Rethinking Parenting: A Sociological Review of Concepts, Debates, and Directions

ABSTRACT Parenting has been an important topic in sociological research, yet the field remains conceptually fragmented and theoretically divided. This review synthesizes five major constructs, including parenting styles, parental values, parenting logic, parental involvement, and parental engagement, and highlights both their contributions and limitations. While these concepts have enriched our understanding of how parents influence children's development, they are often inconsistently defined and analytically siloed. To address these challenges, the review proposes a synthetic, multidimensional framework that conceptualizes parenting as structured by inequality, mediated through institutions, and shaped by policy and transnational dynamics. By integrating behavioral, aspirational, interpretive, normative, and relational‐institutional perspectives, this review provides a cohesive lens for understanding how parenting practices both reproduce and resist social inequality. It also identifies emerging directions for research, including the need for integrated, institutional, and transnational approaches. This framework aims to guide future studies toward a more coherent, inclusive, and critically engaged sociology of parenting.