This briefing paper describes research findings on factors linked to children's school achievement and emotional adjustment. The findings are based on the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a nationally representative, longitudinal study of children and families conducted at the University of Michigan and supported…

A summary of recent research shows that more than 11.5 million children lived in poverty in 2001 and likely will experience long-term negative effects of poverty, such as dropping out of high school, compromised physical growth and cognitive development, and reduced physical and psychological well-being as an adult. Improving the home life of…

Despite an unprecedented surge of research on fathers, progress in the study of father involvement generally occurs within rather than across disciplines. This handbook highlights the challenges facing researchers of father involvement across disciplines. Following an introduction, the chapters of the book are as follows: 1) "Methodological,…

Studied the connection between actual cases of criminality and criminals' own experiences with their parents and why certain influences are significant. Factors described by interviewees included violence at home, neglect, and turning to peer groups for support. Consequences included the inability to develop normal social relationships. (Author/SD)

This study examined relationships between children's participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and their beliefs about physical activities and participation as well as perceptions of their parents' beliefs. Children's beliefs about their MVPA significantly predicted variance in self-reported MVPA. Children's perceptions of…

Profiles Wynton Marsalis and discusses his work with children and music. Describes the motivation behind, and development of, the Public Broadcasting System's four-part special "Marsalis on Music." Marsalis discusses his early exposure to music and the influence of his parents. (MJP)

Compared the involvement of black males and females in delinquency and examined the explanatory value of variables drawn from three traditional theories of delinquency (social control, structural strain, and differential association) for understanding delinquency among blacks. Results show that only two variables, attachment to school and…

Examined evidence for reciprocal influence between adoptive parents' behavior and heritable characteristics of adopted children. Found that psychiatric disorders of biological parents were significantly related to children's antisocial/hostile behaviors and consequently with adoptive parents' behavior. Also, the adoptee's antisocial/hostile…

For middle and high school girls in high-ability math classes, interest and self-concept made a difference for school grades, and for all adolescents, maternal expectations were influential in predicting math grades over time. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure, and 2 notes.)

The majority of research that exists studying juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) is dominated by the predilection that identifying risk factors associated with recidivism will benefit both the JSOs and treatment providers. Further, the majority of existing treatments are guided by research that has identified what makes JSOs more likely to reoffend.…

This paper will discuss the recent establishment of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust's Child and Adolescent Therapy Service. This service was set up in response to an expressed need within the police family to provide evidenced-based psychological therapies for child and adolescent psychopathology caused either directly by…

The authors assessed a cohort of 2,335 students from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area to identify predictors of violent behavior and to determine whether the predictors varied by gender. The sample was 76% White; boys and girls were equally represented. The majority lived with two parents. A measure of violent behavior collected at the end of the…

Negative emotionality and poor attention may combine or interact as risk factors in development. Negative emotionality is considered a challenge for self-regulation, whereas good attention is a potential means of self-regulation. In the current study, composites of 1- and 2-year maternal ratings of negative emotionality and global ratings of…

Objective: To examine provider and type variation in social support (SS) for activity. Methods: Three hundred sixty-three fifth to eighth-grade students completed a questionnaire assessing self-reported activity and social support (SS) from 3 providers: mom, dad, and peers. Important covariates of activity were included in the analysis: age, BMI,…

Middle school transitions can cause a decline in academic achievement and motivation in learning for many students. Low income underrepresented students are especially vulnerable to this transition. Parental involvement also tends to decrease during the middle school years. This qualitative study examined the elementary to middle school transition…