Children's interests are frequently cited as a source of early-years curricula. Yet, research has rarely considered the nature of these interests beyond the play-based environment of early-childhood education. This paper reports findings from a qualitative, interpretivist study in two early childhood settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Using…

This article reviews "Everyday Theatre", an interactive applied theatre project from Auckland based company Applied Theatre Consultants Ltd., which explores the dynamics of family relationships and touches obliquely on issues of abuse and violence. The article looks at the form, strategies and processes of "Everyday Theatre"…

Girls growing up in homes without their biological fathers tend to go through puberty earlier than their peers. Whereas evolutionary theories of socialization propose that this relation is causal, it could arise from environmental or genetic confounds. To distinguish between these competing explanations, the authors used a genetically and…

The Incredible Years parent training programme is a research-based therapy which aims to help families improve the behaviour of children with conduct difficulties in the early years, while the behaviour is malleable (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2003). The short-term goals of the programme are to reduce conduct problems in children by increasing…

The father's role in children's L1 maintenance and L2 learning is a relatively unexplored area. This study considers the L1 and L2 proficiency of 30 Korean-English late bilinguals who immigrated to New Zealand during their adolescence and how their L1 and L2 proficiency is influenced by the language use of family members. Data were collected…

This article describes the findings from a qualitative study that explored the views of a small group of Australian children about their involvement in decision-making processes following their parents' separation. Sixteen children, aged between seven and 17 years, participated in in-depth interviews that focused on their understandings of the…

Intergenerational conflict and intimacy levels between New Zealand parents and adolescents were measured. Most adolescents and parents perceived their relationships to be harmonious and happy. Adolescents were as intimate with fathers as with mothers. There was a trend for conflict to be less with fathers than with mothers, particularly for girls.…

Results of nine qualitative interviews with White (Pakeha) mothers of non-White children in New Zealand are provided, as are excerpts from personal narratives of biracial persons. J. E. Helms's (1995) White Racial Identity and W. S. C. Poston's (1990) Biracial Identity models are presented for theoretical insight. Implications for counseling are…

Children's autobiographical memory is hypothesized to be a function of their understanding of mind (Perner & Ruffman, 1995; Welch-Ross, 1995). In the context of mother-child reminiscing, children may learn about and display their understanding of mind (Nelson, 1999; Welch-Ross, 1997). We studied links among maternal reminiscing style,…

The current study has two aims: (1) to examine associations between the emotional content of parent-child past event conversations and two aspects of children's self-concept--moral self and self-esteem; and (2) to examine the degree to which talk about past events is uniquely associated with self-concept when compared with talk about ongoing…

According to autobiographical memory theorists, past event conversations provide children with a framework for evaluating and connecting past events into a coherent autobiography (R. Fivush, 1994; K. Nelson, 1993; M. K. Welch-Ross, 1995). Two studies were conducted to empirically examine the association between past event conversation style and an…

There seems to be an assumption among many people that parents can mold the later adult personality of their offspring by manipulating their childhood upbringing. To tease out the variables in childrearing and to discover some of the sources of the childbearing practices of mothers in the 1980s, a study of sisters and their mothers (N=48) in the…

Interviews with abused New Zealand children (N=57) found that physically abused children accepted blame for mild mistreatment and that verbally and sexually abused children accepted blame for mild or severe, but not moderate, mistreatment. Verbal and sexual abuse had greater impact on children's perceptions. (Author/CB)

Discusses the stress placed on families by nonsoothable crying infants, and describes a CrySOS clinic which was designed to help parents cope. Theoretical and empirical backgrounds are presented, as well as procedures followed at a typical first visit and some current developments. (JAC)

The aim of this study was to examine associations between children's temperament, parent-child goodness-of-fit, and the emotional content of parent-child conversations about past events. Fifty one New Zealand 5- and 6-year-old children and their parents discussed 4 emotional past events. Parents rated children's temperament along 15 dimensions…