In Texas, fifth grade students are required to pass both the reading and math sections of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in order to be promoted to the next grade level. The purpose of this study is to describe parents' perceptions of the influence of the high-stakes TAKS test on the family lives of at-risk fifth grade…

Much research on requests has been carried out among L1 Chinese adults, L1 Chinese children, L1 children, L2 adults, and L2 children, but no studies to date have simultaneously examined Chinese children's requests in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). The aim of this study is to investigate how Taiwanese elementary school children vary requests…

Although educational attainment of poor youths has risen in recent years, aspirations still remain below those of other youths. Multiple theories have been used to understand youth aspirations, although the frameworks have not been examined concurrently. The present study used data on 11,154 low-income youths collected with the School Success…

This study explores two aspects of the privatization of childhood in contemporary urban China: the emergent discourse on children's privacy and children's growing seclusion within the home. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the author describes urban caregivers' engagement with the issue of children's privacy, and argues that we are now…

This study analyzes the effects of human, social, and financial capital on children's home environments in the United States and Great Britain by comparing a sample of 5- to 13-year-old children from the United States with a similar sample from Britain. In both countries, the authors find weaker home environments for boys, minority children, and…

In this monograph, the authors have brought the findings of the English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) study up to age 15 years and, in so doing, have focused especially on the question of whether there are deprivation-specific psychological patterns (DSPs) that differ meaningfully from other forms of psychopathology. For this purpose, their main…

The present study investigates heritage learners' recognition of native-like and non-native-like mood selection in Spanish volitional constructions along two dimensions: age of onset of bilingualism in English (operationalized as age of arrival) and language use. Thirty-two heritage learners completed a grammaticality judgment (GJ) and an editing…

There are gender differences in educational attainment amongst British children and there is evidence that these differences emerge early in life. In this study we investigate whether boys' and girls' early educational attainment levels are similarly related to disadvantage in the family environment. This study uses survey data from the Millennium…

Guided by theories of cultural participation, the authors examined mother-child, father-child, and triadic interactive behaviors in 141 Israeli and Palestinian couples and their firstborn child at 5 and 33 months as antecedents of children's social competence. Four parent-child measures (parent sensitivity, child social engagement, parental…

How aligned are the needs of family caregivers with the professional supports available to them? This article presents the results of the first phase of a study, in which four focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 40 family caregivers to elicit their views of the kinds of assistance they expect from nurses and social workers. The…

This work presents different lines of intervention in the local, group, family and educational contexts aimed at prevention of some deviant behaviors--such as violence, theft and certain patterns of trafficking and use of legal and illegal substances--as practiced by a minority of young people and youth sub-culture groups. These interventions are…

The Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) was a randomized clinical trial of early intervention services for low birth weight, premature infants. Mothers and infants received services for 3 years beginning at neonatal discharge. At the intervention's conclusion, mothers in the intervention group who had lighter (less than 2001 g) birth…

Recent research has demonstrated that parents' beliefs about their children's minds constitute an important environmental factor affecting children's development. One difficulty with this area of investigation is that beliefs are often implicit, unconscious, and not always accessible through direct questioning. This study addresses this difficulty…

The number of children who experience parental incarceration continues to rise with the United States. In 1999, an estimated 1.5 million minor children had a parent in a United States prison. One-fifth of these children are under 5 years of age (Mumola, Incarcerated parents and their children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000). A…

Objective: The authors discuss clinical and teaching aspects of a telephone call by the treating clinician to family members after a patient dies. Methods: A MEDLINE search was conducted for references to an after-death call made by the treating clinician to family members. A review of this literature is summarized. Results: A clinical application…