Examined attitudes toward career and family roles among 97 home day-care providers, employed mothers, and mothers at home, all of whom had young children. Home day-care providers indicated highest agreement with statements describing the rewards of the occupational role, whereas employed mothers gave the lowest agreement ratings for items on the…

Focuses on how parents and teachers can help bring nonnative English-speaking children become literate in both their native language and in English. The activities most likely to ensure success in achieving these goals are those which can be done with the materials at hand in the context of normal daily living and in which everyone is happy to…

Behaviors and attitudes established early in life greatly affect friendships, parent-child relationships, and other personal contacts as children grow and develop into adults. Parents and other adults need to recognize and nurture the development of characteristics in children that can lead to intimacy, and to become aware of factors that induce…

Comparison of 40 French-speaking Canadian negligent mothers with 40 similar nonnegligent mothers found an extreme level of parental stress and a high level of depression for the negligent mothers, who also had a history of placements, violence, and sexual abuse. They did not differ from nonnegligent mothers for parental breakups and…

Compared the involvement of 28 mothers and their spouses who worked varying distances from their day-care centers. Found that mothers were significantly more involved in the center than fathers, even after statistically controlling for distance to the workplace and occupational status. (TJQ)

Provides a review and integration of findings on the effects of parenting styles and maternal employment on children's academic achievement. Presents a model in which it is argued that maternal employment status has little, if any, direct effect on children's academic achievement. Suggests maternal employment affects parenting styles, which in…

This article introduces three papers about research projects of the Early Childhood Research Institute of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). The papers address peer-mediated strategies to promote communicative interaction, social behavior in preschoolers with special needs, and the importance of parents as intervention agents. (JDD)

Maintains that beliefs that young children should not leave the care of their mothers and that education is not a legitimate profession need to be dispelled to promote and improve early childhood education and care programs and teacher education programs in the South. (BB)

In a study of 112 children of 6-11 years of age and their parents, authoritative/democratic and authoritarian/restrictive factors in parent behavior predicted the child's prosocial behavior and sociometric status. Results support the idea that popular and rejected children have different family experiences. (BG)

This ethnographic study observed five hearing-impaired children in public settings with their mothers. It discusses the families' busy schedules, reaction of the mother to her child when out in public, reaction of the mother to strangers, and communication between the hearing-impaired child and institutional figures such as doctors and day care…

Describes school-based Intervention Assistant Teams' (IATs) work with rural nonspecial education students experiencing regular-classroom difficulties. Teams evaluate students, recommend, and carry out intervention. Discusses team leadership, membership, and principals' and parents' roles. Describes potential IAT benefits for students, parents, and…

Parents and teachers can help children accept diversity in others by looking at their own beliefs and recognizing subtle stereotypes. Children will be influenced negatively by society if adults do not deliberately intervene to help create positive attitudes toward all people. Five strategies for helping change childrens' misconceptions are…

Three checklists help parents, teachers, and school administrators think about what constitutes a good elementary school science program and about their respective roles in promoting and supporting such a program. The lists focus on home and classroom environment, professional commitment, philosophy, curriculum and assessment, outside support,…

Urges a focus on the positive, rather than negative, aspects of African-American family patterns and emphasizes a recollection of the past positive coping strategies, such as a strong oral tradition of proverbs for passing on positive values to next or future generations. (JB)

The beliefs of 280 early childhood teachers regarding aspects of family-centered programing were assessed using the Family Involvement Survey. Results showed that public school teachers reported less positive beliefs about parents' interests and abilities and lower competence in relating to families than did either child care or Head Start…