Describes a home-visit assignment used in an early-childhood-education teacher-training class to teach the importance of family and cultural context as an influence on child development. As part of the assignment, student teachers document observations in four domains: family structure and history, language use, household activities, and parental…

Examines the phonetic characteristics of babbling by a pair of fraternal twins raised in a bilingual environment (English/Serbian). The study focused on the basic articulatory form of babbling, the impact of twinship on babbling patterns, and whether effects specific to one or another of the ambient languages could be observed. (30 references)…

Used qualitative approach to examine attitudes of British-born Asian primary school children regarding their cultural and personal identities. Found that the majority could not read or write in their mother-tongue, had no knowledge of their religion, and experienced racism at school and in the neighborhood. Although they described themselves as…

Study of a cohort of low birth weight, preterm infants examined effects of maternal knowledge and concepts of child rearing on the home environment and developmental outcomes. Maternal knowledge, measured at 1 year, was found to be associated with quality of the home environment, the number of child behavior problems, and to a small degree, infant…

Describes a qualitative research study of children from divided families and analyzes findings in terms of family contexts, children's resiliency, and needs. Suggests strategies for professionals including recognition of developmental capacity within family circumstances, interactive systems, communication patterns and areas of stress. Includes…

Examined concurrent and longitudinal factors associated with geographical distance between parents and their young adult offspring. Adolescents were interviewed and completed questionnaires several times between sixth grade and age 21. Results indicated correlations between healthy parent-child relationships and geographical distance, personal…

This article addresses ways that schools and communities can be a protective influence by helping students to overcome the difficulties of destructive home and inner-city environments. Topics discussed include the school as a protective influence, neighborhood organizations that buffer and protect children and teenagers, the protective value of at…

Compared the social support of 92 homeless and 115 permanently housed low-income mothers. Results reveal that homeless mothers had less contact with their friends/relatives, could count on fewer people for help and child care in times of need, and felt their social networks were less helpful than housed mothers. (RJM)

Assessed the parenting behaviors of 193 white and African American mothers 15-24 years of age when their children were 12 and 36 months old. Cluster analysis of three dimensions of parenting was used to identify five types of parenting patterns. The strongest discriminating factor--maternal IQ--was associated with more positive parenting behavior…

Questioned 838 aging mothers of children with disabilities to describe the functional and affective relationships characterizing disabled and nondisabled siblings. Mothers reported that nondisabled offspring provided little functional assistance to their disabled siblings but that affective relationships between their children were characterized…

Examines single-parent families headed by fathers. Studied specially constructed child files from the 1960-90 Public Use Microdata Samples data from the Census of Population. Findings showed single-father families generally rare but increasing. Social capital of children's fathers, availability of adults, and children's economic well-being vary…

Addresses association between recent parental divorce and mental health outcomes in young adults aged 18-23. Half of those studied (n=485) had experienced parental divorce within 15 months of the interview; the other half had not. Comparison indicated that, at the bivariate level, parental divorce was associated with poorer mental health outcomes…

The relationship between parent-child interactions and early literacy skills in children (ages 1-3) for 27 families living in low-income households was examined. Results found child language, parent language, emotional tone, joint attention, parental guidance, and parental responsivity behaviors were strongly related to later receptive vocabulary,…

A study examined socioeconomic and gender influences on student computer use. Surveys of 2,681 seniors from 60 Alberta high schools indicated higher computer use among males. Male and female students of higher socioeconomic status were more likely to use computers at home, but less likely to use them at school. Findings challenge claims that…

Identified five groups (well-adjusted, undercontrolled, reserved, confident, inhibited) of 3-year-olds and assessed subjects' interpersonal functioning at age 21. Found that well-adjusted, reserved, and confident children exhibited normative adult interpersonal behavior; inhibited children had lower levels of social support as adults than other…