This paper examines the extent to which teenagers involve their parents in decision making on the resolution of unwanted conceptions, even though legalization of abortion allows them to terminate their pregnancies without parental knowledge. (RMH)

Family/consumer science professionals can support fatherhood by advocating for parenting classes as a graduation requirement and part of divorce proceedings and for marital education before marriage licenses are issued. They can promote family-friendly workplaces and distribute information about the impact of fathers on children's health and…

Assessed the association between parental monitoring and adolescent alcohol risk. Surveys of adolescents in a managed care setting examined alcohol involvement and forms of parent influence. Frequent monitoring related to less likelihood of being engaged in a variety of alcohol risk behaviors or other risk situations. Choosing to share alcohol…

Children with mothers who were instructed to interact in a minimal manner with their children displayed distress sooner and played less with their age-mates than did children with mothers who interacted in a minimal manner but were not instructed to do so. Participants were 36 female and 36 male toddlers of 15-18 months of age and their mothers.…

Documents a statistically significant, marginally greater probability of admittance into medical school for children of doctors as compared to children of nondoctors. (JOW)

A total of 32 adult-child and peer dyads involving children of 9-10 years participated in an errand-planning task to see whether children who worked with adults gained from adults' expertise. Adult-child dyads explored a map more frequently, planned longer sequences of moves, and verbalized more planning strategies than did peer dyads. (RH)

Used clustered sample household survey of 329 males and females aged 14 to 17, and 470 of their parents to examine influence of parental factors on adolescent sexual behavior and contraceptive use. Found parents' reported behavioral norms accounted for 5% of variance in whether adolescents had had intercourse, and for 33% of variance in…

Clarifies the relationship between sexual communication and sexual behavior by examining the multiple components of sexual messages in a community sample of 248 black and white women. Results confirmed predictions concerning differential interpretations of messages. Ethnicity emerged as a strong mediating variable. Implications of the specific…

In a study of 418 12th graders, canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between conflictual and emotional independence and two dimensions of career indecision: developmental and generalized. No relationship between psychological separation from parents and career indecision was found. (SK)

Comparison of German data on second-generation immigrants' educational attainment and those of similarly aged natives showed that foreign-born parents' schooling played no role in children's educational choices. For Germans, educational achievement of parents, especially fathers, influences children's schooling. (SK)

Surveyed adolescents and their parents regarding the effects of 10 youth developmental assets on adolescent tobacco use. Results highlighted a strong relationship between having any of nine assets and not smoking. Important assets included having adult, parental, and peer role models; family communication; good use of time; religion; effective…

A study of 933 German adolescents showed that identity achievers displayed the most exploratory behavior, those in identity diffusion the least. Parent behavior had strong, direct impact on childhood exploration. The breadth of childhood exploration was the strongest predictor of adolescent exploration. (SK)

To be sure, growing up the child of a school superintendent has its upsides. There are certain perks, such as never having to worry when you forget your lunch money and having your parent hand you your high school diploma. But there is plenty of pressure, both internally and externally, to act just right so as never to draw undue attention to the…

On an overcast Sunday afternoon April 2005, a crowd of teenagers and their families file through the front gates of Great America theme park, located along a boulevard in the polished suburban circuitry of Silicon Valley. Emerging briskly from this migration of bodies onto the steps of the park auditorium, flanked by his mother and father, is a…

In 1993, the UK Economic and Social Research Council funded the Parental and School Choice Interaction (PACSI) Study into the marketisation of education, conducted by the author along with Philip Woods and Ron Glatter of the Open University. The findings from the PACSI study highlighted the localised and complex nature of markets in education and…