Preface

The present book provides some perspective on the different issues linked with parenting. Providing the opportunity for scholars to share their insight made it possible to select some very interesting chapters to form this book to attain its predetermined aims and objectives.

The word, "Parent" and "caregiver," are applied terms that might include, but are not limited to, extended family members, guardians, fictive kin, foster families, close friends, those bonded by legal and/or biological ties, etc. Parenting or child bringing up endorses and provide different aspects of caregiving that cover different aspects of development such as physical, emotional, communication, social, and intellectual. Therefore, the core concept of parenting is child bringing up, and although the biological or genetic relationship is an important part of this process it goes far beyond this limitation and covers different aspects of raising a child. This care provision mainly starts in early infancy and might extend to adulthood. Considering "raising" as the core duty of the parenting process make it more complex because there are many non-parental entities that offer caregiving services without being a parent. Figures such as daycare educational service providers, professional rehabilitation and training caregiving systems (particularly for children with different types of developmental trajectories), and some other governmental and non-governmental agencies. Most of these agencies are trying to boost the influences of their caregiving service by including parents in their services.

Parents are brought under focus by the different service delivery systems through different agencies and institutions that provide services for children such as mental health agencies, schools, special courts, and rehabilitation and remediation systems. This is why most of them provide parent-mediated services and parent training programs. The main aim of this training for the parents is to assist them to provide nurturing care which is a developmentally-appropriate care in a safe, loving, fostering, and stable environment that contributes to a child's positive health and well-being. Although children are at the focus of most of these services delivery systems, they often include work with parents around parenting issues. It is said that the key concept of qualified child outcomes of the rearing process is parenting education.

It seems that besides the satisfying experience of parenting, this process has been facing different challenges throughout history, and parents in the modern world have their own challenges. These challenges have made parenting to be considered a dual fulfilling and simultaneously stressful duty, particularly throughout periods of ambiguity and rapid social change in the present world.

It is believed that the dominant themes of the parental challenges in the present world are:

Understanding cultural aspects of parenting from the different ethnical backgrounds to increase fluctuation of the global dominance perspective and values regarding parenting.

Parenting in special situations to make sure that children and caregivers establish a safe and healthy relationship in different situations such as times of being displaced, emigrated, or refugeed, or even during the social distancing situation and lockdown that has been experienced exceptionally due to the COVID 19.

And finally issues around the quality parenting and ideas on different aspects of parenting in the present world with its associated technological development and unpredictable problems.

All these themes are discussed in detail through 3 major sections and 12 chapters.

This goes without saying that the issues around parenting in different situations and for different groups of people are not limited to these extracted themes which have been considered for the sections of this book. Hence, each theme embraced a cluster of the challenges that scholars who contributed to this book confronted, experienced, or tried to address in their own or international community.

In sum, this book presents a unique variety of chapters on various perspectives on parenting and parenting in din different situations and different cultures.

> **Sayyed Ali Samadi** Institute of Nursing Research, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland

Bahoz Centre for Children with Developmental Disabilities, Erbil, The Kurdistan Region of Iraq Section 1
