ABSTRACT
Despite some attempts to downplay it (e.g. Harris 1995, 1998; Rowe 1994), nobody seriously argues against the proposition that parent±child microsystems provide one of the most important arenas for children's development as social persons. Proverbial wisdom, biographers' practice, individual reminiscence, systematic research all provide countless examples of parental interaction with children having a formative in¯uence on the child (and on the parent, though that is a story I shall largely neglect). For all sorts of reasons stretching from basic biology to the furthest extremes of cultural studies, it would be extraordinary to ignore parents as factors in their children's development. In this chapter, I am going to begin to document some of the multitude of ways in which this all works. I will begin with a brief recapitulation of what evolutionary theory would suggest about parents and children's development; outline some of the ways of looking at what parents do; and review some of the ®ndings about how what parents do affects children.
