The adolescent pregnancy rate in the United States is the highest among industrialized nations. It is important for professionals working with pregnant minors and adolescent mothers to understand the factors associated with adolescent pregnancy to avoid forming judgmental and negative attitudes towards this population. The purpose of this article…

Many children, especially those from lower-income families, face considerable instability early in their lives. This may include changes in family structure, irregular family routines, frequent moves, fluctuating daycare arrangements, and noisy, crowded, or generally chaotic environments. Moreover, instability and chaos affect young children's…

This report summarizes postsecondary enrollment persistence for Austin Independent School District's (AISD) Class of 2013 graduates and the factors influencing their persistence in college.

This study examined the association between typical parental work hours (including nonemployed parents) and children's behavior in two-parent heterosexual families. Child behavior was measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at ages 5, 8, and 10 in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study ("N" = 4,201 child-year…

The effects of economic hardship and language isolation in children's neighborhood communities were examined to determine their influence on young children's developmental outcomes on measures of academic and social skills above and beyond child and family characteristics that included home language, disability, gender, and mother's education…

Childhood internalizing problems may occur as early as preschool, tend to be stable over time, and undermine social and academic functioning. Parent emotion regulatory behaviors may contribute to child internalizing problems and may be especially important during the preschool years when parents model emotion coping and regulation for their…

As nonmarital childbearing escalated in the United States over the past half century, fragile families--defined as unmarried couples with children--drew increased interest from researchers and policy makers. Sara McLanahan and Audrey Beck discuss four aspects of parental relationships in these families: the quality of parents' intimate…

"Science Briefs" summarize the findings and implications of a recent study in basic science or clinical research. This brief reports on the study "Evidence for a Gene-Environment Interaction in Predicting Behavioral Inhibition in Middle Childhood" (N. A. Fox, K E. Nichols, H. A. Henderson, K. Rubin, L. Schmidt, D. Hamer, M. Ernst, and D. S.…

This paper provides a brief overview of what is currently known about families of children with Down syndrome. In addition, it highlights a number of issues that require further research if we are to have a thorough understanding of the impact of a child with Down syndrome on families as a system and on the individuals who make up that system.…

Predictions about the role of contingency, imitation, and affect sharing in the development of social awareness were tested in infants during natural, imitative, and yoked conditions with their mothers at 5 and 13 weeks of age. Results showed that at both ages, infants of highly attuned mothers gazed, smiled, and vocalized positively more during…

Research from a variety of disciplines indicates that maternal cigarette smoking (MCS) during pregnancy is associated with an array of problematic outcomes, including various measures of criminal offending. Although some researchers have applied Moffitt's developmental taxonomy as a framework for understanding this relationship, this line of…

Explores, from a feminist perspective, the discourses of choice regarding how women make their choices as consumers in the education marketplace. It argues that mothers as parents are not free to choose but act within a range of constraints, i.e., their choices are limited by structural and moral possibilities in a patriarchal and racist society.…

This study explores the association between levels of depression, perceptions of mastery, social support, and parenting beliefs of mothers enrolled in an Early Head Start program, and how these relations differ for adolescent and adult mothers. The results reveal that contrary to previous research, adolescent and adult mothers did not differ on…

This study examined both continuity and familial, intrapsychic, and environmental predictors of change in adolescent attachment security across a 2-year period from middle to late adolescence. Assessments included the Adult Attachment Interview, observed mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an…

Differences in depression between Puerto Rican and non-Latina White mothers providing care to their adult child with mental retardation were examined. The focus of this study is on how family problems may mediate the effect of the adult's behavior problems on the mother's level of depressive symptoms and how this process differs across the two…