Reviews literature for strongest position with respect to sex differences in parent-child relationships, namely that both parents' sex and child's sex contribute to four distinct dyad relationships. Found many claims and assumptions about the distinctness of relationships but little empirical evidence. When dyadic distinctness was found, it often…

Examined contributions of men other than husbands who provide assistance to elderly people. Data from elders and their primary helpers gathered at two points in time revealed that male helpers provided intermittent assistance with occasional tasks but less frequently undertook routine household chores. Some evidence indicated shift toward female…

Examined the process of exit from farm businesses of a group of older farmers (N=315) and determined the relationship between goals of family succession and behaviors in the exit phase. Found a sequence of exit from work, management, and ownership with farmers who valued continuity being most likely to involve sons in management of the operation.…

Using a stochastic model, shows that Chodorow's theory on the reproduction of mothering does not work. According to Chodorow, daughters become more nurturing than sons because mothers do more nurturing than fathers; this becomes a self-reproducing cycle. However, this theory does not sustain a sex differential in nurturing. Considers strategies…

Studied 125 mothers and firstborn sons over 11-month period to examine relations between mothers' representations of their relationships with their children, adult representations of attachment, and observed mothering. Findings revealed significant relationship between mothers' representations of relationships with their children and adult…

Contributes to scholarship on family communication, finding that fathers' perceptions of the appropriateness and effectiveness of tactics with oppositional sons was largely a function of their level of trait verbal aggressiveness, which was (1) negatively related to perceptions of appropriateness and effectiveness of supportive tactics, and (2)…

Examined relations between personality and parenting behavior in 78 mothers of adolescent boys. Results suggest that mothers high in dependency relate to competent sons in ways that encourage independence, but relate to their less competent sons in ways that may foster dependency by thwarting attempts at autonomy. (SLD)

An analysis was carried out on the body of literature exploring African-American mother-son relationship. The analysis suggested that African-American mothers play an important role in the healthy development of manhood and masculinity and challenged notions about considering mothering as a gender or biological assignment rather than as an act…

Much research has attempted to understand the short-term effects of divorce, and it has shown overall harmful effects during childhood. The long-range implications, or effects in adulthood, have largely been ignored. This correlational study sought to understand the long-term effects of divorce by identifying interpersonal traits, intimacy, and…

A study was conducted to investigate the influence of systematic trends in the successfulness of children's performance upon subsequent parental disciplinary actions. A total of 30 mothers 24 to 45 years of age and their sons, ages 4 to 7.5 years, participated. Mothers were provided with predetermined sequences of trial-by-trial information about…

The similarity between rules used by mothers and those used by sons was extensive. Results suggest that research should emphasize the process by which children come to employ multidimensional rules and the role of parental models in this process. Current research in moral judgments largely ignores the rule-governed nature of children's judgments.…

Boys who, for years, had been victims of vicious beatings and other forms of abuse at the hands of their fathers murdered their fathers. Discussed are their fates after the killings. The big differences in the sentences dramatizes the vagaries of the legal system. (RM)

Differences were found between father/son and father/daughter dyads in such behaviors as father prohibitions, child mischievousness, mutual proximity, toy exchange, and child toy play. A total of 107 father/child dyads involving year-old children were observed. (Author/RH)

Examined whether mothers' and fathers' temperaments influence quality of relationships with sons and daughters and whether divergent relationships exist between adolescent temperament and adolescent-parent relationships for boys and girls. Survey results supported link between parent temperament, particularly maternal temperament, and quality of…

Examined the link between mother-son positive synchrony and child and best friend antisocial behavior in middle childhood. Found that positive synchrony observed at age 8 related to measures tapping parenting, parent-child conflict, child social information processing, and child and best friend antisocial behavior. Associations between synchrony…