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Parenting variables alone have typically accounted for 20 to 50 percent of the variance in child outcomes. Depending on a parent’s care giving style, children can develop different forms of attachment. Attachments have been identified and categorized using the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), in which researchers monitor infant’s reactions after his or her mother and stranger leave and reenter a room. The infant’s response, particularly to the mother finally reentering the room, is important in determining the type of attachment the baby feels to his or her caregiver. Four attachment theories have developed from this procedure: secure attachment, anxious-avoidant attachment, anxious-resistant attachment, and disorganized-disoriented attachment. Secure attachment is characterized by those children who seek attention from their mothers, are stressed when their mother leaves, and consoled when the mother returns. Anxious-avoidant children appear securely attached at the onset, but are not affected by the mother’s departure, and may avoid her when she returns. Anxious resistant children are significantly distressed by the mother’s departure, but are not consoled by her return. And finally, disorganized-disoriented children show unpredictable patterns of behavior throughout the experiment. Mothers who are attentive to their infants, and able to understand their wants and needs provide the environment for a child to develop a secure attachment. Conversely, maternal depression and stress can have adverse effects on attachment. However, research has shown that it is possible for children with undesirable attachments to their parents to have positive attachment relationships with other care-givers. Therefore, children without secure attachments to their mothers may find environments for positive emotional development elsewhere, such as in daycare. The formation of these attachment theories predominantly focused on the role of the mother when forming attachments. Recent literature, however, has looked toward the father as having an important role in child development. [use what is already inserted in wikipedia here] Furthermore, another argument is that neither a mother nor a father is actually essential in successful parenting, and that single parents as well as homosexual couples can support positive child outcomes. According to this set of research, children need at least one consistently responsible adult with whom the child can have a positive emotional connection. Having more than one of these figures contributes to a higher likelihood of positive child outcomes.

Parenting Styles
Authoritative Parenting is characterized as those parents who have high parental warmth, responsiveness, and demandingness, but rate low in negativity and conflict. This method of parenting is associated with more positive social and academic outcomes. Furthermore, adolescents raised in a home in which only one parent is authoritative prove to be more academically competent than those raised in a household in which the parents are consistent but not authoritative in their parenting styles. Therefore, authoritativeness trumps the benefits of consistency when assessing child outcomes. Interestingly, the beneficial outcomes of authoritative parenting are not necessarily universal. Among African American adolescents, authoritative parenting is not associated with academic achievement without peer support for achievement. Authoritarian parenting is characterized by low levels of warmth, high levels of demandingness and firm control. In general, this style of parenting is associated with maladaptive outcomes. This style can also have varying outcomes depending on ethnicity. The negative effects of authoritarian parenting among Asian Americans can be offset by positive peer support. Additionaly, among African Americans, some elements of authoritarian parenting such as firm control and physical discipline did not serve as predictive factors for negative outcomes.