During preadolescence, concerns about maintaining and developing friendships, gaining peer acceptance, and avoiding peer victimization become central concerns. The transition to middle school can create or exacerbate these concerns. Parents may be in a position to help preadolescents navigate these developmental and ecological challenges, promote…

Purpose: Most studies of adherence use a single global measure to examine the relation of adherence to outcomes. These studies inform us about effects of overall implementation but not about importance of specific program elements. Previous research on the Strengthening Families Program 10-14 has shown that outcomes were unrelated to global…

A parent is a child's first educator in communication, social/emotional skills, motor development, and academics. As the achievement expectations placed on schools increase and the schooling population continually diversifies, the need to increase the overall parental involvement in schools and their ability to assist with academics in the home…

Recent meta-analytic efforts have documented how couple and relationship education (CRE) programs promote healthy relationship and family functioning. The current meta-analysis contributes to this body of literature by examining stepfamily couples, an at-risk, subpopulation of participants, and assessing the effectiveness of CRE programs for…

While parents with disabilities may face big challenges, with appropriate supports, many can be great parents. Just like other parents, they do not have to be responsible for every part of childrearing all by themselves. All parents rely on supports to help raise their children, such as day care, carpools, schools, babysitting co-ops, or advice…

Family variables are thought to play a key role in a wide variety of psychopathology according to many theories. Yet, specific models of the development of anxiety disorders place little emphasis on general family factors despite clear evidence that anxiety runs in families. The current review examines evidence for the involvement of a number of…

Despite the evidence pointing to its detrimental child outcomes, physical punishment remains one of the most commonly used techniques to discipline children in many Nigerian homes. Research has revealed that a majority of Nigerian parents are not aware of the negative consequences. They are also not aware of nonaversive ways to discipline…

Limited literature exists in the Australian context about first-time mothers' knowledge of early communication milestones, their strategies to facilitate speech and language development and understanding of the relationship between early communication skills and future development. A cross-sectional online survey was administered to 53 first-time…

Understanding factors that influence mothers' beliefs about appropriate levels of supervision for their children may assist in efforts to reduce child injury rates. This study examined the interaction of child (i.e. age, gender, and injury risk behavior) and maternal perception of environmental hazard (i.e. hazard level, injury likelihood,…

Because fathers are clearly important to family well-being, including fathers in services for families seems a straightforward idea. How hard can it be? Yet across health, education, and welfare services it is still mothers who attend and engage on behalf of their infants and children. The Family Action Centre, located on the east coast of…

Children's early relationships with their caregivers are important for later developmental outcomes, both proximally and distally, and enhanced caregiver-child relationships may promote positive outcomes at both the individual and family levels. In this article, we review six evidence-based caregiver-child interaction interventions that can…

Research has demonstrated the benefits of father involvement with their children and a link between uninvolved fatherhood and societal problems. Children's Centres (n?=?15) received 6?×?90-minute active play sessions designed to foster 6 aspects of parental engagement. Fathers' engagement and attitudes to child physical activity were measured pre-…

Families influence their children's health in two ways that are amenable to public policy- through their financial and other investments in children, and through the quality of care that they provide. In general, children who receive more resources or better parenting are healthier than those who don't. Public policies, therefore, might improve…

Countries that have sustained rapid growth over decades have typically had a strong public commitment to expanding education as well as to improving learning outcomes. South Asian countries have made considerable progress in expanding access to primary and secondary schooling, with countries having achieved near-universal enrollment of the…

The study reported here examined the effectiveness of 4-H program as perceived by parents of program participants. Descriptive-correlational design was employed, with data collected using a mail survey. Parents perceived 4-H as an effective organization in teaching life skills to youth. Significant relationships were found between parents' skills…