Compared long-term effects of two compensatory preschool programs. Learning to Learn and Head Start/Title on fourth through sixth grade performance of students. Data, collected and analyzed from cumulative records of students revealed significant differences in favor of Learning to Learn groups on academic subjects, special education placement,…

Two studies examined children's inferences of personality for actors engaging in different domains of behavior. In both studies, first, fourth, and seventh graders were given two descriptions of actors engaging in either moral or conventional transgressions. Findings indicated that children's concepts of persons were inferred from information…

Naturalistic observations were made of "remedial interchanges" that occurred among kindergarten through fourth-grade children in open classrooms. Three approaches to development of moral judgments were considered: attributional, cognitive developmental, and symbolic interactionist. Data showed limited to no support for these theories and suggested…

Examines maternal and paternal behaviors in 78 parent-child dyads in Mexican families. Observed patterns were found to run counter to traditionally held views of Mexican parental roles. Findings proved to be similar to those obtained in observational studies in the United States. (Author/CB)

Reports two studies, one focusing on maternal childrearing attitudes and practices and the other on paternal roles and attitudes in Hong Kong. Informants were 17 pairs of grandmothers and mothers and 20 pairs of grandfathers and fathers from the same families. Despite important changes in paternal roles, continuity with the past was found to…

Reports questionnaire data from Black teenagers and grandmothers from 101 low-income urban families. Results indicated that grandmothers were more knowledgeable about infant development than were daughters. The presence of a baby seemed to provide the context in which the grandmother helped the young mother acquire information about infant…

Compares the interactions of 20 firstborn and 17 lastborn children with their parents and siblings. Children were observed at home for five 45-minute sessions. Oldest children differed from youngest children in emitting more behaviors to parents than to siblings and in receiving more negative responses from parents and siblings. (Author/CB)

Examines the interrelationship of paternal personality attributes, paternal-daughter relationship variables, and adolescent personality factors with adolescent daughters' use of marijuana. Questionnaires were completed by 403 White female college students and their fathers. Findings were similar to those from a study by Brook et al. of fathers and…

Presents a framework delineating four influences on infant and family development: personality, social interaction, role, and ecology. Documents stable characteristics of parents' personality and marriage that affect family development and infant soothability. (Author/CB)

Observers coded the behavior of 40 middle-class, traditional couples and their 5-month-old infants, and parents filled out attitude questionnaires. Fathers' sex-role orientation and both parents' views concerning the role of the father were found to be correlated significantly with observed levels of paternal activity. (Author/CB)

Investigates situational socialization goals as determinants of parental choice of disciplinary techniques. Sixty-four mothers were asked to influence their four-year-old children to perform a monotonous task under long- or short-term goal conditions. Amount of reasoning was related to goal conditions, and power assertion was related to child's…

Tests Bell's (1977) model of parent-child bidirectionality. Two 10-year-old child confederates, trained in conduct-problem and anxious-withdrawn roles, interacted with 32 mothers of other children. Results suggested that mothers exhibited more stimulating controls in the anxious-withdrawn condition and more restrictive controls in the…

Investigates psychophysiological reactions of 60 women to an infant's cry and to a control sound. The 30-second pain cry evoked greater cardiac and electrodermal activity than did the control stimulus, although selected groups varied in the nature and extent of their reactions. Both maternal state and experience with infants affected reactions.…

Examines two patterns of socializing interactions in 180 adolescents' relations with mothers, fathers, and friends. These patterns involve commands based on greater authority and expertise (unilateral) and negotiation and coconstruction (mutual). In a questionnaire, adolescents reported the frequencies of these patterns in their own relations…

Challenges the traditional conception of adolescence as a time of stress and instability in self-concept, using multiple measures of self-concept with a longitudinal sample of adolescents from seventh to tenth grade. Three components of self-concept are distinguished: the experienced self, the presented self, and self-feelings. (Author/CB)