Helicopter parents get a bad rap. Teachers and administrators should view them as a resource--not a nuisance. By encouraging open communication, teachers can begin to understand the motivations of these parents and find creative ways to connect them with opportunities to promote their students' academic success and the school's overall…

Strong, positive coparenting alliances play adaptive functions in a wide variety of family systems. For unmarried, expectant parents in nonromantic relationships, impediments to developing a positive coparenting alliance are formidable. However, these obstacles must be overcome if unmarried fathers are to stay engaged and coparent their child…

Parents present something of a conundrum to higher education administrators. They know that parents play a very important role in student success, especially during the first year, but institutions are also committed to ensuring that students successfully transition from childhood to adulthood. While they want to encourage parent involvement in…

Researchers have repeatedly found that intergenerational transmission of attachment is more robust in mother-child dyads than it is in father-child dyads. They have proposed several explanations for the inconsistent father-child findings, including the use of the strange situation procedure, the young age of the children, and the fact that fathers…

A theoretical model of children's dependency on teachers and other caregivers in elementary school was tested and supported in this study. Based on attachment theory and social-cognitive theory, parental intrusiveness and children's separation anxiety were hypothesized to heighten dependent behaviors with school caregivers. Families of children in…

A review of research on fathering and research on men employed in work with young children in centers and in elementary schools emphasises the importance of positive male engagement with young children for their optimal development. Research also reveals the complexity of studying these relationships and the barriers in families and in society…

Examines children's response to initial separation as they enter school or day care. Suggests that starting school is normally accompanied by some degree of anxiety for both children and parents. Examines two patterns of insecure attachment: anxious-avoidant and anxious-resistant. Offers ideas and practical suggestions for helping parents and…

This study examined the effectiveness of 11 strategies designed to ease separation anxiety in preschool children. Subjects were 10 preschool children enrolled in a public school early childhood classroom for their first school experience. Each child was delayed in at least two of six developmental areas (social, emotional, cognitive,…

This study of the bidirectional effects of parent-child relations, focuses on the exchange of attachment behaviors, investigating the interactions of twelve 3-member nuclear families in a strange-situation condition. Dyadic and triadic conditions involving parents with their 12-, 18-, or 24-month-old children were observed and videotaped in a…

The 11 papers assembled in this volume reflect the readiness of professional social work to develop practice approaches for working with parents of children in foster care. The papers were written from different perspectives, emphasize diverse aspects of foster care, and disagree on many issues. A unifying theme exists, however, in the shared…