Used path analytic techniques to analyze differential social control theory as predictor of drug use among fifth-eighth grade students (N=860). Found that peer non-use expectations had largest effect on drug use and were directly influenced by parental, peer, and school attachments. (Author/CM)

Study aimed to understand how home and school factors either facilitate or impede children's adaptation to school by examining longitudinal data on cognitive performance for a large and diverse sample of youngsters over grades one and two in Baltimore City Public Schools. (JRC)

Reading can become a central focus in family learning. Families should develop reading plans to encourage children to read. Families should develop their own home resource centers of books and other learning materials. (BJV)

Explored the interrelations between cultural-familial factors such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, family structure, and parental behavior and measures of metacognitive and academic performance in 154 second-grade children. Findings corroborated assertions that theories emphasizing racial differences in cognitive and metacognitive functioning…

Estimates effects of neighbor and family characteristics on likelihood students will complete their schooling using national-level data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Data indicate racial composition of a neighborhood affects black but not white children. Family-level characteristics such as maternal education and family income were…

Recent data suggest that genes influence three domains of great importance to family researchers: (1) developmental outcomes; (2) family variables that are thought to influence those outcomes; and (3) covariance between measures of family process and developmental outcomes. Influence of genes on variances and covariances challenges current…

An analysis of recently published census data suggests that gender, race, and ethnicity strongly affect poverty rates. However, parenthood interacts with gender in such a way as to affect only women and to affect white women more than blacks and Hispanics. Competing arguments regarding public policy to alleviate such problems are considered.…

Among 4,971 young children of mothers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, those from the Deep South scored lowest on a measure of receptive vocabulary. Differences for girls and boys were related to regional variations in maternal race/ethnicity, but boys' differences were also partly explained by regional subculture, maternal…

School efforts to promote science learning were examined at two ethnically and linguistically diverse elementary schools (one urban and one suburban). The schools differed considerably with regard to students' prior knowledge and background, teacher and administrator attitudes toward science education and toward the capabilities of students with…

Discusses the significant, historically-rooted gender differences in equality of computer access and performance outcomes. Identifies issues to be dealt with to assure a future in which girls will succeed in technology-based education. Suggests research issues and discusses the mathematical component of computing, influence of family, gender bias…

A total of 50 children were observed at home at 33 months of age and then tested at 40 months on affective labeling, perspective taking, and false belief tasks. Individual differences at 40 months were associated with family discourse about feelings and causality at 33 months, verbal fluency of mother and child, and sibling cooperation. (BC)

The article presents guidelines for creating a thinking environment for children at home. Teachers today have little time to emphasize thinking skills, so parents must make their homes more thoughtful places by encouraging questions, open-mindedness, discussion, and practice time using simple everyday experiences to teach critical thinking and…

Current literature on status attainment and student college choice is reviewed, and a structural model of predisposition to attend college is presented. Data from 2,497 ninth graders attending 21 high schools in Indiana and their parents, analyzed using LISREL, support the model's usefulness in determining students' college choice. (SLD)

A survey of 415 undergraduate social work students and 203 non-social work students investigated the influence of selected life events and circumstances, prior employment, volunteering, and influential persons. Results indicate social work students were more likely to attribute career choice to problems such as alcoholism and emotional illness…

Analysis of four national cross-sectional fertility surveys, 1955-84, documents the decreasing likelihood that single women pregnant with their first child will marry to legitimate the birth. Among recent cohorts, decision to marry was influenced by woman's expectations about the timing of marriage and parenthood, living arrangements, academic…