ABSTRACT
Both the literatures on parenting and healthy personality development identify certain common ingredients to effective parenting (e.g., Erikson, 1968; Gibbs, 1989; Gordon, 1970; Winnicott, 1965). Effective parents show their love for their children through displays of affection and nurturance and are neither too restrictive nor too permissive when they discipline them. They relate to their children in developmentally appropriate ways, provide for their basic needs, and promote their psychological, moral, and social development. They possess a firm sense of who they are and therefore are able to rear their children to be autonomous individuals yet as very much a part of themselves and humankind. Effective parents also evince continuity by transmitting culture to their children, thereby endowing them with the signs, tools, and values to best navigate their lives and to pass on to future generations. Effective parents help to positively shape their children’s identities.
