Parenting Matters

Parenting Matters
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2016-11-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309388570

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Dynamics of Fertility and Partnership in Europe

Dynamics of Fertility and Partnership in Europe
Author: United Nations Population Fund
Publisher: New York and Geneva : United Nations
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2002
Genre: Families
ISBN:

This publication is a product of the Fertility and Family Survey (FFS) project, which was conducted between 1988 and 1999 by the Population Activities Unit (PAU) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), with financial support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The objectives of the project were: 1) to conduct comparable Fertility and Family Surveys in UNECE member countries; 2) to create and archive FFS Standard Recode Files (SRFs); 3) to prepare FFS Standard Country Reports (SCRs); 4) to carry out a program of cross-country comparative research. The FFS IWG organized an end-of-project conference; the FFS Flagship Conference became an occasion for many researchers to present their findings of comparative analyses based on FFS data, in particular those studying partnership and fertility behavior. Volume one presents selected contributions to the FFS Flagship Conference solicited by the Organising Committee of the Conference. The second volume presents contributions received in response to a call for papers issued by the Organising Committee.

Population Policy and the U.S. Constitution

Population Policy and the U.S. Constitution
Author: L.D. Barnett
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 940172718X

A few decades ago a monograph on the legal aspects of population control would have looked mainly at legal prohibitions. The salient legal problems were restriction of the use of birth control and dissemination of information about it. The assumption in such an approach would have been that effective population control is legally affected only by the clearly stated restrictions in the law. In other respects, the law could be assumed to be neutral. Judicial and legislative changes have eliminated practically all restrictions on the means of contraception. This development, how ever, has not freed population from its relation to the law; on the contrary, it has exposed the importance of law as a motivating force for and against population control. Although much applied work in population control is directed toward the distribution of contracep tives, concentration on the means of population control has shown itself to be of doubtful value. From many sides the primary impor tance of motivation has been recognized, along with the need to influence motivation and to analyze the conditions under which motivational change is possible. At this point the role of the law ix X FOREWORD becomes apparent, along with the recognition that law has not been neutral in this issue-that, in fact, it cannot be neutral. Larry Barnett has undertaken a pioneering effort in identifying the areas of law important to changing people's motivations in regard to population control and to a reduction in individual family size.

The Best Intentions

The Best Intentions
Author: Committee on Unintended Pregnancy
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 1995-06-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309556376

Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnancies--and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescents--are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issues--health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on population--are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitions--"unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"--and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals. May

The Contraceptive Revolution

The Contraceptive Revolution
Author: Charles F. Westoff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2015-03-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1400871751

Here is the full report of the 1970 National Fertility Study, a national sample survey for which thousands of women were interviewed who had been married at some time and were of reproductive age when they were interviewed. The book assesses the growth in the use of the pill and the IUD, the increasing reliance on contraceptive sterilization, and both the intended and the unwanted fertility of American women. The volume opens with an introduction to the survey and its methods. Contraceptive practice in 1970 is then compared with data for 1965, and an analysis is supplied of trends since 1955 in the attitudes of Roman Catholics. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Offspring

Offspring
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2003-05-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 030908718X

Despite recent advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of human behavior, little of this work has penetrated into formal demography. Very few demographers worry about how biological processes might affect voluntary behavior choices that have demographic consequences even though behavioral geneticists have documented genetics effects on variables such as parenting and divorce. Offspring: Human Fertility Behavior in Demographic Perspective brings together leading researchers from a wide variety of disciplines to review the state of research in this emerging field and to identify promising research directions for the future.

Publications

Publications
Author: University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research
Publisher:
Total Pages: 610
Release: 1986
Genre: Social sciences
ISBN: