As parental supervision declines, behavioral and psychological risks for young people increase. This study presents data outlining differences between regularly supervised and relatively unsupervised young adolescents in the ways they spend their time. Unsupervised teens' lifestyles are dramatically different from their supervised counterparts.…

In approximately 60% of married-couple families with children under the age of 18, both parents work outside the home. Among single-parent families in 2004, the mother was employed in 72% of those maintained by women, and the father was employed in 83% of those maintained by men. 55% of all children in low-income families have at least one parent…

Two booklets, one in English and one in Spanish, offer information, suggestions, and guidelines for working parents of latchkey children. Parents are shown ways to: (1) seek alternatives to self-care for their children; (2) practice good parent-child communication; (3) find out about available support services; (4) teach responsibility and…

Research suggests that how children spend their out-of-school hours can significantly affect their social development and school success. The Out-of-School Time Study, conducted by the School-Age Child Care Project at the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, investigated how young low-income children in three urban communities spent…

Asserting that previous studies of latchkey children had several methodological flaws, this 4-year study explored children's after-school lives, when their parents are working. Participating in the study were 53 families in which parents were employed full-time and which had at least one child in elementary school; families came from a wide range…