Global Perspectives on Parental Acceptance and Rejection: Lessons Learned from Ipartheory

Global Perspectives on Parental Acceptance and Rejection advances an understanding of the profound and lifelong effects that parental love (acceptance) and the absence of love (rejection) have on human development from childhood through to old age.

It draws from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), an evidence-based theory of socialization and lifespan development that focuses on the pancultural effects, causes, and other correlates of interpersonal acceptance-rejection throughout the lifespan. Edited by Ronald P. Rohner and Sumbleen Ali, contributions from leading scholars show how few experiences have as wide-ranging, significant, and predictable consequences for human behavior well-being as experiences of parental acceptance and rejection. Key topics of parental acceptance-rejection include long-term effects in childhood; adult intimate relationships; early life stress; parental alienation; child maltreatment; and forgiveness and vengeance. It also discusses the clinical implications and practical applications of IPARTheory.

Providing vital information about parenting and human development worldwide, this book is essential for researchers, students, and practitioners in psychology, psychiatry, family sciences, sociology, human development, and the helping professions.

Ronald P. Rohner, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, & Director, Rohner Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance & Rejection, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.

Sumbleen Ali, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Rohner Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut; Assistant Professor, Department of Human Ecology, State University of New York at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York, USA.