Extant research on parental involvement in education has been conducted largely without respect to which parent is involved. The implicit assumption is that family-school relationship frameworks function similarly for fathers and mothers. Although there is a growing body of research examining fathers' involvement in education, this assumption has…

Policy statements of the last two decades have directed schools to enter into partnerships with parents to enhance the social, emotional, and academic growth of their children. However, in practice and scholarship, parental involvement has been constructed as attendance to school-based activities and needs. This article draws on data from an…

The offspring of mothers with epilepsy are considered to be at developmental risk during pregnancy from: (1) generalized maternal seizures (hypoxia); (2) teratogenicity of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs); and (3) adverse socio-familial conditions associated with having a chronically sick mother. Sixty-seven children of mothers with epilepsy and 49…

Fifteen behavioral indices derived from information gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics Health Examination Surveys Cycle II (with a sample of 7,119 six to eleven year old children) and III (with a sample of 6,768 twelve to seventeen year old children) were investigated for differences related to the age of the mother of the…

Evaluates the effectiveness of self-learning pictorial-parenting manuals in teaching basic child-care skills to parents with intellectual disabilities who are being monitored by child protection agencies. The manuals alone increased child-care skills in nine out of 10 mother in the study and in 12 of 13 child-care skills. The remaining skill was…

Examined the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and children's intellectual functioning through age four. Found that children whose mothers smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day during pregnancy had Stanford-Binet scores 4 points lower than those whose mothers did not smoke during pregnancy. (HTH)

Using a sample of 158 low-income black women and their infants, this study examined the relation between mother's age and measures of maternal behavior reflecting verbal responsivity, punitiveness, and instrumental support for intellectual development. (Author/NH)

Analyzed the influence of a comprehensive program of nurse home visitation on the intellectual functioning of children born to women who smoked cigarettes during pregnancy. Found that comprehensive home-visitation services before and after delivery can offset the impairment in intellectual functioning associated with substantial maternal smoking…

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of infant test scores, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores, socioeconomic factors and maternal IQ as predictors of children's mental test performance. Additional purposes were to (1) determine the extent to which socioeconomic factors and maternal…

The relationships between infants' development and their home environment, mothers' attitudes as parents, mothers' mental adjustment, and families' socioeconomic status were studied. Indices of intellectual and psychomotor development were related to home environment, socioeconomic status, and maternal attitudes. The implications of these…

Reported is a longitudinal study in which families with preschool children were observed, interviewed, and tested over two years following the parents' divorce and compared with a sample of intact families. Findings on the impact of divorce on individuals, on family interactions, and on children's social and intellectual development are presented.…

The longitudinal study reported used an intervention strategy to test the thesis that sociocultural background, mediated by maternal attitudes and behaviors, influences Black children's early development in educationally significant ways. Two models of parent education were contrasted: the Levenstein toy demonstration program and the…

Mothers were asked to predict their children's responses to standardized intelligence test items. Negative correlation was expected between inaccurate maternal knowledge of children's ability and degree of children's psychological development. False maternal predictions correlated - .80 with correct children's responses. Nearly all of the…

Reports that mothers' responsiveness to young infants' distress predicts language capacity at two years. Mothers' responsiveness to older infants' nondistress vocalizations predicts cognitive performance, perceived self-esteem, social competence, and family relations in preadolescents. (PCB)

This study examined adult-child interaction during story readings, specifically the complexity and richness of extra-script dialogue as a function of how familiar the child and adult reader have become with a particular story through repeated readings. Subjects were approximately 50 children, ages 3 to 6 years. Two-minute segments were selected…