This study uses a national sample of 1,215 children, ages 6-17, who spent some time in formal kinship or nonrelative foster care to identify the effect of placement type on academic achievement, behavior, and health. Several identification strategies are used to reduce selection bias, including ordinary least squares, change score models,…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,870) and cross-lagged path analysis, the authors examined whether spanking at ages 1 and 3 is adversely associated with cognitive skills and behavior problems at ages 3 and 5. The authors found spanking at age 1 was associated with a higher level of spanking and externalizing…

A large-scale ("N" = 552) controlled multivariate prospective 14-year longitudinal study of a developmental cascade embedded in a developmental system showed that information-processing efficiency in infancy (4 months), general mental development in toddlerhood (18 months), behavior difficulties in early childhood (36 months),…

Examined risk factors of 3-year-old sons in 58 families with alcoholic fathers and 16 families with nonalcoholic fathers. Found that sons of alcoholic fathers were more impulsive than sons of nonalcoholic fathers. No differences between the groups in developmental age, IQ, or behavior problems were found. (MDM)

Children whose mothers were consistently more responsive during the children's infancy and early adolescence achieved higher IQ and arithmetic scores, had more positive self-esteem, and were reported by teachers to exhibit fewer behavior problems than children of mothers who were consistently less responsive. (BC)

Assessed attachment/indiscriminate friendliness in children who spent at least eight months in Romanian orphanages (RO); a nonadopted, never-institutionalized Canadian group; and an early-adopted Romanian group. Found that RO children showed more insecure attachment and indiscriminate friendliness than others. Insecure RO children had more…

Examined the relative role of parent-child relationships, family stress, and disease factors in predicting behavior problems in children with epilepsy. Found that children's self-reliance correlated with parent-reported behavior problems, whereas expression of affect related to teacher-reported problems. Overall, parent-child relationship factors…

Study of a cohort of low birth weight, preterm infants examined effects of maternal knowledge and concepts of child rearing on the home environment and developmental outcomes. Maternal knowledge, measured at 1 year, was found to be associated with quality of the home environment, the number of child behavior problems, and to a small degree, infant…