The purpose of this study was to explore a social-psychological aspect of mobility-levels of aspiration. The investigation centered on the relationship between aspirations of high school seniors and the social status of their parents, the extent to which children remain in the same social status as their parents and to what extent they rise or…

A study was conducted in the inner city of Houston, Texas with three parent groups and four pupil groups to determine what parents did which would have an influence on student outcomes. Parent groups (selected from those who had fifth-grade children) included parents who attended training sessions and also those who attended training sessions and…

There are difficulties confronting gay parents when they seek custody of their children in a divorce suit. Court decisions are running about 50-50 in favor of the gay parent. Homophobia, the fear of same-sex intimacy or relationships, is rather strong in our society. The scant research done on gay families shows no negative effects on the children…

The verbal interactions of eight mother-child pairs (four Hebrew-speaking mothers and four English-speaking mothers with their 24-month-old language learning children) were recorded and analyzed to determine the frequency of occurrence of various interrogative forms in the mothers' language. Results indicated that English-speaking mothers produced…

This analysis of the differences between black and nonblack males in the processes underlying occupational growth uses retrospective life history data and studies the degree to which members of the two groups convert educational attainment into income and prestige, as well as the effects of parental resources in determining educational levels. The…

In this study 34 (17 dependent, 17 competent) 4-year-old boys were chosen from a group of 165 children observed in 11 nurseries. An episode sampling technique was used to study patterned interactions with children, teachers, and observers. Each of the boys was observed in interaction with his mother and father by three observers in a…

Because the phenomenon of delayed graduation--the practice of prolonging the college career beyond the normal 4 years of undergraduate study--is so widespread researchers speculated that "continuers" might have certain common characteristics which would differentiate them as a group from "completers." The objective of this…

The Airman Enlistment Questionnaire was administered to a sample of non prior service enlistees, 1,667 males and 300 females. Analysis of the responses shows (1)educational opportunity is the strongest motivator for enlisting in the Air Force; (2) there is an indication that Air Force advertising should make different appeals to men and women; and…

The purpose of this paper is to utilize data from 478 East Texas Negro sophomores to determine what extent (nonmetropolitan or metropolitan) residence and sex differences exist in the identity of reference individuals selected by adolescents. Major findings were (1) that place of residence makes less difference in the selection patterns than does…

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the causes of the apparent failure of black parents to pass their status advantages along to their children. The black-white differences in status transmission found by Duncan are discussed, explaining his findings by means of the Wisconsin model of status attainment. To explain the lesser dependence of the…

A study was conducted to investigate the predictive validity of parents' ability to attend to their children (ATA) on intelligence and to determine to what extent ATA and social class variables, in combination, can account for the discrepancy in the IQ scores of children of different races. Ss were 700 Head Start children. The criterion variables…

Data are presented to show that reinforcement and exact repetition of adult speech are beneficial but not necessary components of a modeling procedure which results in production of novel linguistic forms by children. Laboratory studies suggest the need for a re-evaluation of current hypotheses about the limited role of imitation in language…

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of child and parent incentives on the acquisition of reading readiness skills of educationally disadvantaged preschool children. Ss were 121 students from Title I kindergarten classes. Four bilingual paraprofessionals were trained to interview parents, administer the pre- and post-tests, and operate…

This report summarizes the results of an exploratory study of the relationship between parents' educational expectations for their children, the children's perceptions of these expectations, and student outcomes. Of particular interest were the congruence between parental expectations and the children's perceptions of these expectations and the…

Two groups of fourth-grade boys, one group reading at grade level or above, the other reading below grade level, were selected for this study. All boys in both groups had scored at the 30th percentile or below on a kindergarten reading-readiness test. The mothers of these boys were interviewed to assess their participation, instigation, and level…