Understanding the nature and importance of the parent-child relationship

The paper considers the role of parents and the nature of the parent-child relationship. It argues that scholars who have emphasised the agency and independence of children have faced a problem conceptualizing the parental role, since parents can often seem a threat to these ideals. We propose a relational understanding of the parental role, and show how it offers a significant but relationally mediated understanding of children’s agency. The paper explores the advantages of this approach for understanding children’s lives and the development of their values and personhood.