jQuery .parents() gets all parent ancestors of the target element;
If you need to get parent element one level up check .parent() method;
<script> $(function() { $('.target').parents().prepend($('<span class="label">parent</span> ')); $('.target').parents('.selector').prepend($('<span class="label label-info">parent with selector</span> ')); }); </script>
html:
<div class="well"> <div class="well selector"> .selector <div class="well"> <div class="well selector"> .selector <div class="well"> <strong class="target">.target</strong> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>