This classic text once again provides a compelling topically-organized introduction to child development. Parke et al incorporate multiple perspectives in exploring the processes of child development. With recurring pedagogical features to ensure students see the interrelatedness of chapters and concepts and the chronological development of children, the authors have also taken care to further their student-friendly presentation by shortening the text in this edition. This has been accomplished without cutting the book’s highly-regarded child psychopathology chapter. 

About the Author

Ross D. Parke is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Family Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He is a past President of Division 7, the Developmental Psychology Division, of the American Psychological Association, and in 1995 received the g. Stanley Hall Award from this APA division. Park was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1997. He is currently editor of the Journal of Family Psychology and has served as editor of Developmental Psychology and as associate editor of Child Development. Parke is author of Fatherhood; co-author of The Throwaway Father, with Armin Brott; and co-editor of Family-Peer Relationships: In Search of the Linkages, with Gary Ladd, Children in Time and Place, with Glen Elder and John Modell, and Exploring Family Relationships with other Social Contexts, with Sheppard Kellam. Parke's research has focused on early social relationships in infancy and childhood. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and is well known for his early work on the effects of punishment, aggression, and child abuse and for his work on the father's role in infancy and early childhood. His current work focuses on the link between family and peer social systems and on the impact of economic stress on families of diverse ethnic backgrounds.