This chapter reviews the other chapters in this volume with respect to parenting cognitions, parent-child conflict, and child outcomes. It also speculates about future directionsfor research concerning parenting cognitions and considers how culture might moderate the relation between parenting cognitions and parent-child conflict. zyxwvut 5 Parenting Cognitions and Parent-Child Conflict: Current Issues and Future Directions Duane D. Rudy,]oan E. Grusec Initial interest in the study of parenting cognitions and their relation to parent- child conflict dates to the early zyxwvu 1980s (for example, Sigel, 19851, and so it can- not be argued that the area is a fresh one whose potential is in the process of being demonstrated. zyxwvut An assessment of the studies in t h volume provides a use- ful way of evaluating the current state of the field. What have we learned in the past fifteen years? In what direction are we headed? We shall try to place the four preceding chapters in the context of the area of study as it currently exists and speculate about the directions it may take in the future. We propose to discuss the present articles with respect to the content of parenting cognitions; the rela- tions among parenting cognitions, parenting behavior, and child outcomes; and the origins of parenting cogrutions. We will then speculate on directions in which future research might head, paylng attention to individual differences in styles of thinhng and the impact of culture on the relation between parenting cogni- tions and conflict. What Comprises Parenting Cognitions? The two aspects of parenting cognitions that have received the greatest research attention both have their roots in attribution theory. They are the causal attri- butions that parents make for children’s behavior and their feelings of control relative to those of their children in conflictual child-rearing situations. Recent discussions of the current state of knowledge with respect to these particular cognitions can be found in Bugental and Goodnow (1997) and Grusec, Rudy, zyx NEW DiRECnONS FOR zyxwvutsrqponmlkjih CHlW zyxwvutsrqpo AND ADOLLYENT DEVELOPHEM. no zyxwvutsrq 86. Wlnlcr 1999 OJorscy-Bus Publahers 79