Highlighting the specific as well as common characteristics of different types of parents, this volume, the third of five volumes on parenting, deals specifically with parental status and the social conditions of parenting. The volume consists of 20 chapters as follows: (1) "Mothering" (Kathryn E. Barnard and JoAnne E. Solchany); (2) "Fathers and Families" (Ross D. Parke); (3) "Coparenting in Diverse Family Systems" (James McHale, Inna Khazan, Pauline Erera, Tamir Rotman, Wendy DeCourcey, and Melanie McConnell); (4) "Single Parenthood" (Marsha Weinraub, Danielle L. Horvath, and Marcy B. Gringlas); (5) "Grandparenthood" (Peter K. Smith and Linda M. Drew); (6) "Adolescent Parenthood" (Mignon R. Moore and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn); (7) "Nonparental Caregiving" (K. Alison Clarke-Stewart and Virginia D. Allhusen); (8) "Sibling Caregiving" (Patricia Zukow-Goldring); (9) "Parenting in Divorced and Remarried Families" (E. Mavis Hetherington and Margaret Stanley-Hagan); (10) "Lesbian and Gay Parenthood" (Charlotte J. Patterson); (11) "Parenting and Contemporary Reproductive Technologies" (Susan Golombok); (12) "The Transition to Parenting" (Christoph M. Heinicke); (13) "Stages of Parental Development" (Jack Demick); (14) "Personality and Parenting" (Jay Belsky and Naomi Barends); (15) "Parents' Knowledge and Expectations: Using What We Know" (Jacqueline J. Goodnow); (16) "Parental Monitoring and Knowledge of Children" (Ann C. Crouter and Melissa R. Head); (17) "Parent Beliefs Are Cognitions: The Dynamic Belief Systems Model" (Irving E. Sigel and Ann V. McGillicuddy-De Lisi); (18) "Parental Attributions" (Daphne Blunt Bugental and Keith Happaney); (19) "Parental Attitudes toward Childrearing" (George W. Holden and M. Jeanell Buck); and (20) "Psychoanalysis and Parenthood" (Bertram J. Cohler and Susan Paul). Author and subject indexes are also included. Each chapter contains references. (HTH)