Examined the relationship between an adolescent girl's family relationship patterns and her peer relationship patterns. Measured degree of connectedness in family relationships using global coding of family interaction process, and peer connectedness by a sociometric questionnaire. Demonstrated similarities between degree of connectedness…

Examines the effects of the following variables on the adolescent achievement and postgraduation plans of 4,587 Washington high school students: (1) mother's socioeconomic index; (2) father's socioeconomic index; (3) family socioeconomic status; (4) mother's education; (5) father's education; (6) number of siblings; and (7) Grade Point Average.…

In a review of the literature, some of the reasons traditional college-age students withdraw are applied to adults. Conclusions regarding adults who persist versus those who drop out are offered and suggestions for increasing the retention of adult students are presented. (Author/MLW)

Discusses the influence of external environments on the functioning of families as contexts for child development. Describes studies on the interaction of genetics and environment, on relationships between the family and hospital care, day care, peers, schools, parental employment and support networks, the community, and major transition life…

Describes a study of home language use patterns of urban Hispanic families to determine the differences between academic achievement, language development, and psychosocial adjustment of children whose families have maintained Spanish as the main home language and those whose families have switched to English. The results challenge the assumption…

Examined the influence of age, social class, and maternal employment on changes in nutrition knowledge and dietary quality following a nutrition education program for 10- to 13-year-olds. Results indicated that nutrition knowledge but not dietary quality were increased by the program. (JAC)

Support for learning, as perceived by 516 adolescents, was compared to data collected five years earlier on family characteristics, ability, achievement, and school attitude. Educational aspirations were related to parents' and teachers' support. Females' occupational aspirations were influenced by situational variables; males were also influenced…

Reading ability, symbol-processing speed, and spatial reasoning ability were examined in families with reading disabled children and in control families. For both types of families, comparable moderate familial influences were found, which also accounted for phenotypic correlations between traits. Multivariate path analysis and other statistical…

Presents the Chicano and Black experience at UCLA. Provides an examination of differences in social backgrounds, school experiences, and the relationships between these factors and college adjustment and achievement. Findings show Blacks more likely to feel alienated and perform poorly regardless of social class status. (Author/SA)

To determine the cause of the reading achievement gap between language minority students (Hispanic) and nonlanguage minority students, language background, socioeconomic status (SES), and ethnicity in the High School and Beyond data set were analyzed. Language background and SES/ethnicity were found to be equally accountable for the gap. (MM)

Separate dimensions of infant cognition were compared with parental general- and specific-cognitive abilities for 182 adoptive and 164 nonadoptive families. More parent-offspring resemblance was present when 24- rather than 12-month Bayley factors were used. Bayley factors were more related to parental g than to specific abilities. (Author/RD)

Relations between adolescents' perceptions of school environments and their educational and occupational aspirations in different family environments were examined. Results indicated ethnic group differences in the relationship among the variables which suggest that results from investigations of family-school influences on children's school…

Finds that kindergarteners in schools where children tend to succeed owned far more books and were read to at home far more often than were children in less successful schools. (FL)

A model of family learning environment was constructed to study the relationship between family environments and school achievement. Data were collected from Australian families with 11-year-old children attending urban elementary schools. A semi-structured family interview inventory was used to assess dimensions of the environment model. (DWH)

Reports on a study of differences in selected behavior of Catholic elementary school children from divorced/separated families as compared to children from intact family structures. Indicates that children of divorce differ most from their peers in interpersonal skills and relationships. Discusses the teacher's role in a student support system.…