Although alcoholism has long been considered a serious problem, the impact of parental alcoholism on children has only recently begun to receive attention from researchers and clinicians. A review of the empirical literature on children of alcoholics was conducted and it was concluded that children raised in an alcoholic family are at increased…

This study was designed to investigate whether depressed mothers would show a predominantly negative affect or fail to provide a positive frame of experience for their babies. Two field studies of depressed mothers and their infants were conducted. A subgroup of 13 subjects and their babies from a larger project conducted in Cambridge…

Families in which one or both parents are diagnosed as being depressed are observed in this ongoing study of how the behavior of depressed parents relates to the child's present and long-term development. Each family which enters the study has a child approximately two years old and a child between five and seven years old. Families are initially…

A study undertaken in 1983-85 examined the effects of job loss and financial stress on the cognitive stimulation provided for children in the home and parents' confidence regarding their children's future. Effects of parents' educational level were also considered. It was hypothesized that when parents were unemployed, or had a grim view of the…

Prior to expressing language, infants have mastered many means for engaging in referential communication with others. This contention can be supported by reference to (1) developmental changes in the attentional structure of communication and (2) infants' use of affective expressions as they begin to master referential communication. In an effort…

Extending earlier findings of the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on child outcomes, this study investigated the variables of mothers' language complexity (levels of distancing) and degree of involvement in interactions with their children in order to clarify the relationship of the variables to each other and their relationship to their 4-…

The present study attempts to move beyond the social address research design to investigate the process by which socioeconomic status (SES) exerts its influence on parenting practices. Of particular interest were maternal practices related to cognitive outcomes in children. The conceptual model of the study was based on the reliable finding that…

The kinds of persons the creative person sees as mentors and the roles mentors play in helping the creative person achieve his/her creative endeavors were studied. Ninety adults (40 males and 50 females) were identified as creative by graduate students registered for a course entitled "Creativity: Gifted and Talented." The adults ranged in age…

An exploratory study was conducted to investigate the impact of health state on academic achievement, attrition, and quality of life satisfaction in a population of students at Bridgewater State College (Massachusetts). The study also explored the impact of specific health factors such as alienation, stress, and general physical/emotional health…

A number of studies have shown that parent-child interaction influences the manner in which adolescents see their future. In an investigation designed to determine whether this influence varies according to the child's age and sex, 57 Finnish adolescents were interviewed at ages 11 and 15 about their hopes for the future. The internality,…

An extension of a project that examined the associations between parental responses to children's emotional upset and children's competence in preschool, this study focuses on gender differences in the socialization of competence. Parents' warmth and responsiveness, firmness and control, and responses to their children's emotional upset were…

A series of three studies investigating affective warmth was conducted. For the purpose of investigation, this quality was conceived as (1) a long term pattern of parental attention and responsiveness with positive affective tone (i.e., love), and (2) a reinforcer manipulated to shape behavior in the present. Each of the first two experiments…

A study examined the influence of a set of parental beliefs regarding teenage sexuality and the consequences of family discussion of sex on parents' communication with and the sex education of their children. Subjects, 40 parents ranging in age from 22 to 57 with two-thirds of the parents under the age of 40 were interviewed on a variety of topics…

This paper provides a detailed analysis of evidence concerning benefits of parent involvement in early intervention programs. It is maintained that two dimensions should be considered in defining parent involvement in early intervention programs: (1) the type of activities in which parents engage or the types of resources and assistance which are…

This study investigated several questions concerning the amount of viewing and types of programs children and parents watch alone and together. Patterns of children's viewing with and without parents were examined, as well as how parent-child coviewing affects individual family members' viewing. Children 3 to 5 and 5 to 7 years old, and their…