Chapter 9: Parenting and Child Development: Exploring the Links with Children’s Social, Moral, and Cognitive Competence

As Pope John Paul II has stated, “The future of humanity passes by way of the family” (John Paul II, 1981, #86). The family is both foundational and fundamental to our vitality as a society and as a Church. Furthermore, a family is “our first community and the most basic way in which the Lord gathers us, forms us, and acts in the world” (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1993, p. 8). Within this first community, parents are undoubtedly their children’s first teachers. As models and guides, parents provide the first crucial underpinnings that will support children’s development in the years ahead. However, families today, and parents in particular, are faced with challenge and complexity manifested through society’s continual social, economic, moral, and political changes (National Conference, 1972). While some critics have gone so far as to question whether parents matter in the lives of children (Harris, 1998), the research reviewed throughout this chapter illustrates the myriad ways that parents are truly instrumental in fostering child and adolescent development.