An Ecosystems-Based Model for Faith-Inspired Parenting

Abstract

Social workers have a professional interest in ensuring the overall well-being of children and families. It is critically important that attention be given to the role of parents in general, especially to those parents who self-identify as religious or spiritual. This article utilizes the ecosystems framework to explore faith-inspired parenting. The guiding premise is that faith traditions provide the inspiration to achieve parenting success and the proposed faith-inspired parenting model presents a starting point for social work practice with this population. The model is characterized by an authoritative parenting style and the use of induction and love-orientation. The model allows for bidirectional communication and ensures that feedback is occurring and that it is beneficial to both parent and child. Limitations of the model and directions for future research are presented.

Keywords:

• Faith
• parenting
• ecosystems
• religious
• spiritual