Alloparenting is a community approach to parenting in which children are partially raised by people who aren’t their biological parents.
- Who can be an alloparent?: Anyone can be an alloparent, but they’re “usually highly related relatives, close friends, or people in the community,” says Sham Singh, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist at WINIT Clinic.
- Benefits of alloparenting: It distributes the workload of parenting and ensures the child has access to resources for healthy development. It also strengthens communities, raising cooperating and mutual concern, says Singh.
- How common is it?: A 2001 study found that out of 1,100 children followed from birth to age 7, 90% had experienced nonmaternal care by age 3, and 50% were spending over 30 hours a week in nonmaternal care.
- Examples of alloparenting: Alloparenting can take many different forms. Here are a few diverse examples from Suzannah Weiss, AASECT-certified sex educator, sex and love coach, birth doula, and author of Subjectified:
- A child being taken care of by grandparents, step-parents, siblings, or non-biological parents
- In non-monogamous relationships, with three or more partners parenting a child
- When teachers, tutors, and babysitters provide support to a child
- Other words for alloparenting: Community parenting, allomothering, and in animals it’s called cooperative breeding
Read more about parenting on Relationship Smart:
- Alloparenting Benefits, How to Do It, and FAQs
- Which Parenting Style Is Most Encouraged in Modern America?
- What Is Co-Regulation?
- How to Break the Cycle of Generational Trauma: Expert Q&A
Taneia Surles, MPH
Taneia Surles, MPH (she/her), is a freelance writer, editor, and public health professional specializing in sexual health and wellness. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has bylines in Healthline, Health.com, AARP, Well + Good, and Everyday Health. Taneia is passionate about writing content that encourages people to make healthier decisions. When she's not writing, she enjoys journaling, watching documentaries, and spending time with her pets, Gooby, Jynx, and Jasper.
Health and science writer and founder of Relationship Smart, Stephanie believes the world of our minds is real, important, and studyable, and that our social relationships are core to our well-being — much more than we give them credit for. She created Relationship Smart to explore the endless ways our relationships affect us, and to answer all your burning questions about them with scientific rigor and sensitivity.