ABSTRACT
High societal expectations, limited social support, and poor preparation for the parenting role combine to make modern parenthood an exceedingly complex task (LeMasters & DeFrain, 1989). Nevertheless, despite medical advances that allow for individual choice in childbearing and demographic changes that press against it, parenthood remains a role undertaken by most adults in contemporary U.S. society (Neal, Groat, & Wicks, 1989). Parents identify childrearing as their most powerful learning experience (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986); however, most research on parents (except studies on the transition to parenthood) focuses on unidirectional effects of parents on children (Bell, 1968; Goodnow & Collins, 1990). In this chapter, I examine indicators of psychosocial development among parents of school-age children as they participate in a parent education program affiliated with their children’s school.
