This article describes factors affecting the achievement of 15 highly accomplished European American women in the fields of business, higher education, and law and government. Findings indicate participants tended to attribute their success to external factors while simultaneously employing proactive strategies to overcome potential barriers.…

Critiques an article on poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement, suggesting it distorts the interpretation of prior research and presents a flawed interpretation of new research. Hypothesizes that the level of school funding and incidence of childhood poverty exert substantial, independent causal effects on student…

This article describes emotional availability scales that are designed to measure parental sensitivity, structuring, lack of intrusiveness and hostility, child responsiveness, and child involvement. A child nonhostility scale is also described. The importance and potential use of emotional availability for educators of children with hearing…

A study involving 21 toddlers with hearing impairments and 21 typical toddlers and their mothers found that child emotional availability made significant positive predictors of language gain. Maternal emotional availability, however, made significantly greater positive predictors of child language gain for children with hearing impairments than…

A study of 1,795 Belgian elementary students in 15 public and 25 Catholic schools indicated that Catholic schools influenced high academic achievement in children of low socioeconomic status to a greater degree than public schools did. (SK)

A review of the literature reporting effects on parents of universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) focuses on debates surrounding false positive identification, the evidence base for maternal/parental anxiety, consent, and family cultural/sociodemographic influences on the effective implementation of the UNHS programs, especially the pilot…

Investigates the extents to which adolescents' achievement strategies are associated with the parenting styles they experience in their families. Respondents (N=354) identified four types of families: those with Authoritative; Authoritarian; Permissive; and Neglectful parenting styles. Results further reveal that adolescents from authoritative…

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…

Three proposed models were tested to explore the inter-relationships affecting student academic performance and nonacademic factors using structural equation modeling. Results with 147 undergraduates suggest that a Bio-Model and a Family Mediated Model serve to predict academic performance moderately well. (SLD)

Extends previous research by examining the role of communalism, family cohesion, and family support in suicide ideation and depression in African American college students. Results show that communalism, family cohesion, and family support were positively associated with each other. Higher levels of family cohesion and family support were…

Describes a longitudinal study of the literacy development of three children prenatally exposed to drugs. Discovers, after three years of observation, that each child was very different from the others. Challenges educators to reconsider their assumptions about such children. (SR)

Emphasizes the importance of positive family influence in successful school education. Describes and applies family systems counseling, using the interactional game metaphor, to many of the problems common in school settings. Stresses that negative responses or physical punishment are not only ineffective but result in perpetuating unintended…

Examined the relationship between poverty and children's developmental outcomes, the effects of the timing and duration of poverty, and the effects of poverty at the family and neighborhood level, analyzing data from two longitudinal surveys. Found that poverty status was strongly related to low levels of cognitive development, even after…

Claims that increasing numbers of children are growing up in stepfamilies. Discusses research concerns, specifically the context of step situations, comparison groups when studying stepfamilies, specific issues for consideration, and policy development. Claims that understanding how families manage change and supporting all families to provide…

Explores how the family mediates cultural ideas about thinness, and considers how these messages are conveyed to family members. Discusses open-ended interviews with 32 White, middle-class women on the topic of body image and eating problems. Determined that a critical family environment, coercive parental control, and a dominating discourse on…