A study was conducted to investigate the factors related to freshman student enrollment in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at New Mexico State University. A Likert-type survey instrument was developed and administered to a random sample of 106 freshman students enrolled in the college during the 1989 spring semester, excluding those…

Two studies, labeled A and B, were conducted (1) to investigate relationships between early infant and mother behaviors over situations and over time, (2) to explore relationships between maternal experiences and behavior, (3) to compare infant-mother pairs with and without interaction problems, and (4) to compare infant-mother pairs in which…

Research suggests that intuitive parental didactics related to infants' production of vocal sounds, vocal imitation, and vocal play are a prerequisite of human language acquisition. Microanalyses of videorecords of parent-infant interactions have revealed intuitive forms of parental behaviors that parents carry out unknowingly and can hardly…

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data show that children in grades 4, 8, and 11 whose mothers work outside the home read better than children whose mothers do not work outside the home--but the difference is small. This conclusion represents one segment of the findings of the 1983-84 National Assessment, which focused on reading…

A study conducted in 1986 found that parents were the critical influence on the religious beliefs and commitment of their adolescent sons and daughters, while the adolescent's peers seemed to have no significant effect. In addition, the content of the beliefs did not seem to act as a strong reinforcer. Thirty-two of the 390 subjects who…

The hypothesis that different communication patterns would be found in South African families with children of high and low social competence was tested on a sample of 36 white families with 5-year-old preschool children. The communication patterns of 18 families with children of high social competence, as assessed by preschool teachers, were…

This paper addresses the issue of how children should be reared from birth to become members of a faith community. The paper begins by seeking answers in psychological theories and research studies of Piaget, Bandura and Sears, Mahler, and Erikson. It is asserted that interactions with primary caregivers are the essential ingredients by means of…

Symbolic interactionists have proposed that one's self-concept is primarily affected by interactions with others to the extent and in the way one perceives those interactions. According to this perspective, an individual's global self-esteem is largely the result of subjective "reflected appraisals" of others' evaluations of him rather…

The research focused on the exploration of gender differences in interaction with infant siblings in the home and the maternal socialization of baby care in girls as opposed to boys. Observations were made of 20 families, each with 2 parents, an infant under the age of 12 months, and an older child between the ages of 46 and 102 months. Five…

From Erikson's (1968) psychosocial criteria of crisis and commitment, Marcia (1964) derived four ego identity statuses, i.e., achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. To explore antecedents of Erikson's ego identity construct, 130 college females completed a modified identity status interview, and questionnaires designed to elicit…

A study examined the effects of preschool reading intervention procedures on the knowledge about reading (reading readiness) of the subjects as they entered kindergarten. One such intervention, carried out for two consecutive years, involved giving low and middle income parents packets of several small, easy-to-read books and guidelines for using…

Participating in an initial investigation of parental goals and guidance techniques related to child self-regulation, 15 parent-child dyads were videotaped in their homes while engaged in four functional tasks: a laundry folding task, an animal matching task, while mixing a snack, and while putting on a smock. The children, averaging 7 and…

Youth is considered to be a developmental stage between childhood and adulthood. In this stage, adolescents have to master certain developmental tasks step by step, and as they manage to do so, they will grow to the status of adulthood. This study examined how adolescents direct themselves towards the expectations and conduct requirements of their…

An investigation was undertaken of the hypothesis that the parent-child interactions of children having an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) would resemble those of rejected children and differ systematically from the interactions of popular and neglected children. Subjects were 12 popular, 12 neglected, and 12 rejected boys of…

This longitudinal study was designed to identify familial origins of children's developmental competencies and dysfunctional behavior at the critical life stages of preschool (T1), juvenile (T2), early adolescence (T3), and early adulthood (T4). Child subjects were born between 1964-66; their parents between 1931-39. Children were studied when…