Neurobiological, Psychological, and Environmental Influences on Parenting and Child Development: An Inclusive and Interdisciplinary Perspective

A substantial body of literature highlighted the primary role of parenting in promoting child development across several domains. For this reason, it is essential to understand the underlying processes determining maternal and paternal caregiving behaviors. Notably, parenting is a complex and multifaceted construct resulting from the interplay of multiple factors and mechanisms. Accumulating evidence suggests that the intertwining of neurobiological, psychological, and socio-cultural dimensions should be addressed to shed light on what processes shape parenting quality and in turn child development. This requires interdisciplinary and multi-method approaches that overcome the nature vs nurture dichotomy, considering the variety of contemporary family structures, the increase of father involvement in childcare as well as the diversity of challenges and opportunities that parents and children face contemporarily.

Considering the complexity and diversity of contemporary families, the goal of this Research topic is to provide a broad and comprehensive perspective on parenting, adopting an inclusive and interdisciplinary framework.

Firstly, this collection aimed at extending the knowledge of what processes underlie caregiving attitudes and behaviors in different family structures and contexts (e.g., single parents, same-sex and different-sex families, and adoptive families foster care). Interdisciplinary theoretical contributions and multi-method empirical findings on clinical and non-clinical samples will help in understanding the predictors, correlates, and outcomes of parenting. Broadening the scope of determinants of parenting may inform preventive strategies, assessments, and effective interventions to address families and children's needs in diverse contexts. Moreover, this Research Topic may serve to stimulate the debate about parental contribution to child development, parent-child relationship, and family processes, in a great variety of family contexts and circumstances.

We welcome quantitative (e.g. original research, brief report), qualitative research,

systematic review and metanalysis, methods and study protocol, opinion, perspective as well as policy and practice review focused on the following topics:

- determinants of parenting
- neurobiology of parenting
- parental involvement in childcare
- parenting quality and child outcomes
- parenthood and socio-cultural influence
- co-parenting
- alloparenting
- parent-child attachment
- family processes
- parenting assessment and interventions

Keywords: Parenting, Child development, Fathering, Mothers, Single Parenting, Same-sex Parenting, Family forms, Parental Brain, Neurobiology, Attachment, Co-parenting, Parent-child relationship, Parental Involvement, Childcare, Assessment, Prevention, Interventions

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.