Lynne Murray

Social Science, Parenting and Child Development

Securing and promoting the welfare and healthy development of children should be one of the fundamental priorities, and challenges, for all societies. Despite notable progressive national initiatives, global policy statements, aid programmes and grassroots campaigns that are focused on children’s health and wellbeing, many children continue to be exposed to major impediments to their optimal development, including poor parental care, outright abuse and neglect, domestic violence, poorly managed parental mental illness, displacement, poverty and lack of access to high quality educational, intellectual and creative opportunities (Walker et al., 2011). Very cogent arguments have been made that intervention in early child development can reap disproportionately higher returns in social and economic benefits than interventions focused on later periods of the lifespan (Heckman, 2008). Few would deny that the prevention of mental health problems, psychological distress, educational dropout and underachievement, unemployment and social maladjustment is better than cure. However, effective prevention requires a systematic understanding of the developmental mechanisms of maladjustment and a rigorous analysis of what interventions work, and for whom. These, in turn, hinge on critical analysis, rigorous measurement, good theory and carefully executed research.