Two research studies hold promise of assisting educators in developing appropriate recommendations for helping parents help their children learn to read and write. Dolores Durkin studied children who entered school already knowing how to read. She followed the students for several years and found that the early readers maintained or extended their…

Intended for parents, this illustrated booklet shares ways of helping children read that parents and teachers around the United States have found to work best. It focuses on helping parents create a supportive, pressure-free environment where reading at home is an enjoyable time, and where books are valued and reading is recognized as a vital…

A project explored the possibility of creating a collaborative approach to parent involvement with their children's education. Participants in the family literacy program were 19 African-American adolescent mothers from low-income backgrounds whose children attended an early intervention program. Parents' beliefs about learning and literacy were…

The parent-teacher conference offers an opportunity to improve communication between home and school. In addition, it is an ideal time for discussing how the home environment can compliment and reinforce the work accomplished at school. Thus, when parents ask what they can do at home to help, the teacher can respond with specific suggestions for…

Presented are selected techniques for nurturing the development of self-reliance in children from birth to 3 years. Literature focused on self-reliance, growth rates, encouragement of self-reliant growth, and the influences of parents and teachers is reviewed, and 22 nurturing techniques of caregivers, teachers, parents, and others are described.…

The relationship of parent alcohol involvement, depression, and antisocial behavior to self-reported parenting practices in a sample of 79 intact alcoholic families with male children of 3-6 years of age was studied. Child rearing practices were measured with the Block Child Rearing Practices Report. Psychopathology was measured with the…

The study examined parental influence on the math self-concept of 165 high-achieving adolescent girls. The research assessed the impact of parent attitudes about their own math abilities, parent expectations for their daughters, and degree of parent-child identification on the girls' own math self-concepts. A series of path analyses revealed that…

For this study of relations between maternal and paternal discipline, children's playground behavioral orientations and children's peer status, 106 mothers and fathers of preschool-age children were interviewed. The children's playground behavior in child care settings was observed and measures of sociometric status were obtained. Results…

Past research reporting a relationship between parent-child communication about sex and similarity in sexual attitudes between late adolescents and their parents studied late adolescents who were still residing with their parents. The present study attempted to determine whether this relationship was present in college students who were living…

While investigations of the impact of parental factors on children's career choices have identified variables that appear predictive of career choice in males, variables which influence career choice in females are less well documented. This study used social learning theory as a framework for examining the impact of parental reinforcement,…

To gauge the impact of after-school student detention on punctual completion of homework, on detained student grades, and on student self-esteem, fourth- through sixth-grade students from a school with an after-school detention policy for late or incomplete assignments were studied. Interviews were conducted with the four fourth-, fifth-, and…

This paper addresses the mother-daughter relationship from the perspective of adult daughters. The first section focuses on information and myths about adult daughter-older mother relationships, including popular images and assumptions, misunderstandings, taboos, and mother-bashing. The second section describes initial research into the nature of…

A study examined parental perceptions of young children's literacy development and explored the relationship between parental literacy level and perceptions of the importance of literacy artifacts and events/experiences in preschoolers' literacy development. Subjects, 108 parents of beginning kindergartners, were interviewed and given a test of…

Reported is an evaluation of a program providing information and services to first-time parents and their children from the third trimester of pregnancy until the children were three years of age. Interventions were designed to provide educational guidance to parents, to make parenting less stressful and more pleasurable, and to help parents…

Many educators agree that parental involvement is an important factor in a child's achievement in school. Views of the quantity of involvement differ. This one-semester study was designed to determine if parental knowledge of classroom objectives would significantly influence student achievement in physical science. Thirty-three physical science…