There’s Evidence on How to Raise Children, but Are Parents Listening?

Does anything you do as a parent matter?

This is a question that surely most parents have asked themselves, as they push through some of the harder parts of raising children — sleepless nights, tantrums, vomiting illnesses, harassing children to finish their homework.

Given how much work parenting can be, most of us probably want to believe that, yes, it does matter.

The evidence, however, is not always as clear.

We can stack up evidence from many fields — psychology, sociology, economics — suggesting that parenting, especially early parenting, affects whether children thrive.

Consider the issue of words. Many people may be familiar with the idea of the “30 Million Words” project, and the academic work that inspired it. In 1995, two researchers (Betty Hart and Todd Risley) published a now-classic work, “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.” Keep reading