A study of 214 sixth- and seventh-graders (50% girls) found that boys had lower anxiety and depression and higher self-worth and satisfaction with physical appearance. For girls, parental acceptance significantly predicted girls' self-worth, perceived attractiveness, and social and school competence. (SK)

Discusses the controversy concerning "The Nurture Assumption," a book that suggests children are shaped by their peers more than their parents. The message runs counter to decades of child development research and recent findings that parents are crucial in children's emotional and intellectual development. This paper examines criticism of the…

Using data on sibling pairs, this study shows that families are closely linked to the educational aspirations of children. About three quarters of the variance lies between families, but is not explained by socioeconomic status. Sex and ordinal position of siblings do not alter this relationship. (Author/EMK)

Investigates the characteristics of the intrafamily environment that change the intellectual environment of the children and interact with the factor of birth order. Concludes that the effect of birth order is linked: (1) with the gender configuration of sibling relationships; and (2) with various cognitive and personal characteristics of the…

Shows how latent variable growth modeling can be utilized to examine change in students' attitudes toward science over the middle and high school years. Reports that students' attitudes toward science generally decline during the middle and high school years. Defines the factors that affect student attitudes as teacher encouragement, peer…

Examined dating violence in a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of students (N=939). Results reveal that males were more likely to attack a dating partner when they had witnessed interparental violence; believed that male-female dating violence was justifiable; used alcohol/drugs; or were the recipients of dating violence.…

Examined the effect of family use of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs on teenagers', aged 11-16 years old, later use of these substances. Adult drug use, whether of single substances or several, clearly influenced adolescents to use a variety of substances. Suggests a three-factor model comprising Modeling, Attitude, and Availability to explain the…

Offers suggestions to early childhood educators for encouraging fathers' participation in their children's early education and care. Reviews the history of fathers' participation in care and their role in children's development throughout Erikson's first five stages of growth. Considers reasons for involving fathers in children's growth, including…

Studied nearly 150,000 maternal word-tokens used by low-income mothers in mother-child conversations. Found that 99 percent of maternal lexical input consisted of 3,000 most frequent word. Density of sophisticated words and density with which such words were embedded in helpful/instructive interactions at age 5 predicted over one-third of variance…

Analyzed 5-year-olds' retellings of movie segments following discussions with their mothers. Found that quality of stories was better for children whose mothers used scaffolding strategies (e.g., prompting children's memories, extended exchanges on critical topics used by their mothers) than for children whose mothers used no such strategies or…

A study of 10 preservice teachers in Hong Kong regarding their beliefs about principals found a relationship between leadership/management style of principals they would like to be and mothers' behavior and a relationship between principals they would not like to be and fathers' interpersonal behavior. Results demonstrate the influence of personal…

Presents a model of moral identity formation. Examines the model using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (Child Sample) to assess the influence of family environment on moral identity formation. Reveals that cognitively- and socially-rich family environments and high levels of adolescent-parent joint activity facilitated…

Investigated the links between attachment and parent peer-management practices, and how each is related to children's home-based peer networks, in a sample of preschoolers and their parents. Found that most securely attached girls, but not boys, were more involved in initiating their peer contacts; home-based peer networks were related to parent…

Explores the effects of legislation requiring parental consent for a minor's abortion and the risk of acquiring AIDS on adolescent pregnancy and abortion rates. Finds lower pregnancy and abortion rates for women 15-17 in states with parental involvement legislation, while abortion doubles and pregnancy rates decline with the incidence of AIDS.…

Discusses the role of parents in fostering numeracy in their preschool children. Considers the importance of numeracy and includes suggestions for promoting numeracy among children ages 3-4 and 5-6 years. (JPB)