Diana Baumrind's typology of parenting is based on a two-factor model of "control" and "warmth". Her recommended discipline style, labeled "authoritative parenting", was constructed by taking high scores on these two factors. A problem with authoritative parenting is that it does not allow for flexible and differentiated responses to discipline…

The main and interactive effects of parental behavioral control and parental support on adolescent adjustment were examined with students ages 15-19 in Italy (N = 391, 59.1% male) and The Netherlands (N = 373, 45.3% male). In general, parental support was associated with better adjustment and parental control was associated with worse adjustment.…

The current study provides new information on the etiology of adolescent problem behaviors in African American youth by testing the importance of known predictors, namely parenting measures (monitoring, support, and communication), peers, and neighborhood characteristics across rural and non-rural developmental contexts. More specifically, the…

Recent attention to multicultural issues has sparked recognition that parenting is also a culturally construed phenomenon. The present study involved a diverse sample of 90 Anglo-American and Hispanic parents examining predictors based on distal/proximal levels as conceptualized in the ecological model. The study examined background…

Adolescence is often thought of as a period during which the quality of parent-child interactions can be relatively stressed and conflictual. There are individual differences in this regard, however, with only a modest percent of youths experiencing extremely conflictual relationships with their parents. Nonetheless, there is relatively little…

When a child is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) parents often experience a range of difficult feelings, which typically are not addressed in child-focused interventions. This study examined the relationship between a mother's acceptance of and sense of resolution regarding her child's diagnosis of an ASD and maternal interaction…

This study examined parent and child reports of parenting practices separately to predict child and parent reports of child externalizing and internalizing features, as well as delinquent activity. Participants included 98 children (51 male, 47 female) from a community sample, aged 9-15 at the beginning of the study. Results revealed that child…

The transition to middle school is often marked by decreased academic achievement and increased emotional stress, and African American children exposed to social risk may be especially vulnerable during this transition. To identify mediators and protective factors, the authors related severity and timing of risk exposure to academic achievement…

Self-report questionnaire, school records, and census block group data for 502 Latino adolescents in immigrant families were examined using multilevel modeling to test how structural neighborhood adversity, in addition to perceived neighborhood, parental, and adolescent factors, explained grade point average (GPA). The results showed perceived…

College students (N = 125) reported their perceptions of family relations in response to vignettes that presented 5 different parenting styles. Participants viewed family relations as most positive when parents were portrayed as authoritative or permissive and as most negative when parents were portrayed as uninvolved-neglecting or authoritarian.…

This article reports on parents' perceptions of the way music CDs and DVDs were used with children under the age of five in the home environment. This was part of a study that explored the musical practices of parents with children at home. A survey was sent to parents in three preschools, asking about parental music background, young children's…

Clinical research on African American single mother families has focused largely on mother-child dyads, with relatively less empirical attention to the roles of other adults or family members who often assist with childrearing. This narrow definition of "family" fails to take into account the extended family networks which often provide support…

Brief assessments of parenting practices can provide important information about the development of disruptive behavior disorders in children. We examined the factor structure of a widely used assessment of parenting practices, the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, and produced a 9-item short scale around its three supported factors: Positive…

A graduate student in early childhood education discusses observations of his children during and after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. He relates his use of responsive parenting and provides examples of his children's learning and play that emerged after the storms. He reflects upon how aspects of developmentally appropriate…

Caregivers have a range of empathic, socialization, and ethnicity-based goals in regard to adolescents' peer relationships. There are similarities and differences in goals across African American, Latino, and white groups. Caregiver goals are related to the amount of peer management that they use with their early adolescents.