This narrative review on current literature on parenting is focused primarily on the emotions and behaviors of the parents. The emotions include marital satisfaction, mentalization, stress, depression, and burnout. The behaviors include conflict during parent-child interactions, phubbing by parents and parents’ controlling, authoritarian and harsh parenting behavior. The negative outcomes for youth include smartphone addiction, depressive symptoms, externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Most of the data were reported by parents of children. Only a few studies were focused on adolescents or parents of adolescents. Methodological limitations of this literature include parent retrospective reports with potential recall bias and cross-sectional data, limiting any conclusions about directionality.

Parenting relationships: a narrative review

Parenting has been defined as the promotion and support of physical, cognitive, social, emotional and educational development from infancy to adulthood by one’s parents (biological or otherwise). This narrative review of the current literature on parenting relationships research involved entering the search terms parenting relationships and the years 2024-2025 into PubMed and PsycINFO. Exclusion criteria for this review included proposed protocols, pilot studies and non-English language papers.

Surprisingly, only 19 papers met criteria for this review. Most of these papers were focused on emotions related to parenting and on behaviors related to parenting. The emotions include marital satisfaction, mentalization, stress, depression, burnout, and emotion regulation. The behaviors include dysfunctional interactions, conflict, phubbing, deprivation, and controlling, authoritarian and harsh parenting. They can be categorized as parenting relationship emotions (7 papers), parenting relationship behaviors (7 papers), potential underlying biological mechanisms (2 papers) and interventions (3 papers). These sections are followed by a discussion on methodological limitations of this literature.

Parenting emotions

Several papers on parenting emotions have appeared in this current literature on parenting relationships research (Table 1). The emotions include marital satisfaction, mentalization, stress, depression, negative beliefs about child anxiety, burnout, and emotional regulation.

Marital satisfaction has been highly correlated with coparenting quality.¹ This effect is greater for mothers than fathers and for older mothers and families with more children. Moderator variables for the relationship between marital satisfaction and coparenting quality include the person, the country and the coparenting quality measure. That marital satisfaction may be more related to coparenting quality for mothers, for older mothers and for families with more children may simply relate to the mothers appreciating the coparenting (collaboration) they are experiencing with their partners.

Parental mentalization (the ability to understand children's mental states) has been related to parenting experience and the developmental stage of the child which are moderators of the relationship between mentalization in the parents and less externalizing behavior in the children.² Parents who understand their children’s mental states are likely to be more empathetic and supportive of their children and would expect that they would have fewer behavior problems. Understandably, their parenting experience would facilitate that relationship, and the children at an earlier developmental stage would be less likely to have externalizing behaviors.

Parents’ negative beliefs about child anxiety and negative expectations of child anxiety have been associated with child anxiety in children from age 0 to 5.³ Although these results were based on a systematic review of 31 studies, it’s surprising that parents’ negative beliefs about child anxiety would have been studied by so many researchers and on a group of children that would usually be too young (0 to 5) to experience anxiety. The parents may have been experiencing anxiety themselves or the anxiety they were experiencing about their children may have been related to their worry about their child’s development.

Parental burnout has been the focus of several studies in this current literature. Parental burnout is thought to derive from being stressed and exhausted from sleep deprivation that could be related, for example, to toddler tantrums and adolescent mood swings and from not having enough time for your own activities and relaxation. In a study from China (N= 405 parents of middle school children), parenting burnout affected the participants’ relationships with their partners as well as the relationships with their children via the mediator of harsh parenting.⁴

In a systematic review of parental burnout (N=26 studies), several factors contributed to burnout.⁵ They included alexithymia, anxiety, depression, low self–esteem, high need for control, and child behavior problems. These results suggest that parental burnout is not only related to the stress of parenting and child behavior problems but also psychological problems of the parents that may have existed before their parenting experience.

