Examines the Rodgers, Rowe, and Buster (1998) epidemic model of the onset of social activities for adolescent sexuality. Maintains that its strengths include its theoretical potential to generate new hypotheses for further testing at the individual level. Asserts that its limitations include the lack of a well-developed statistical framework and…

Reviews and comments on Stoolmiller's (1998) criticisms of an epidemic model of the onset of social activities (EMOSA) and about nonlinear modeling in general. Discusses the idea of social contagion as a general theoretical tool. (Author)

Used a variety of family factors to predict development of children who averaged 30 hours of nonparental care per week for each month of their lives and of those who experienced no more than 10 hours of nonparental care per week. Multivariate analyses provided no evidence that family factors predicted outcomes differently for these two groups.…

Used survival analysis to identify likelihood of placing an infant or toddler in child care, using data from a national probability samples of 2,614 households. Found that median age at first placement was 33 months, but varied by geographic region, mother's employment status during pregnancy, mother's education level, and family structure.…

Reviews the issues addressed by the eight longitudinal studies in this special section, which considers the continuity of behavior across generations and the processes whereby parental characteristics may place offspring at psychosocial risk. The studies examine predictors of successful adaptation to high-risk environments and emphasize protective…

Followed the development of 57 women from childhood to adulthood and the development of their children from infancy through the early school years. The academic competence of the mothers, when they were children, was related to their children's academic competence. Correlations between measures of the aggression of the mothers, when they were…

For boys at risk for delinquency, assessed their parents' dyadic aggression and unskilled parenting beginning when the boys were in grade four and assessed the boys' aggression to a female partner in young adulthood. Found a relation between the parents' poor parenting practices and the boys' aggression to a partner, mediated by the boys'…

In 1980-83, a study assessed adolescent girls' smoking, their peers' smoking, and their parents' smoking and beliefs and strictness regarding smoking. Similar assessments were made in 1995 for these girls, now mothers, and their children. Found that general and smoking-related parenting practices, as well as peer smoking, were related to…

Using reports by mothers about their 1- to 10-year-old children's behavior and, years later, by these same children, now parents themselves, of their 2-year-old children's behavior, assessed six behavior variables that reflected two higher-order behavioral patterns. Found stability across generations in the "inhibited" but not the "difficult"…

In a longitudinal study of a cohort of boys, compared the characteristics of those who became adolescent fathers with those who did not, and of their children with other children. The adolescent fathers had more arrests and substance abuse problems than the other adolescents. Their children had more health problems than a group of normal control…

This study found that continuity in teenage parenting across two generations was associated with family and personal characteristics unfavorable for optimal child development; and also found that delay of first parenting till age 25 or later was associated with more favorable environmental characteristics and greater adult self-sufficiency. (BC)

Assessed several factors for parents and adolescents over a seven-year period. Found that adolescents' risk-taking behavior mediated the influence of parental warmth and adolescents' affiliations with deviant peers on involvement in pregnancy by grade 12, and that adolescents' academic achievement mediated the relationship between parental warmth…

Three studies focused on prediction of teen motherhood, complications during childbirth, multiparity, and close spacing of births; dropping out of school and teen parenthood; and prediction of child behavior from mothers' childhood characteristics. Found that mothers' childhood aggression predicted negative outcomes in each area of risk,…

Reviews the eight studies in this special section. Notes that the studies: (1) make a convincing case for stability across generations; (2) propose parenting practices as a mechanism that accounts for these stabilities; and (3) examine social interactional and biological variables as possible explanations for the effect of parenting practices.…

Research on intergenerational continuities should consider: (1) both sides of the family; (2) the effect of change on continuities; (3) discontinuities; (4) societal and family influences; (5) variations in the meaning of traits; (6) misleading differences; (7) risks derived from personal characteristics and experiences; (8) identification of…