This study examined exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), a major public health problem. ETS has been found to be associated with an increased risk of adverse health effects in children. This study utilizes data from a community-based, longitudinal investigation examining the relation between children's exposure to ETS and later…

The purpose of this study was to see if systematic contrasts in educational culture and curricular emphases might affect the underlying structure of teachers' attributions for children's behaviour. Thus, responses to a questionnaire developed from earlier work by Miller and colleagues (2000, 2002) were gathered from primary and secondary school…

This paper explores the influence of parenting beliefs and practices on children's talent development through a specific perspective of several Chinese American families with gifted children. In-depth interviews were employed to collect data from the parents, and research questions focused on the daily practice of parenting and parents' beliefs…

The impact of parental mental health difficulties on the developing child is well evidenced and documented. In this article Kate Olliver-Kneafsey, Ev Thornton and Wendy Williamson suggest that despite the difficulties young people face when parental mental illness is a feature of family life, it is not all gloom and doom, and give some important…

This community-based study examined the influence of early teaching interventions on children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and the dynamics between the time intensity of the interventions and parenting stress, on child outcomes. Intellectual, educational, and adaptive behavior and social functioning were all measured. Sixty-five…

This article reports the relations of the well-being of college students whose parents immigrated to America from Arab countries with their perceptions of their parents' (a) acculturation behaviors (i.e., openness to the American culture and preservation of the Arab culture) and (b) control. Results indicate that the perceived acculturation…

Through selected theories of melancholia, this paper seeks to shed some fresh interpretive light on the reproduction and disruption of gender, violence and family turmoil across generations of mothers and daughters. The originality of the paper lies in its exploratory deployment of theories of melancholia to consider issues of women, violence and…

A large body of literature exists describing the harmful effects of prenatal drug exposure on infant and child development. However, there is a paucity of research examining strategies to ameliorate sequelae such as externalizing behavior problems. In the present study, functional analysis procedures were used to assess challenging behavior…

This study examined the role of friends' attitudes in adolescent smoking (N = 203). Growth mixture modeling was used to identify three trajectories of smoking behavior from ages 12 to 14 years: a "low-rate" group, an "increasing-rate" group, and a "high-rate" group. Adolescents' own and their friends' attitudes at age…

This study, conducted in four urban schools, utilized student voice to address the relationship between early adolescent developmental needs, classroom instructional practices, and academic motivation and achievement. Results indicated effective instructional design and delivery alone may not optimize junior high students' engagement and…

This study examined executive functioning in college aged adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs; n = 84) and non-ACOAs (188). We examined whether characteristics of the family environment and family responsibility in one's family of origin were associated with executive functioning above the contribution of ACOA status. ACOAs reported more…

This article investigates an important factor in student achievement--parental involvement. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), we estimate a value-added education production function that includes parental effort as an input. Parental effort equations are also estimated as a function of child, parent, household, and…

Depression is a family matter. It not only diminishes the quality-of-life of the depressed person, but also strains the resources of the family unit and increases the children's risk of developing significant problems that start early and persist into adulthood. Although treatment of a parent's depression is critical, many families also need…

After a 14-year decline, the teen birth rate increased in 2006, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Between 2005 and 2006, the teen birth rate rose 3.5 percent, from 40.5 to 41.9 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19. The number of teen births rose by 20,843, from 414,593 to 435,436 births, the largest annual increase…

Adolescents are influenced by a variety of social factors and institutions. Prior research confirms what many of us know instinctively: that parents can be one of the strongest influences in adolescents' lives. For example, higher levels of parental involvement in their adolescents' lives are linked with lower levels of delinquency, violent…