Reviews research assessing the mother's contribution to children's early symbolic play competence, focusing on children ages 12-36 months. Finds that, as with other family members, mothers can encourage pretend play, but perhaps there is no special maternal role in the process. The quality and quantity of sophisticated play might be affected by…

A 15-year longitudinal study in Sweden compared 211 male alcoholic inpatients and their children with a random sample of 200 men and their children. Men in both groups who used hepatotoxic drugs had more psychosocial problems than men in both groups who did not. Children of inpatients required more social assistance than children of controls. (MDM)

Examines a small rural public school's immediate and long-range postvention responses to a student suicide. Provides information from a psychological autopsy compiled in the months following the death. Discusses the implications of suicide postvention and the benefits of using a psychological autopsy approach as a postvention strategy. (RJM)

A content analysis of obituary notices spanning a one-year period. Examined marital and family patterns such as age at marriage, length of marriage, marital status at time of death, and other factors. Single women had the highest average age at death. Patterns were less consistent among men. (RJM)

Asserts that research indicates that parents have a strong influence on the development of their children's achievement motivation. Reports a study of 180 Bophuthatswana adolescents to determine the effects of living in a boarding school or with family. Finds significantly higher achievement motivation scores for the adolescents living with…

A questionnaire was completed by 67 gifted females and follow-up interviews were conducted with 25 of these women to explore their education, family life and influences, personal and professional achievements, and effects of marriage and children. Barriers to their talent development included their marriages and personal lives. (SW)

Examined direct and transgenerational effects of traumatic loss on current functioning in college students. As expected, subjects directly affected by traumatic deaths reported more psychological distress, less individuation from parents, and poorer college adjustment than control subjects. Traumatic death apparently disrupts families' ability to…

Used a longitudinal sibling research design and a large, nationally representative sample of 15- to 22-year-old siblings to study shared and unshared environmental influences on delinquency. Although no unshared family environmental influences were found for sisters and mixed-sex siblings, they may have existed for brothers. Data suggested…

Positive findings are presented from three early educational intervention programs designed to prevent mental retardation and improve school readiness and educational progress. Evidence is presented indicating that children of mothers with low intelligence respond most favorably to intensive, systematic early intervention. Six essential types of…

A study of five year olds in the longitudinal Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development project focused on the relationship between predictor variables and outcome measures of early literacy. Results demonstrated that both home and school make important contributions to children's literacy achievement at the age of five years. (BB)

Assessed the relationship between social adjustment and perceptions of both family acceptance and family control in two samples of young adolescents. One group completed, among other measures, self-reports of psychosocial competence and self-regulation, whereas the second group completed peer ratings of likability. In both samples, family…

Two experiments investigated the relationship between family size and "theory of mind." Results from an experiment with three- and four-year olds showed that children from larger families were better able than children from smaller families to predict a story character's mistaken (false-belief based) action. (MDM)

Personal, external, and family adjustment following relocation were studied for 882 adolescents in highly mobile Air Force families through the use of a crisis model focusing on objective aspects of a stressor, coping, and perceptions of the stress. Perceptions of the stressful situation are most important to external and personal adjustment. (SLD)

Investigated the relationship between selected family factors and quality of children's home environment, and their predictive value for cognitive competence. Results indicated a positive relationship between mothers' education, fathers' occupation, and mothers' work satisfaction and quality of home environment. Quality of home environment related…

Among 13,017 national survey respondents, white males, white females, black females, and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic females, who experienced separation from a biological parent during childhood had lower levels of occupational attainment than those who lived continuously with both parents, but the effects were largely mediated by education and…