Presents educational unit on death and loss designed to help junior high school students better understand themselves and their world and develop skills required for coping positively with stressful life events. Includes brief explanations for each of eight course themes and descriptions of major classroom activities. (Author/NB)

Notes that research on elder abuse highlights importance of communication and conflict resolution in families of older people, and that few prevention programs are available for use with community groups. Reviews literature on elder abuse and describes an educational curriculum designed to prevent abuse and neglect in families of the elderly.…

Opportunities for parents to encourage reading in the family are noted and ways to enhance the reading experience are discussed, including writing letters to book characters, singing combined with reading aloud, supplementing school subjects with enjoyable reading, sharing books at family gatherings, and using family experiences for book…

Examined first year postdivorce functioning of young adolescents, assessing social and social withdrawal behavior, cognitive functioning, and externalizing problems. Interparental conflict exerted significant main effect on social and social withdrawal behavior and, for cognitive functioning, interacted with marital status. Parental marital status…

The authors describe communication lessons developed to provide middle school students practice in using communication skills more effectively in the home. The specific skills included are (1) pictorial and word symbols; (2) hearing or listening; (3) speaking; (4) feedback; and (5) nonverbal cues. (Author/CH)

Data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households indicate that men's housework and child-rearing efforts are powerful determinants of wives' and husbands' perceptions of the fairness of the division of household chores. Wives' employment hours have no effect on husbands' fairness perceptions but are significantly related to wives'…

Comparison of family functioning in 103 neglectful and 102 nonneglectful low-income families found that neglectful mothers reported their families as having more family conflict and less expression of feelings, but not less cohesiveness. Observational measures indicated neglectful families were less organized, more chaotic, and less verbally…

Describes a survey of 44 male spouses of community college presidents, comparing findings with responses to similar questions from a survey of female spouses. Profiles the male spouses in terms of their personal characteristics, role at the college and in the community, rewards, frustrations, and advice to governing boards and female presidents.…

Observed parents' coparenting of 15-month-old sons to test 2 hypotheses: (1) greater differences in parents' demographic factors, personality, styles of relatedness, and child-rearing attitudes would forecast more unsupportive coparenting; and (2) the adverse effects of spousal differences would be amplified by family stress. Results supported…

Summarizes results of follow-up interviews with 10 out of 14 at-risk high school students studied during 1988-89. This study had indicated that students were at-risk in life and in school. Although seven eventually completed school and nine had positive self-perceptions, only one participant was working full time. Most had unstable family…

Presents guidelines, developed from review of literature on topic and survey of family studies departmental policies and those policies used by 32 highly published family scholars around the country, to assist in student-faculty collaborative research. Provides framework for faculty and students who are negotiating individualized contracts for…

Presents the first of a series of four articles that offer ideas and activities that can help students see the relevancy of social science in their lives. Focuses on family issues. (SR)

Attempted to identify college and high school students who were children of alcoholics or those concerned about parental drinking and assess their readiness for prevention programs. Findings indicated significant number of students willing to provide information regarding their parents' or relatives' drinking. Significant number indicated interest…

Examined parental alcoholism and help-seeking behavior in college students classified as children of alcoholics (COAs, n=83), Help-seeking COAs (n=51), Controls (n=86), and Help-seeking Controls (n=90). Findings revealed that help-seeking appeared to be the more significant variable for discriminating differences in emotional needs of college…

Compared the marital relationship in families with remarried mothers and families whose mothers had never divorced on dimensions of spouses' depression, marital satisfaction, sharing of housekeeping and child-rearing roles, and positive and negative affect spouses directed to one another. (BC)