Attachment Parenting

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Why I’m OK If My Son Never Says “I Love You” My 9-year-old son has never said "I love you." I honestly never gave it a second thought until I realized I was being told "I love you" multiple times daily by my 5-year-old daughter.	How We Can Make Sense of Child Behavior: An interview with Barbara Probst We want to celebrate our child's unique traits, but sometimes their differences can be worrying.
This Birth Would’ve Been This Mom’s Worst Nightmare! It Didn’t Stop Her From Loving It My partner and I had asked all the big questions as we got ready for the birth of our son. We'd prepared ourselves both physically and spiritually for what we expected to be a smooth, beautiful childbirth assisted by our midwife.	I Am Raising Children Who Will Someday Feed Themselves: How I Am Getting My Preschoolers Involved In Mealtime Now I breastfed both of my babies. Once we got the hang of things, it was easy. Then I introduced solid foods. I decided that presenting healthy options wasn't enough. I wanted to get them involved in the food they eat.
An Ever-Changing Village: Why Parent Support is Crucial for Military Families One of the many reasons parents find their way to Nurturings is that they're seeking a community and Nurturings can connect them to local parenting groups.	Want To Raise A Creative Child? First, Believe You Are Creative! Then Open Up 15 Minutes Of Your Day We tend to believe that only a few people are genuinely creative, that they are born knowing they are creative and that they go through life with that creative spark undimmed.
Seek Progress Over Perfection with Ourselves and in Parenting Perfectionism is probably the biggest creativity block I run across. When we speak of perfection, we actually are reaching for an unattainable goal, because as human beings, we aren't perfect.	Growing Up Different is OK! What Autism Has Taught This Mom About Raising Her Daughter One of the hardest challenges with raising a special needs child is trying to keep people, including us as her parents, from attmepting to force her into being a "typical" child. Jackie is different.
I Love You When You're Angry I never felt like I could get angry as a child. My parents sure did, but I got the message loud and clear that I was supposed to keep the peace, be good, and above all, never ever lose my cool.	Are You A "Problem Parent"? Happy, confident, caring children grow up in an atmosphere of flexibility and trust, supported by respectful and realistic parents who do not see challenging behaviors as indications that there is a problem with their children.

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Journal Studies

Parenting and Trajectories of Children's Maladaptive Behaviors: A 12-year Prospective Community Study Luyckx, K., Tildesley, E. A., Soenens, B., Andrews, J. A., Hampson, S. E., Peterson, M., & Duriez, B. (2011). Parenting and trajectories of children's maladaptive behaviors: A 12-year prospective community study. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 40(3), 468-478. Authoritative parenting—high on positive parenting and monitoring but low on inconsistent discipline—had the best long-term outcomes of all parenting styles.	Early Attachment Organization Moderates the Parent-Child Mutually Coercive Pathway to Children's Antisocial Conduct Kochanska, G., Barry, R. A., Stellern, S. A., & O’Bleness, J. J. (2009). Early attachment organization moderates the parent-child mutually coercive pathway to children’s antisocial conduct. Child Development, 80(4), 1288-1300. Insecurely attached children showed more resentful opposition toward their mothers than did those with secure attachments.
From Parent to Child to Parent…: Paths In and Out of Problem Behavior Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. (2012). From parent to child to parent…: Paths in and out of problem behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41(4), 1-15. Maternal sensitivity, parental harshness, and productive activity affected child behavior, but child behavior problems influenced parenting choices more so than vice versa, from middle childhood onward.	Double Jeopardy: Poorer Social-Emotional Outcomes for Children in the NICHD SECCYD Experiencing Home and Child-Care Environments That Confer Risk Watamura, S. E., Phillips, D. A., Morrissey, T. W., McCartney, K., & Bub, K. (2011). Double Jeopardy: Poorer Social-Emotional Outcomes for Children in the NICHD SECCYD Experiencing Home and Child-Care Environments That Confer Risk. Child Development, 82(1), 48-65. Regardless of the quality of non-parental child care, children from low-quality home environments had more behavioral problems and children from high-quality homes had fewer behavioral problems.
Do Effects of Early Child Care Extend to Age 15 Years? Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development Vandell, D. L., Belsky, J., Burchinal, M., Steinberg, L., & Vandergrift, N. (2010). Do effects of early child care extend to age 15 Years? Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Child Development, 81(3), 737-756. While high-quality child care was predictive of greater pre-academic skills, children who spent more time in non-parental child care, especially in center-type care, tended to have more behavior problems that continued into adolescence.	Differential Susceptibility to Parenting and Quality Child Care Pluess, M., & Belsky, J. (2010). Differential susceptibility to parenting and quality child care. Developmental Psychology, 46(2), 379-390. High-quality parenting was predictive of greater academic and social skills for all children, but particularly children with a difficult temperament. In addition, high-quality non-parental child care predicted fewer behavioral problems in children with difficult temperaments.
When a Parent Goes to War: Effects of Parental Deployment on Very Young Children and Implications for Intervention Paris, R., DeVoe, E. R., Ross, A. M., & Acker, M. L. (2010). When a parent goes to war: Effects of parental deployment on very young children and implications for intervention. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(4), 610-618. Post-deployment programs that address parenting would be helpful, especially for families with children from birth through age 5, as this age group is particularly vulnerable to changes in attachment patterns.	Early Mother-Child Separation, Parenting, and Child Well-Being in Early Head Start Families Howard, K., Martin, A., Berlin, L. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2011). Early mother-child separation, parenting, and child well-being in Early Head Start families.Attachment & Human Development,13(1), 5-26. While it is well known that traumatic or extended separations negatively impact child development, even week-long separations that occur within the first two years of life have lasting consequences on child behavior.
Patterns of Developmental Change in Infants’ Nighttime Sleep Awakenings from 6 through 36 Months of Age Weinraub, M., Bender, R. H., Friedman, S. L., Susman, E. J., Knoke, B., Bradley, R., ... & Williams, J. (2012). Patterns of Developmental Change in Infants’ Nighttime Sleep Awakenings from 6 through 36 Months of Age. Developmental Psychology, 48(6),1511-1528. Infants with night-wakings were more likely to be boys, be breastfed, have a difficult temperament, come from a large family, have a depressed mother, be in a single-parent home, and/or attend fewer hours of non-parental child care; however, this tendency for more night-wakings tended to resolve by 18 months.	Infant Sleep and Paternal Involvement in Infant Caregiving During the First 6 Months of Life Tikotzky, L., Sadeh, A., & Glickman-Gavrieli, T. (2011). Infant sleep and paternal involvement in infant caregiving during the first 6 months of life. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 36(1), 36-46. In solitary sleep arrangements, mothers were more involved in nighttime parenting than fathers, and breastfeeding was related to less father involvement. More father involvement early on predicted fewer night-wakings by 6 months.

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