In recent years, parenting research has demonstrated that toxic stressors such as intimate partner violence, postpartum depression, and substance abuse significantly diminish the quality of mother-child interaction. Moreover, research has shown that childhood is a sensitive period, during which cumulative exposure to adversities inhibits relationship quality, mother-child interaction and subsequent child health and developmental outcomes. Researchers have focused upon identifying populations at risk and interventions to improve related outcomes. Parenting and Child Development: Issues and Answers encompasses a collection of seminal studies by renowned researcher Dr Nicole Letourneau. The book starts with an examination of the mechanisms by which parent-child interaction and child developmental outcomes are diminished among high-risk families. Promising results of peer support and reflective functioning interventions to promote parent-child interaction and healthy child development are then presented. Finally, the book includes studies that investigate the relationship between genetics, parent-child relationships and child behaviour.

Dr Nicole Letourneau PhD is a Registered Nurse. She is a Professor in the Faculty of Nursing and Cumming School of Medicine (Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Community Health Sciences), University of Calgary, where she holds the Alberta Children's Hospital Chair in Parent-Infant Mental Health and Director of RESOLVE. Dr Martha Hart PhD is a researcher at the University of Calgary/Alberta Children's Hospital, past board member of the International Association for the Study of Attachment and founder of The Owen Hart Foundation. Jason Novick MA is a Research Assistant at the University of Calgary/Alberta Children's Hospital.