**1. Introduction**

The chapter is divided into three parts, which highlight various issues related to child-rearing practices that were investigated by the Brazilian Center for Children and Families/NUDIF (www.ufrgs.br/nudif), to which the authors belong. The first issue we discuss is the predictors of child-rearing practices related to cultural differences, parental values, socialization goals, and social class. The second issue refers to the predictors related to the individual character‐ istics of the parents (their experiences with their own caregivers and the parents' gender) and the children (age, temperament, illness and birth order). Finally, the third issue concerns the impact of parental child-rearing practices on children's social competence and behavior problems of the children.
