To determine the effect of parental influence on students' reading achievement, a study surveyed parents of two eighth grade classes from two different middle schools in an urban area. The 18-item survey consisted of general information regarding parents and their children, and dealt with the parents' outlook on reading and their interpretation of…

A study was made of relationships between particular family dynamics and the well-being of children with disabled siblings. Attention focused on the relation to children's adjustment of three issues emphasized in the literature: (1) children's family responsibilities, including sibling caregiving and household tasks, which may be more demanding…

Goals of this study were to: (1) assess mothers' perceptions of their role in fostering their preschooler's cognitive learning; (2) examine attributions used by mothers to explain why they experience ease or difficulty helping their preschooler learn; and (3) relate maternal perceived level of ease/difficulty to attributions for the reasons…

This study examines research related to factors which influence achievement at the kindergarten level. It also attempts to increase awareness of kindergarten programs which make a child's first experience in school a positive one. The main portion of this paper consists of an annotated bibliography of 34 references divided into four sections. The…

A group of clinically depressed mothers and their infants were studied to ascertain effects of mothers' emotional condition on children's behavior and development. Participants in the study were 29 families with an infant believed to be at psychiatric risk. Maternal depression was assessed at the time of family intake with the Center for…

A study investigated the effect of adult correction of grammatical errors during the language learning process. Four girls and four boys, ages 2 and 3, were interviewed individually, tape recorded and asked to repeat an adult sentence exactly. Overt mistakes were corrected either with an overt correction with expansion or with expansion only,…

A longitudinal study of the language development of children of adolescent mothers followed 20 adolescent and 20 older mothers from their children's birth through three years of age. This report is based on data collected from a subsample of 20 mothers. Mother-child interactions in feeding, teaching, and play at eight months and two years were…

Noting that little is known about how communication functions in alcoholic families, and about the effects of this alcoholic home environment on children of alcoholics, their communication patterns, and their relationships, this paper identifies strengths and weaknesses in existing literature on the alcoholic family and children of alcoholics. In…

Results of a pilot study on the role of the family in the development of locus of control convictions and causal attribution tendencies are presented. Six mother-child dyads were observed in their natural surroundings. Mothers' verbal responses to their daughters' behavior were recorded and analyzed for content. Results showed (1) that causal…

Although many parents view sexual instruction of children as the mother's responsibility, research indicates that an optimal family environment for sexual learning may be one in which both parents perceive themselves as participating equally in household and child care. To examine parental responsibility for family discipline, household and child…

The reciprocal relationship between self concept and academic achievement was investigated using a two-wave, two-variable, multiple-indicator design. The Self Observation Scales (SOS) and Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) were used to measure self concept and academic achievement, respectively. A sample of second grade children and their families…

In the past, the social science literature has ignored or played down the role of fathers in relation to childrearing in the United States. Until recently, the few studies which did consider the role of fathers in childrearing tended to focus on negatives, particularly studies of Black fathers. Much of this research deals with only a fraction of…

A longitudinal study designed to assess parental influence on achievement expectancies provided a unique opportunity to compare data collected before and after the media coverage of the Benbow and Stanley report discussing males' superior mathematical ability. A subsample of 231 parents of math-able children initially in 5th, 7th and 9th grades…

Research literature on female achievers has consistently shown that the encouragement of fathers who act as mentors to their daughters is particularly important. To examine the behavior of fathers with their daughters, female junior and senior college students (N=114) completed an 11-page questionnaire about their personal background. Some of the…

The seven articles in this document concern children, programs, and teachers in the middle grades. The first article, "Essential Elements of Effective Middle Level Education" (C. K. McEwin) serves as an overview of the subsequent articles. "Middle Schools; A Re-Appraisal" (H. E. Sadoff) cautions educators against assuming that a school structure…