Structural equation modeling analysis of 349 youths, aged 9-16, in St. Kitts, West Indies, showed that physical punishment by itself does make a modest, but significant, direct and negative contribution to youths' psychological adjustment. Children tended to experience themselves to be rejected in direct proportion to the frequency and severity of…

The exit interview is examined as a management tool that can help the day-care center administrator better understand teacher turnover. Research suggests that telephone interviews or mailed questionnaires are more effective than personal interviews conducted as the employee leaves an organization. (PAM)

Discusses the need to recognize the importance of preschool teachers and preschool education. Parents and preschool staff can educate the public about the need for high quality child care and the effects of high quality child care on society. (SH)

Studied parent-staff communication during morning and afternoon transition times in 16 proprietary day care centers. Found that communication varied by center, and communication occurred more between parents and staff of infants and toddlers than parents and staff of preschoolers. Age differences may have been a result of staffs' rather than…

Tested propositions concerning the relation of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and perceived availability of alternative employment to intentions to leave or remain in child care work. Results indicated that commitment, satisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities, and perceived job alternatives contributed significantly to…

Considers social care of the elderly. Presents social care model emphasizing interrelatedness of informal, mediating, and formal care and the need for well-articulated linkages among them. Discusses trends affecting future demand for care, and ability of family and community to respond. Sees family retaining important role, with some of its…

Interviewed primary caregivers of 99 Alzheimer's patients about existence and appearance order of linguistic symptoms to study disease effects on communication. Found that prevalence of linguistic symptoms strongly correlated with order of symptom appearance. Discusses symptom prevalence and order of appearance in relation to onset of…

Four studies found serious problems with components of the federal Medicaid program's survey process for evaluating intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded--surveys did not discriminate between certified and noncertified units, direct-care staff behavior was very reactive to the survey's presence, and service providers had divergent…

Discusses the impact of health care reform on child-care centers and child-care employees. Topics covered include requirements to provide health insurance for all employees; subsidies for businesses with fewer than 50 employees; subsidies for low income employees; family coverage; health are costs for 2 working parents; and costs to day-care…

Compared 6-month-old hearing infants' responsiveness to infant-directed and adult-directed signing. Results replicated those found with deaf infants, namely that infants showed greater attentional and affective responsiveness to infant-directed sign than to adult-directed sign, suggesting that infants are prepared to detect sign motherese…

Presents suggestions for parents to stimulate children's language development. Suggestions include appreciating children's effort rather than correcting language, creating an environment that invites exploration, engaging in conversation frequently, playing with language and words, reading aloud daily to children, providing a variety of quality…

Explored patterns of consistency and change in maternal reminiscing style across conversations with different young children in the same family. Found that mothers evidenced striking stylistic consistency. Mothers' use of a stylistic dimension with one child predicted her use of the same dimension with the other child, above the variance accounted…

Describes how teachers and caregivers can create music environments in early childhood settings that connect to other areas of development. Discusses how music environments can accommodate free-choice participation, describes the caregiver's role, and suggests music activities. Includes definitions of musical concepts for young children, also tips…

The utility of "coping congruency" and "average level of couple coping" in explaining adjustment to multiple sclerosis was examined. Interview and questionnaire data was collected for 45 dyads with a 12-month follow-up. Predictors include Time 1 illness, caregiving, and coping variables. Findings support both concepts for…

The infant-and-toddler child-care program at the Child and Family Research Center at University of Nevada, Reno, is based on children's need for consistent, stable, and reliable adult care. Children stay with the same primary caregiver for the first three years. Four broad themes of the program are: attachment and trust, teacher-parent relations,…