Readers Weigh In on Science and Parenting

Just found this great piece, like 2 years too late but have to add my three cents! As a mother of 3, a psychologist with nearly 2 decades of research in psychology, education and health, I can attest to an enormous volume of evidence available for parents. It's just that it falls under a variety of fields - from pediatric medicine and neurology to education to developmental psychology to sociology. As someone who reads up on and blogs about current research related to children and parents, I'm amazed when I hear it said there's no evidence helpful to parents or that we just don't know anything for certain. When in fact we know plenty from the best parenting styles ("authoritative"), the roots of bullying and empathy, the benefits of positive discipline, the risks of praising "in-born" traits and talents, the progression of language development - the kind of psychology-related issues probably most closely associated with the general realm of parenting.

Then there's the wealth of evidence-based work of importance to parents that isn't typically associated with the business of parenting but perhaps child health - from the benefits of breastfeeding, the risks of BPA and phrhlates, the causes of autism and ADHD - in other words, well-researched topics.

But the one thing studies cannot accurately address is how one approach or one diet or one intervention will affect any one individual child. So no, because studies deal in generalities, we are not yet at the point where we can say definitively what is best for your child or my child though we can make some darned accurate predictions. Can I or anyone tell you how to get a baby to sleep better/sooner? Well there's no doubt some study out there providing some evidence for how to get a newborn to sleep. I assume this is the kind of parenting advice we would like to have, I know I would.

But the fact of the matter is, there are large individual differences in infant sleep, so there are no guarantees and this is what frustrates so many people. Add to that uncertainty/frustration the onslaught of media reports dramatizing the latest study - mixing the serious studies with the flawed ones, providing conflicting findings without context - and we end up with parents distrustful of science and parenting experts. I do what I can on my MommaData blog (http://mommadata.blogspot.com/), but it's an uphill battle for parents who respect the scientific method...thanks for your science-savvy!

Polly Palumbo of NJ 8:13PM April 29, 2010