An examination of parents and children in alternative family lifestyles points toward changing ideologies with respect to values such as achievement, future planning, and authority. These attitudes have implications for their child-rearing practices and influence a restatement of parental roles and responsibilities of children. (Author/AM)

Recent legal decisions affecting the rights of children are reviewed and analyzed in terms of efforts to balance the often competing interests of children, their families, and the state. It is concluded that the political process, not the judicial process, will have to be engaged to provide what children need. (Author/AM)