The importance of parenting for a child's development and well-being has been recognized since the beginning of studies in developmental psychology. Theoretical models of parental styles, as educational patterns of socialization of children and coparenting, in the way both parents educate their children, must be understood from an ecological, contextual and cultural perspective. The differences between collectivistic and individualistic cultures have been associated with different results regarding the child's psychosocial adjustment, however, there are still few studies that focus on the relationship between these variables in different Portuguese-speaking contexts. We present a summary of several investigations carried out in Portugal, Brazil and Angola on the determinants of parenting and its impact on child development and adjustment. The results found contribute to reflection on the scope of theoretical models, considering the complexity inherent to family functioning in sociocultural realities different from the Portuguese-speaking community.
