ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the assembled researchers from developmental science, sociology, and the health sciences to re-examines and extend the study of how socioeconomic factors affect parenting and child development and to bring in the sociocultural and ethnic diversity of the society. It then deals with methodological issues of conceptualization, measurement, and design. An important methodological problem is the issue of how socioeconomic status (SES) should be conceptualized and measured. Research on the effects of socioeconomic factors on parenting and children's development has been conducted for many years. A major challenge for developmental science is to understand the links that connect socioeconomic factors to child outcomes. In view of the socioeconomically based differences in parents' personal and material resources for coping with stress, in the neighborhood environment, and in parental attitudes, values, goals, and knowledge, attending to socioeconomic factors in studies of parenting and child development is extremely important.
