Childhood is a critical period for the development of prosocial behavior, and the family serves as a crucial microsystem for fostering prosocial behavior in children. Prior research has indicated that parental monitoring, a specific family factor directly targeting children, can predict children's prosocial behavior. However, the influence of the…

Independent investigations have demonstrated consistent relationships among family communication, cognitive style, and media behavior when any two of these variables are associated in the same study. The evidence so far supports the hypotheses that family communication patterns are associated with different strategies for dealing with persons and…

This study examined the development of aggressive and oppositional behavior among alcoholic and nonalcoholic families using latent growth modeling. The sample consisted of 226 families assessed at 18, 24, 36, and 48 months of child age. Results indicated that children in families with nonalcoholic parents had the lowest levels of aggressive…

This book surveys new developments in research on family-peer relations and discusses the impact of these developments on current knowledge and future research. The book's 14 chapters are: (1) "Themes and Theories: Perspectives on Processes in Family-Peer Relationships" (G. Ladd); (2) "Family and Peer Relationships in Historical Perspective" (P.…

This study assessed physically abused/neglected and nonabused/nonneglected children (n=206) at preschool and elementary school age to identify variables significantly affecting children's behavioral functioning. Behavioral functioning was most strongly differentiated by the sociocultural and family climate in which the child was raised, with…

This report summarizes the four major activities of the political learning project carried out at the Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Cognitive Learning. These four activities are (1) a survey of recent empirical work of the content, sequence, and causes of political concept and attitude development, (2) a pilot experiment with…

This study sought to construct a set of family strengths using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - Child Supplement (NLSY-CS), and, if the family strengths' construct was possible, to discern whether the presence of these family strengths predict better outcomes for children. The original NLSY sampled approximately 12,000…

Noting that although there have been admirable initiatives in public health, education, pediatrics, and the law to improve the lot of children, few have tried to identify the fundamental requirements of a healthy childhood, this book explores seven needs of infants and young children and their families that provide the fundamental building blocks…