The Future of Parenting Programs: An Introduction

Human children do not and cannot survive and grow in a solitary way to achieve responsible adult maturity. They require caregiving and support from parents. Reciprocally, good parenting calls for attentive, nurturant, and constructive action with children. Therefore, scholars and practitioners who work with families are invested in optimizing child development through parenting, and programs designed to promote parenting abound around the world. However, the development, application, and integration of parenting programs to date are too often siloed and haphazard. In consequence, successes of parenting programs have been hampered, and the time, efforts, energy, and funds supporting them have too often been spent achieving only limited effects, not always at scale. The purpose of this Parenting: Science and Practice Special Issue is to guide the design, implementation, uptake, and scaling of future parenting programs toward greater rigor, wider acceptance, and ensured accomplishment.