Assessed effect of parent weight and parent control versus child self-control on weight loss in obese preadolescent children over three-year period. Children of nonobese parents had significantly greater decrease in relative weight after one year than children of obese parents. At three years, there was no effect of parent weight. Locus of control…

Three studies investigated: the effect of parent involvement on the exploratory behaviors of children rated as high-, moderate-, or low-explorers; whether maternal presence increased the exploration of low-exploratory children, decreased the exploration of high-exploratory children, or both; and whether maternal presence or mother/child…

Schools should not be made scapegoats for the decline in reading skills. Factors such as interaction between parents and children at home and the effects of the electronic culture of television have as much if not more influence on literacy and learning motivation. (SK)

Seven well-known people describe their early experiences with books and reading and tell how they became avid readers. (MD)

Two hundred and fourteen adult basic education students in Connecticut were interviewed to determine the range and types of personal and institutional supports and countersupports available to students and to discover how the presence or absence of such supports enhanced or detracted from their participation in basic education classes. (CT)

Using longitudinal data gathered between 1966 and 1981, parent-reported fears of 49 university preschool children were examined with particular attention given to age changes and sex differences. Categories of types of fears reported by Jersild and Holmes (1933) determined a substantial increase in preschool children's fears of the dark, being…

The possible effects of mothers' beliefs about sex-typed behavior on children were investigated. The results suggest that mothers' sex-typed beliefs particularly affect daughters. Low sex-typed mothers may socialize their daughters to be more active, to play more, and to be more responsive and comfort-seeking. (KH)

A study investigates the relationship between an activity-centered health program and positive health attitudes, future use of cigarettes, and changes in smoking behavior of parents. Results show that the experimental group posessed more positive health attitudes, and parents reported favorable changes in their own smoking behaviors. (Author/DF)

This 1955 paper, using data from former Soviet citizens, investigated the role a parent plays, through both conscious and unconscious adjustments in his child-rearing practices, in mediating for his children the influence of social change and, consequently, in preparing them for changed social conditions they may meet as adults. (CMG)

Results are reported on the literacy and numeracy skills of a sample of Black and White United Kingdom children just prior to entry into 33 Inner London Education Authority infant schools. There were few differences in children's test scores attributable to ethnic origin. (Author/CT)

Explores the potential causes of abusive use of alcohol among young blacks, focusing on the black family, with emphasis given to the children, their peers, their communities, and the conditions that influence their life styles and drinking patterns. The data includes interviews with 13 males, age 8-13 years, and 9 females, age 13-15 years, and…

This brief discusses how living arrangements in general, and cohabitation in particular, affect children's material wellbeing and socioeconomic outcomes, documenting how poverty rates and food insecurity differ across living arrangements using data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF). It examines how other measures of child…

As rates of divorce and nonmarital childbearing have increased in recent decades, the percentage of children and fathers who live apart from one another has also increased. Yet our knowledge of how father involvement affects children's well-being in these situations is quite limited, since most research on fathers and children has focused on…

This report offers findings and recommendations by the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Nearly one million teens become pregnant annually. The teen birth rate increased 24 percent between 1986-91 and has fallen 20 percent since then. Overall, too many parents and adult leaders do not take a strong stand against teen pregnancy. Strident…

This paper (a) describes the rationale and development of the Stephens-Delys Reinforcement Contingency Interview method for assessing locus of control expectancies in children as young as preschool age and (b) summarizes results of subsequent studies bearing on reliability, validity, and problems of the method. (Author/RK)