ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a guideline for assessing parents for adequacy, or minimal competency. The theory of adequate, or good enough, parenting stems from other ideas like D. W. Winnicott’s good enough mother, Gottman’s good enough marriage, adequate family systems functioning, and minimal parenting standards. This model is useful for completing forensic evaluations for parenting and risk for child maltreatment. Parents do not have to be ideal or engage in intensive parenting in order to not engage in child abuse or neglect. This chapter explores the progression of societal views on childhood through history, leading to modern Western parenting ideas. A model for assessing adequate parenting is presented in terms of children’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.