The previous studies focused on parents and children, although parenting stress has also contributed to adolescent problems. In a sample of Chinese families (N= 533), parenting stress occurred in mothers who had experienced adverse childhood events.⁶ The parenting stress led to depressive symptoms in their adolescents. These relationships are frequently reported, and although they are retrospectively reported, mothers would likely experience parenting stress if they had experienced negative parenting (adverse childhood experiences) themselves. And their parenting stress could lead to their own depression as well as depression in their adolescents.

Parental emotion regulation and mindful parenting have been the focus of research on youth with significant behavior and emotional problems (N= 759 parents).⁷ In this study, parent dysregulation led to internalizing behaviors in youth via attachment anxiety and externalizing behaviors via attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. Not surprisingly, parental emotion regulation and mindful parenting were notable moderating factors that lessened the effects of parent dysregulation on internalizing and externalizing behaviors of their youth.

Parenting behaviors

Several parenting behaviors have also been the focus of research in this current literature on parenting (Table 2). They include parent-child dysfunctional interactions, parental phubbing, parent-adolescent interaction conflict, and parent controlling, authoritarian and harsh parenting.

Parent–child dysfunctional interactions have resulted from parenting distress and have mediated the relationship between parenting distress and social-emotional problems in preschool age children (N=711, age range= 24 to 36 months).⁸ It is not surprising that parent–child dysfunctional interactions mediated the relationship between parenting distress and externalizing and dysregulated behavior in the children. Distress in parents would be expected to result in dysfunctional interaction behaviors of the parents which, in turn, would be models for the children’s externalizing and dysregulated behavior.

Parental phubbing (turning to a mobile phone in the middle of a conversation with a child) has had negative effects. In a study entitled "Parental phubbing and adolescent smartphone addiction: depression and perceived school climate matter" (N= 742, mean age = 13 years), parental phubbing led to smartphone addiction.⁹ Phubbing also led to adolescent depression if the school climate was negative. Smartphone addiction in adolescents could be considered the equivalent of phubbing by their parents. Smartphone addiction has been related to depression in other studies. Adolescents are more prone to depression and especially if they have smartphone addiction and if that is, in turn, exacerbated by a very influential negative school climate. These relationships are likely bi-directional. For example, a negative school environment could lead to smartphone addiction and depression. Although directionality cannot be determined in these cross-sectional data, structural equation modeling might inform the complex interactions of these multiple variables.

Excessive smartphone use and screen time have often started in early childhood. The excessive use of devices has led to less attention and greater hyperactivity, impulsivity and internalizing/externalizing behaviors in a study on children as young as five-years-old (N= 671).¹⁰ Maternal stress and depression moderated/exacerbated the relationships between children's screen time and psychosocial symptoms. It’s not surprising that maternal stress and depression would strengthen the relationships between children’s use of devices and their inattentive, hyperactive, internalizing/externalizing behaviors. As in mediation/moderation analyses, the relationships are based on theoretical models, and the results are driven by the theoretical model variables included in the analyses. Regression analysis could have determined the relative contributions of smartphone use, screen time, maternal stress and depression to the children’s psychosocial problems.

Parent–adolescent interaction conflict has also been the focus of research in this current literature on parenting. In a study on daily perceptions of warmth and conflict, for example, mother-adolescent conflict was countered by father-adolescent warmth.¹¹ Less father-adolescent conflict led to greater mother-adolescent warmth the following day. In contrast, greater father-adolescent conflict led to greater mother-adolescent conflict the next day (N= 307 adolescents, mean age= 13 years). These results highlight the interdependence of coparenting and the effects of parents’ conflict and warmth on their adolescents. At least conflict and warmth imply engagement rather than neglect.

Parent controlling behavior has also resulted in depressive symptoms in a sample of college students (N=455 students).¹² Less depression occurred in those whose parents had weak control as well as those who had strong “helicopter parenting” (protective behavior).

In a paper entitled "Parental deprivation and threat–based factors associated with youth emotion – based neurocircuitry and externalizing behavior", 23 studies were included.¹³ These comprised five studies on parenting behavior, six on parental depression, and twelve on substance using parents. These factors were associated with fronto-limbic and fronto-parietal networks that have been implicated in emotion attention and regulation processes.

