Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Parenting
If you're a parent, you get plenty of suggestions on how to raise your child. From experts to other parents, people are always ready to offer advice. Parenting tips, parents' survival guides, dos, don'ts, shoulds and shouldn'ts - new ones come out daily.
The truth is there is more than one "right" way to be a good parent. Good parenting includes:
- Keeping your child safe
- Showing affection and listening to your child
- Providing order and consistency
- Setting and enforcing limits
- Spending time with your child
- Monitoring your child's friendships and activities
- Leading by example
It sits within Children and Teenagers and Social/Family Issues.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Parenting
874 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- A Multimodal Parent-focused Intervention for Vulnerable Populations in the BronxAlbert Einstein College of Medicine
- Examining the Impact of the Parenting Young Children Check-upWayne State University
- Effects of an SMS-Based Parenting Intervention on Anxiety Symptoms in Preschool ChildrenAnhui Medical University
- The T1D Parent Check-In: A Preventative InterventionMassachusetts General Hospital
- Parent Management Training to Treat IrritabilityUniversity of Colorado, Denver
- Optimizing an Evidence-Based, Disseminable, Free Internet-Based Parenting ProgramNew York University
Research already completed
- Strong Families Strong Forces: Supporting Active Duty Families With Very Young ChildrenBoston University Charles River Campus
- Evaluating Stress Management Strategies Within the School Readiness Parenting ProgramFlorida International University
- A Postpartum Adaptation Study of the Connecting and Reflecting Experience Parenting ProgramMontefiore Medical Center
- Growing Together: Women in Opioid Treatment and Their InfantsBoston University Charles River Campus
- Examine the Feasibility and Acceptability of Project SupportMedical University of South Carolina
- A Positive Food Parenting Intervention to Promote Healthy Growth in Children at Risk for ObesityState University of New York at Buffalo
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- "Perfect" Parent MythAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
- Nine Steps to More Effective ParentingNemours Foundation
- Positive Parenting: Building Healthy Relationships with Your KidsNational Institutes of Health
Related Issues
- Constantly Connected: How Media Use Can Affect Your ChildAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
- Delving Into Devices: Children and Screen TimeNational Institutes of Health
- How to Talk with Kids about Tragedies and Other Traumatic News EventsAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
- Kids and Media Use: How to Build Healthy HabitsNemours Foundation
- Shape Your Family's Habits: Helping Kids Make Healthy ChoicesNational Institutes of Health
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: ParentingNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Parenting. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Parenting, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.