ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the most important issue of parent-child relationships. Early family experience has long been thought to lay the foundation for childhood and adult characteristics. Theories about development have often emphasized the role of parents, given parents' importance in determining children's early physical and social environment. From a scientific viewpoint, the only definitive way to identify parental effects is to use the experimental method. The most commonly used approach to identify parental effects is the correlational study. Some of the most dramatic examples of parental effects on development do not come from human research but rather from animal research. The flip side of the parent-association coin concerns the negative outcomes that have been associated with parenting practices and parental characteristics. With regard to parent-child associations, mediating variables are most often cognitive, affective, or personality characteristics in children.
