The most common caretakers in parenting are the biological parents of the child in question. However, a caretaker may be an older sibling, step-parent, grandparent, legal guardian, aunt, uncle, other family members, or a family friend.[2]Governments and society may also have a role in child-rearing or upbringing. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent or non-blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised in foster care, or placed in an orphanage. Parenting skills vary, and a parent or surrogate with good parenting skills may be referred to as a good parent.[3]
Parenting styles vary by historical period, race/ethnicity, social class, preference, and a few other social features.[4] Additionally, research supports that parental history, both in terms of attachments of varying quality and parental psychopathology, particularly in the wake of adverse experiences, can strongly influence parental sensitivity and child outcomes.[5][6][7] Parenting may have long-term impacts on adoptive children as well, as recent research has shown that warm adoptive parenting reduces internalizing and externalizing problems of the adoptive children over time.[8]
^Schechter, D.S., & Willheim, E. (2009). Disturbances of attachment and parental psychopathology in early childhood. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Issue. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics of North America, 18(3), 665-87.
^Grienenberger, J., Kelly, K. & Slade, A. (2005). Maternal Reflective Functioning, Mother-Infant Affective Communication and Infant Attachment: Exploring The Link Between Mental States and Observed Caregiving. Attachment and Human Development, 7, 299-311.
^Lieberman, A.F.; Padrón, E.; Van Horn, P.; Harris, W.W. (2005). "Angels in the nursery: The intergenerational transmission of benevolent parental influences". Infant Ment. Health J. 26 (6): 504–20. CiteSeerX10.1.1.964.1341. doi:10.1002/imhj.20071. PMID28682485.