by Pascal Rocha da Silva

Introducing the Global Day of Parents, the United Nations states that “The Global Day provides an opportunity to appreciate all parents in all parts of the world for their selfless commitment to children and their lifelong sacrifice towards nurturing this relationship”[1].

Truth be told, being a parent can sometimes be seen as either a selfless commitment or as a crazy idea, because it means committing to “work” a great number of hours per week over 2 decades for no monetary reward. Yet, we parents feel blessed because those little beings bring along with them a lot of joy and purpose wherever they go.

From society’s standpoint, one is hard pressed to find more important contributions than that of parenthood. An obvious but often forgotten fact is that without parents there would be no future at all. Further, the difference between good and bad parenting as regards to how a person will mature and interact with society, while difficult to estimate, is highly significant. I, personally, hold in particularly high esteem parents who, despite financial and other challenges they may face, do a great job, day after day.

Here are a few links to recent research on parenting from Frontiers Journals:

• Adolescents’ emotional competence is associated with parents’ neural sensitivity to emotions

• Higher levels of protective parenting are associated with better young adult health: exploration of mediation through epigenetic influences on pro-inflammatory processes

• Predictors of mother–child interaction quality and child attachment security in at-risk families

• A holistic intervention program for children from low socioeconomic status families