An estimated 5-25% of women suffer from perinatal depression (PD). If left untreated, PD can have negative consequences for maternal and child mental health. During pregnancy and the postpartum period, women are in contact with a variety of professionals and paraprofessionals such as public health nurses, early childhood providers and home…

The Hong Kong government has sought to encourage environmental education (EE) in schools. However, little is known about how government and private initiatives impact at the level of the kindergarten. This article, based on a small-scale study, investigates what is happening in Hong Kong kindergartens in EE. The findings show that there have been…

Three aspects of young children's social cognition--accurate encoding of social cues, hostile attributions and response access/generation--were assessed among 128 children (64 girls) attending three-, four-, and five-year-old classrooms (ages ranged from 36 to 73 months). Hostile attributions and the quality of strategy generation were both…

In this study we adapted DeBaryshe and Binder's Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI) with middle-class, well-educated (M = 14-15 years of education) Taiwanese mothers to find what their beliefs were about reading aloud to young children. Parental reports of home literacy practices including children's emergent literacy behaviours were also…

The backlog in terms of readiness for formal learning structures of children in low-income countries necessitates intervention programmes to alleviate the disadvantage. In these low-income countries, it is unlikely that the state will provide facilities or programmes for preschool children, as resources are just not available. Therefore, as an…

Emotional stress and trauma impacts the neurobiology of children. They are especially vulnerable given the developmental plasticity of the brain. The neural synaptic circular processes between the anterior cingulated cortex, prefrontal cortex, amygdala and the hypothalamus are altered. Trauma results in the release of the peptide glucocortisoid,…

This article gives an account of the results from an assessment of an early childhood education programme, conducted over the course of two academic years (1999-2000 and 2000-2001), in a centre in northeastern Spain. The purpose of the assessment was to discover how a particular educational programme contributed to the short-term competency levels…

Past research suggests that maternal and paternal parenting processes differentially contribute to children's adjustment. However, the contribution of paternal warmth and responsiveness, to childhood attachment security is less understood, especially beyond the preschool years. The current study examined relations between parenting and attachment…

This study examined associations between supportive coparenting and infant-mother and infant-father attachment security. Observed and parent-reported coparenting, and observed maternal and paternal sensitivity were assessed in a sample of 68 families with 3.5-month-old infants. Infant-mother and infant-father attachment security were assessed in…

The present research examined child gender, temperament, and the quality of parent-child interactions as predictors of narrative style and references to emotion during mother-child and father-child reminiscing. Although models predicting parents' narrative styles were non-significant, results revealed significant interactions between parental…

Relationships between fathers' romantic attachment style, parenting beliefs and father-child attachment security and dependence were examined in a diverse sample of 72 fathers of young children. Paternal romantic attachment style was coded based on fathers' endorsement of a particular style represented in the Hazan and Shaver Three-Category…

This study examined connections between fathering context (stress, social support, and fathers' internal working models), fathering dimensions, children's attachment to fathers, and children's social-emotional and academic outcomes within two culturally diverse samples in the USA and Taiwan. Participants included 274 fathers and their eight- to…

This study examined: (1) the independence of children's attachments to mother and father; (2) the relationships between father and mother quality of attachment and children's social and cognitive self-competence, depression and loneliness; and (3) differences in those relationships by gender. Spanish translations of standardised and self-report…

This study aimed at determining whether paternal parenting behaviours (attachment and positive affection) added significant information on children's psychosocial adjustment beyond that provided by maternal reports. Five hundred and fifty-two children (fourth through sixth graders) from a non-clinical sample completed a brief measure of perceived…

A mixed methods approach was used to examine how young adults (n = 1012) perceive fathers as targets for attachment support. Participants ranked the level of attachment support received and sought from fathers, mothers, best friends, and romantic partners, and provided relationship-specific information on additional indices of social support…