Parenting: An Ecological Perspective was originally created in 1993 to answer questions such as: Why do parents differ markedly in the ways in which they care for their children? What factors contribute to individual differences in parenting behavior? The framework used for addressing these questions is the ecological perspective developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, who recognized that children's development is influenced by the interactions that they have over time with the people, objects, and symbols in their immediate environment.

Luster and Okagaki have updated the original text focusing on parental behavior and also included 6 new chapters covering topics such as:
*fathers/gender of parent;
*children with special needs;
*ethnicity and socioeconomic status; and
*parent education.

The text summarizes the latest research on factors that influence parenting, with each chapter providing a look at one important influence and the linkages among these various factors. An ecological perspective draws attention to the fact that the lives of parents and children are intertwined, and that understanding factors that influence parents is important for understanding the experiences of children.