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Towards functional specificity in parenting

Nature Reviews Psychology (2024)Cite this article

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The ultimate goal of caregivers in parenting is to socialize their child in preparation for the real world. This is a complex goal, and research is needed to clarify exactly how parenting accomplishes socialization. Research has often focused on vague parenting constructs such as ‘positive parenting’ or ‘insensitivity’ that implicitly broadly categorize parents as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ However, lack of precision in parenting constructs hampers researchers’ ability to chart how parenting behaviours influence children’s development.

During my first year of graduate school, I read a 2010 paper by Grusec and Davidov that revolutionized my thinking on parenting. Grusec and Davidov define five domains of socialization, each of which serves a unique caregiving function. By emphasizing the function over the form of caregiving behaviours, the framework connects specific domains of child development to relevant caregiving behaviours. These domains define key developmental socialization processes guided by parents, which gives a richer and more varied outlook on the function of parenting. For example, one parent might feel confident in their ability to soothe their upset child in the protection domain, but struggle with disciplining their child in the control domain.

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References

Original article

  • Grusec, J. E. & Davidov, M. Integrating different perspectives on socialization theory and research: a domain-specific approach. Child Dev. 81, 687–709 (2010)

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Hannah Swerbenski

  2. Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Hannah Swerbenski

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  1. Hannah Swerbenski
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Correspondence to Hannah Swerbenski.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Swerbenski, H. Towards functional specificity in parenting. Nat Rev Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00309-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00309-w

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