us about the elements of competent parenting, distal and proximal factors that place competent parenting at risk, and recommended policies and practices that can either be expanded or developed to identify and support parents at risk and promote parenting competence.