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Synopsis
Challenging parents to take responsibility for their children, Nigel Barber explains that effective parenting requires a great deal of parental investment.
VOYA
Psychologist and author Barber bases his latest parenting book on a comprehensive collection of experimental evidence that substantiates the importance of good parenting practices in the rearing of children. The observable differences of "high investment parenting" and "low investment parenting" are stressed in nine chapters that describe not only the traits that distinguish high-low investment but also how the affects of divorce, teenage pregnancy, sibling rivalry, money, working mothers, and racial groups contribute to the potential outcome. The final two chapters center on strategies for improving parental investment and exploring how the role of society—community and school—can assist parents with this paramount task. An appendix responds to frequently voiced objections or replies to the topic. To the already involved parent, Barber's research simply reinforces common good parenting techniques: providing nurturing homes filled with intellectually stimulating activities and toys, changing inappropriate behavior by opening lines of communication in lieu of punishment or scolding, establishing trusting relationships with children, and maintaining commitment between parents. The author contends that low investment is the root of the very societal woes—delinquency, poverty, unemployment—that perpetuate the cycle of neglect and despair for many preschool children in the critical age of enormous social, intellectual, and emotional development. His theory presents a truly bleak reality. This book provides an interesting read and certainly should be examined by anyone planning to have children, but it is also ideal for middle and high schools with parenting or childdevelopment classes. Barber's work would also work well in public or academic library collections. Index. Charts. Source Notes. Appendix. 2000, Greenwood, 232p, . Ages Adult. Reviewer: Cheryl Karp Ward SOURCE: VOYA, June 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 2)