Children of teen mothers have worse academic, labor market, and behavioral outcomes in the United States, but it is not clear whether these poor outcomes are caused by having a young mother or driven by selection into teen motherhood. Understanding the reasoning behind poor child outcomes is important for designing effective policies to improve…

In 2004, the government of Punjab, Pakistan introduced a conditional cash assistance program for girls attending secondary schools. We exploit variations in exposure to the program across cohorts and regions to estimate the long run effects of the program on women's marriage and fertility decisions, maternal healthcare utilization and the health…

To illuminate how within-family differences in achievement may emerge, this study examined sibling experiences in middle childhood as predictors of sibling differences in college graduation. First- and second-borns from 152 families reported on their experiences with siblings and parents at ages 11.80 (SD = 0.56) and 9.22 (SD = 0.90),…

Families with deaf parents and hearing children often demonstrate bimodal bilingualism, using both a signed and a spoken language. This study uses an audience design framework to analyze the home language use of two bimodal bilingual families in the United States. The school-age children in these families appeared to design their utterances for…

Background: Evocative gene-environment correlation (rGE) describes a process through which children's heritable characteristics influence their rearing environments. The current study examined if heritable influences on parenting and children's behavioral outcomes operate through child negative emotionality. Method: Using data from the Early…

This research was carried out with the aim of examining the impact of communication training based on 'from the child to mother approach' on the communication of the mothers with their children attending mobile preschools. The sample comprised 80 children attending mobile preschool and mothers of those children. Two of the five neighborhoods…

We compared the structure and the content of mothers' and fathers' infant-directed speech as a function of infant birth order. Seven first-born and four second-born infants were video-recorded during their natural dyadic interactions with their mothers and fathers at home from the second to the sixth month after birth at 15-day intervals.…

The aim of the current study is to examine the quality of sibling relationships in relation to family functioning in Greek families with typically developing school-age children. The sample: 251 intact Greek families with two children (251 parents -- 1 parent participated from each family -- and 251 children). Research instruments: (a) the Family…

The present study examined the longitudinal associations among birth weight status, maternal warmth, and children's cognitive competence within an at-risk sample (N = 1809) drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. Of particular interest was whether birth weight moderated the associations between maternal warmth and indicators of…

The nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth cohort data set was used to compare parenting behaviors of adolescent mothers (less than 19 years old), emerging adult mothers (19-25 years old), and adult mothers (greater than 25 years old) when their children were 2 years old. Regression models controlling for socioeconomic…

The aim of the study was to examine differences in children's generalised trust and the maternal behaviour, child temperament, and demographic factors on the levels of trust in children. A total of 314 mothers and their children participated in the study. Results showed no evidence of sex differences in children's beliefs. Children living in urban…

Recent studies reveal early and wide gaps in cognitive and oral language skills--whether gauged in English or Spanish--among Latino children relative to White peers. Yet, other work reports robust child health and social development, even among children of Mexican American immigrants raised in poor households, the so-called "immigrant…

When it comes to making decisions about sex, teens today are doing far better than they were 20 years ago. Fewer teens are having sex, and among those who are, more teens are using contraception. The happy result is that teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined dramatically. Despite this extraordinary progress, teen pregnancy and childbearing…

Examines the relation between maternal social networks and mother-infant interactions in 34 mother-preterm and 20 mother-full term dyads with infants aged six months. Results demonstrate that, although full-term infant birth is typically positive, it is less clear that preterm birth is positive, with the result that network members are unsure of…

Effects of sex and birth order on interactions between mothers and their six-month-old infants (matched in social class, infant's birth order, and sex) were studied using different sequential behavioral analyses. Results for each method are discussed. (Author/AEF)