Authoritarian parenting has been associated with cortisol linkage between parents.¹⁴ In this sample (N= 235 families with a young child), the participants engaged in a parent – child discipline discussion task. Cortisol samples were assayed and parenting behavior was observed. The elevated cortisol and cortisol linkage in the authoritarian parents were likely related to the stress associated with authoritarian parenting and the child behaviors that elicited that form of parenting. The behaviors of the children have been missing from this literature that has primarily focused on parents’ behaviors.

Harsh parenting has been defined in two different ways. In one way it has been related to the constant responsibility for a child's well-being, to significant emotional and physical exhaustion, financial pressures and the challenges of juggling multiple roles. Harsh parenting has also been defined as negative coercive behaviors including yelling, name calling, hitting, criticizing shaming and swearing. Harsh parenting was not clearly defined in the study from China already described, but either type of harsh parenting would be expected to lead to parental stress and eventual burnout.⁴

Interventions

Despite these problematic parenting emotions and behaviors, surprisingly only three intervention studies have appeared in this current literature (Table 3). One intervention was called “relationship enhancement” and the other two involved comparisons of different types of intervention delivery, including a digital versus an in-person intervention and a comparison between group versus individual interventions.

In a systematic review that was focused on components of a parenting program, behavior management and relationship enhancement were the most effective components in decreasing parental stress.¹⁵ In this review, several of the 57 studies involved parent – child interaction therapy.

In a meta-analysis on 22 studies (N= 5671 parents), digital programs were used for promoting parenting.¹⁶ The authors noted that there was improved parenting, a decrease in depression and anxiety and an increase in self-efficacy, but they suggested that enduring effects were unlikely.

In a meta-analysis that compared group – based versus individual – based parenting programs (N= 121 group and 41 individual – based programs), child behavior management and parents’ stress decreased in both programs.¹⁷ However, depression only decreased in the group – based parenting programs. This could be explained by the unequal sample sizes with the group-based program sample being significantly larger than the individual-based program sample. It could also be related to group members’ empathetic, supportive responses that were therapeutic for the depressed individuals.

Methodological limitations of this literature

Several methodological limitations can be noted for this current literature on parenting. They include problems of sampling, variables that were measured and data analyses.

Most of the samples were parents of children. Only a few studies focused on adolescents or parents of adolescents. Most of the data were reported by parents of children. The reports by parents were retrospective with potential recall bias. “Faking good” did not appear to be a problem as most of the independent variables were negative parenting or risk factors such as parent burnout and authoritarian and harsh parenting. The frequency of these problems suggests that a more appropriate title for this review might be “Parenting Problems”.

Although many of the negative outcomes were child variables like smart phone addiction, externalizing and internalizing behaviors, child problems were not independent/predictor/risk variables even though the children’s behavior problems likely contributed to the parents’ negative behaviors and to their own negative outcomes.

Most of the studies were cross-sectional with only one datapoint, making it difficult to determine directionality. Several of the results suggested that the independent and dependent variables were likely reciprocal. Most of the research was conducted in China or the U.S., raising a concern about generalizability of the data.

Most of the data analyses were mediation/moderation analyses which limited the number of variables that were selected a priori by the researchers. Some of the selected variables were clearly based on theory, as they should be, or at least on previously reported data. Some mediator/moderator variables seemed obviously relevant, but others seemed as if they were randomly selected for their uniqueness, as in researchers’ typical preference for making novel contributions rather than presenting replication data.

Despite the severity of outcomes, as in smart phone addiction, externalizing and internalizing behaviors, only a few intervention studies appeared in this current literature on parenting. Those studies were limited by their focus on types of therapies, as in group versus individual therapy and digital versus in-person therapy. Despite these methodological limitations, this literature has highlighted negative parenting factors and negative outcomes for youth that could inform future research on interventions for these problems.

None.

None.

The author declares there is no conflict of interest.

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