A study examined the role of coping style attributions and emotions in response to challenging behavior in predicting helping behaviors of 33 support staff of people with mental retardation. Coping styles of practical problem solving and wishful thinking and attributions of controllability and internality were significant predictors of effort in…

Summarizes suggestions from child care directors concerning recruitment and retention of high quality staff. (BB)

Examined gender differences in spouse caregiver strain among 554 spouse caregivers, using a multivariate model in which caregiver strains were a function of caregiver stressors and support resources. The effect of gender was found to be small; wives' greater experience of health strains appeared to result from situational factors and traditional…

Maintains that appropriate staff training for family and child care center providers is critical in providing services to special needs--disabled--children, and outlines briefly a course designed to provide such training offered by Montgomery College in Montgomery County, Maryland. (BB)

Reviews studies of maternal employment, processes in child care settings, and the link between children's development and family and child care influences. Critically evaluates the risk for children's social and emotional development that may result from infant child care. (BB)

Discusses ethical and programmatic issues and strategies that teachers can use to ensure that all participants benefit when research is conducted in the child care center. (BB)

The crisis in child care results from the increase in employed parents and the inadequacy of child caregiving resources. This serious family problem can be addressed through advocacy by national intergenerational coalitions, through establishment of day care centers in senior citizen housing, and through elder employment as teachers and…

Claims that children's peer relations are significant in their social, cognitive, and moral development, and are correlated to later problems in social adjustment. Includes a brief historical perspective on the subject, and explores direct and indirect influences. Claims that peer relations develop within ecological frameworks, and identifies the…

Discusses how during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a social ethos evolved among African American women that led to internal child welfare reform in legally segregated African American communities. Uses as an example the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls, founded in 1915, to describe these child welfare developments. (TM)

Examines issues associated with transracial (black to white) adoption decisions. Discusses racial disparity in supply and demand for adoptable children, the institutional framework, early development of attachment in children, attachment issues in foster care and adoption, the significance of racial identity in early childhood, racial identity…

Contends that appropriate day care for infants and toddlers is still an unresolved issue. Examines international research and identifies preconditions for transferring good practices to Germany. Argues for child care that allows more individual attention to the child. (CFR)

Presents reasons and specific "how to" information for increasing the comfort level and learning possibilities for toddlers. Notes that toddler-sensitive child care recognizes that toddlers are distinct from infants and from preschoolers in terms of developmental characteristics. Lists characteristics of toddlers, ways to make child-care…

Investigated the development of inattentiveness and hyperactivity in middle childhood through a prospective study that followed 191 children from birth through age 11. In early childhood, quality of caregiving better predicted distractibility, an early precursor of hyperactivity, than did early biological or temperament factors. Caregiving and…

Sampled the speech of American, French, and Swedish mothers to their one-year olds, to analyze distribution of phonetic parameters of adult speech, as well as children's own early words. Found that variability is greater in child words than in adult speech, and mother-child dyads showed no evidence of specific maternal influence on phonetics of…

Examined effective relationships of parents, educators, and children by identifying quality care and education for children under 5 in a range of educational, social services, voluntary, and private establishments. Found four categories of practice that contributed to effective relationships, including educator-parent and educator-child…