Early childhood: Learning to be safe at home

Humans have an exceptionally long childhood and delayed puberty because it takes that long for them to learn to protect themselves and prepare to protect their children. The focus of Chapters 2 and 3 is how, during the 15-20 years of childhood, children learn to be parents. Again, the emphasis is on universal processes that are accomplished with individual differences and the implications of these differences for parental competence.