Examined cognitive development in children adopted after at least eight months in a Romanian orphanage, and evaluated the influence of a stable adoptive family and home environment on their development. Found that subjects scored lower than comparison group of nonadopted, never institutionalized children on all cognitive measures, and on most…

Examines the decision-making processes of 79 students who entered the law and business programs at an elite university. Argues that students' accounts for decisions reflect class-related opportunities and constraints. Finds that the majority chose their degrees for similar reasons: professional status, intellectual interest, and an…

Discusses the importance of nurturing creativity in early childhood education, focusing on family influences on creativity. Summarizes research on familial impact on creativity, including the role of the family's adaptability, parental discipline style, parental rejection, and family pressure toward creativity. Suggests ways early childhood…

Study examines parental factors that influence career development among African American and Mexican American college students. Analysis of student interviews reveals that parents are influential in the following career domains: encouragement, educational expectations, critical life events, vicarious learning, and work identity. Career development…

Describes a collective case study of 12 high school juniors who identified themselves as avid readers of popular fiction. Finds strong reading relationships between parents and high school students. Describes the different roles that parents played in their adolescent children's reading lives. Looks at implications for secondary English classrooms…

Examined links between 91 fourth graders' academic competence and behavioral adjustment and mothers' and fathers' psychological autonomy, controlling for effects of parental limit-setting and warmth. Found that fathers' psychological autonomy was a unique correlate to greater academic competence and fewer signs of depression in the classroom,…

Using data from a nationwide survey of college freshmen, this study demonstrates that student's level of technological preparedness varies by such key factors as race, class, gender, and academic background. Topics include use of electronic mail and the Internet; parental income; parental education; and type of high school attended. (Author/LRW)

Examines reasons cited by conditionally-admitted and early-admitted freshmen for choosing to attend college. Finds that parents and family had the greatest influence on both groups; however, the conditionally-admitted students cited these influences more often as the primary influence. Discusses other influences cited by both groups, such as…

This study examined the relationships among the childhood discipline styles experienced by 116 female college students, their perceptions of their parents, and their current functioning. Results of this study indicated that female college students' report of childhood discipline, their perceptions of their parents, and their outcomes were related…

Drawing on Tinto's (1987, 1993) theory of student integration, this research examines students who withdrew from their original institution prior to graduation. Of this group, some of the students who withdraw do so to transfer to another institution, and it is reasonable to assume that these students are different in many ways from students who…

The home factors of low-SES primary students, having high academic achievement, were investigated. Six second-grade students were identified as living in low-SES homes and qualifying for free and reduced lunch, while also having high academic achievement. Their primary caretakers were interviewed in order to investigate the factors within their…

Younger siblings of adolescents with histories of antisocial behavior are at high risk for developing conduct problems. Information about risk exposure in youths at familial risk for conduct problems is critical to the design of informed preventive interventions. The prevalence of well-validated risk factors for conduct problems was examined in a…

Understanding parental influences and parent-adolescent relationships is difficult because individuals are involved in many activities and have varied goals. The chapters in this volume help address the complexities by focusing on variations in parental practices and domains of activities.

Designing a professional development system for parent educators requires weaving together multiple pieces from within the network of organizations providing parenting education. North Carolina examined how to build a system using the influence of evidence-based programs as well as professional credentialing for parenting educators. A system built…

The authors examined the prediction of occupational attainment by age 40 from contextual and personal variables assessed during childhood and adolescence in 2 participant samples: (a) the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, a study of 856 third graders in a semirural county in New York State that began in 1960, and (b) the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal…