Parental thinking: assessment and applications in nursing

Recent research indicates that knowledge of what a parent thinks may be more valuable information than observations of what a parent does. Therefore, maternal-child nurses should have a sound knowledge about not only specific behaviors that promote good parenting but also parental thinking, or the ideas parents hold about child rearing and child development. The authors present the importance of the nursing role in assessment of parental thinking, utilization of an appropriate framework for these assessments, and the considerations of nursing interventions that build on such assessments.