Why it matters

The political leaders, social scientists and professional experts agree that parenting has a powerful positive impact on a range of social outcomes from academic performance and school attendance to health, social confidence, stability of romantic relationships and future career success.

There’s a clear financial impact on the public sector too. A child with conduct disorder at 10 years of age will cost £70,000 in public services by the age of 28, compared to £10,400 for a child with no problems (Scott et al. (2001) longitudinal study, refers to 1998 figures).

There is also a general consensus that the cause of the recent unrest on the streets of Britain was, in part, poor parenting. Children learn to take responsibility and the consequences of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ primarily from their parents

Being a parent of young children is difficult. More than two thirds of parents say their life was easier before having children, one in four admitted they didn't cope easily and nearly one in five worry that other people are more competent parents. Most parents think it's harder to raise children as 'good people' than 20 years ago (BMRB Omnibus Survey, 2006).

It doesn’t have to be so hard. Our research has identified the seven parenting priorities: rules, health, love, friends and family, chat, arguments, and finally, learn.
 

• Our research has identified the 7 parenting priorities:

• Rules

  How to be consistent with limit setting

  Poor parental discipline and monitoring puts children at risk for later delinquency by setting in motion a chain of impact that progresses the development of antisocial behaviour (Patterson et al., 1989).

  

• Health

  How to raise healthy children

  Parental intervention such as rewards can be an effective way for parents to improve their children's diet. (Cooke et al, 2011)

  

• Love

  How to balance warmth and discipline

  Many who are violent or with a history of criminality are so because they have not had meaningful attachment relationships in early life that would allow them to identify with others (Gerhardt, 2004)

  

• Friends and Family

  How to build a support network for parents and children

  Family stressors have been identified as creating pathways to disrupted family management practices putting children at risk for developing antisocial behaviour, including unemployment, family violence, marital conflict and divorce (Patterson, 1998).

  

• Chat

  How to communicate

  Communication such as active listening by parents relieves social frustration later since children find out what they are feeling and how to express it (Gordon, 2000)

  

• Arguments

  How to handle conflict

  The ability to delay gratification calmly is a key component of self-regulation and this ability in childhood is a strong predictor of positive outcome in later life from drug and alcohol use, poor academic achievement and poor self-concept (Wulfert et al., 2002)

  

• Learn

  How to encourage learning

  Parenting influences children to view mistakes as challenges rather than stressors to become resilient learners (Brooks and Goldstein, 2001)