Handbook of Parenting

The Handbook of Parenting brings together in a single volume much of the theoretical and empirical knowledge and aspects of professional activity within the broadly defined field of parenting. Contributions are presented from an internationally renowned group of scholars known for their work in a range of disciplines, including child and family psychology, education and family studies, providing an accessible map of the major debates in theory, research and practice in this important and exciting field.

The material is presented comprehensively. It encompasses essential policy and professional issues in all the main areas of current concern from parenting in culturally divergent settings, to parenting children with special needs in areas of physical, mental, social and educational functioning, to looking at ways in which the wider community and technological advances may be able to provide parenting support.

Published in a single-volume format, this handbook will prove an invaluable and essential resource. Academics, researchers, practitioners and advanced students in a host of disciplines will gain from its breadth, wealth of information and enormous insight into the principal issues related to parenting theory and practice in the 21st century. The distinctive contribution of this handbook is to present a vast body of research and other information in a manner that is usable by practitioners in a wide range of child and parental support activities.

Masud Hoghughi is Director of Aycliffe Centre for Children, County Durham and Honorary Professor of Psychology, University of Hull. He is the author of Troubled and Troublesome (1978) and The Delinquent (1983) and co-author of Assessing Problem Children (1980) and Treating Problem Children (1988). Dr. Long is a Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of Pediatric Psychology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a licensed clinical psychologist. He is also the Director of the Center for Effective Parenting. Dr. Long has published extensively in the area of parenting and has been a frequently invited speaker on parenting at the national and international level. In addition, Dr. Long has also developed, evaluated, and disseminated various parenting programs. Dr. Long and his colleagues of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded “Parents Matter” study found that early prevention efforts with parents to reduce sexual intentions of adolescents can be effective. One-year follow-up data from the Parents Matter study indicates that parents participating in the prevention intervention, relative to the control intervention, demonstrated increased parent-pre-adolescent sexual communication and improved parent comfort with and responsiveness to sex-related questions. The CDC is currently replicating this study in Kenya. The CDC is also developing training materials for a national dissemination of this prevention program. Dr. Long continues to be actively involved in conducting parenting classes, having taught an average of 600 parents per year in parenting classes over the past 15 years. Dr. Long has a leadership role in several regional and national organizations concerned with parenting and children.