Parents who were identical twins, fraternal twins, or adopted siblings completed questionnaires assessing attitudes toward parenting and specific parenting practices, the emotional atmosphere of the home, and parental personality. Model-fitting results implicated modest genetic effects on affect-related aspects of parenting, such as parental…

Compares the family-centeredness of East and West Berliners with primary school-aged children shortly after the breakdown of East Germany by examining parental attitudes regarding friendship among children. Observes that while parents in East Berlin exerted greater control than those in West Berlin, children's integration into their extrafamilial…

Questions which familial socialization conditions are related systematically to individual student educational careers and motivations to learn. Assumes that students' motivations and aspirations are influenced by their parents' school-related practices. Concludes that autonomy-promoting, supportive pedagogical practices promote motivation to…

Assessed contributions of internal resources, supportive family and peer relations, peer negative influences, and behavioral adjustment to positive expectations for the future for inner-city school children. Found that higher levels of positive expectation related to lower levels of problem behavior and to higher levels of school involvement,…

Conclusions about peer-group influences on academic achievement often depend on the estimation method used to account for endogeneity of school and neighborhood choice. Using High School and Beyond Longitudinal Survey data, this paper shows that aggregation does not reduce the specification error in estimating peer-group benefits. (Contains 25…

Study tests two models to compare the effects of risk and resiliency across gender and ethnicity. Results support the model in which risk and resiliency are discrete sets of factors and demonstrate that overall resiliency factors play a larger role than risk factors in substance use and drug resistance processes. Gender proved to be an important…

Family influence has been established as one of the strongest sources of risk and protection when considering adolescent substance abuse. Theories used to view the family influence include family systems theory; social cognitive theory; social control theory; and strain theory. Specific family-based risk and protective factors include family…

A study involving 26 toddlers used an observational procedure, the Box Task, to elicit non-self-regulatory behavior. Both mothers' and fathers' interaction was found to be related to children's behavior. For mothers, synchrony of interaction most strongly predicted internalizing behavior, whereas for fathers, focus on control and direction style…

Longitudinal data from the National Youth Survey indicate that, in general, social control variables, such as attachment to family and educational aspirations, significantly predicted sexual activity among white adolescents, while strain variables, such as perceived inability to achieve educational goals, predicted sexual behavior of black…

Examines the relationship between identity status categories and the experience of parental influence on career development. Life stories of 11 young adults regarding significant events through which their parents influenced them were classified by narrative structure based on Gergen and Gergen's macrostructure framework. Results indicated…

Constructs an integrated model to investigate the relations among family relationship, self-concept, and delinquent behavior. Reports that a positive family relationship is critical in facilitating the development of adolescents' self-concept and in restraining them from engaging in delinquent behavior; factors associated with self-concept…

This article presents the "Piirto Pyramid" framework for identification of talent potential. It explains how the pyramid identifies influences that are significant in the development of talents, including genetics, personality attributes, cognitive ability, talent, vocational, and environmental. Examples using Roy Rogers and Michelangelo are…

Tests a model that posited that three diverse sets of academic outcomes for children were uniquely determined by psychological, family, and peer factors. Results reveal that early verbal skills are unique predictors of academic outcomes, and that the relative importance of psychological and peer factors depends on the kind of academic outcome of…

A longitudinal study assessed the relationship between Black and Puerto Rican adolescent generational status (since immigration) and psychosocial factors predicting later marijuana use. Interviews with 108 Blacks and 392 Puerto Ricans at ages 14 and 19 indicate that the impact of generational status was mediated by psychosocial variables such as…

Arguments in favor of school consolidation often focus on increased efficiency and economies of scale. However, as school size increases, parental involvement decreases. Family effects account for 34-105 times as much variation in achievement as school inputs. Consolidation may be economically viable, but distancing parents from schools may have a…