Traced the life course, from mid-adolescence to young adulthood, of females characterized at age 16 as underachievers or overachievers. Found that, compared to the overachievers, the underachievers came from families with lower assessments of the daughters' academic achievement, lower aspirations, and conflicted relationships with parents.…

Tested the tracking/surveillance explanation of why parental knowledge is linked to adolescent adjustment. Found that across age and informant, high parental knowledge was linked to good adjustment in Swedish 14-year-olds, but children's spontaneous information disclosure explained more of these relations than parents' knowledge. Suggested that…

Examines the conversational styles and value preferences of Estonian mothers living in Estonia and Sweden. Adolescents and their mothers were videotaped in their homes during mealtime. States that there are differences in conversational styles, explaining that mothers in Estonia are more concerned with controlling the behavior of adolescents. (CMK)

Examines the impact of fertility, family changes, and employment trends on parenthood in Scandinavia. Maintains that the most vulnerable aspect of responsible parenthood is the privatization of the family and feminization of childhood. Parenthood as private choice may encourage societal nonresponsibility for children. The high risk of parental…

The paper reports on a project which examined the communication of a 10-year-old Swedish boy with severe retardation and multiple disabilities. Interviews, observations, and videorecordings were used. Communication categories included body language, gestures, head position, gaze/eye contact, and sound/mouth and tongue use. The child was found to…

The present article focused on two types of communicative intent (directing behaviour vs. eliciting talk) expressed by mothers and teenagers during everyday family interactions in Estonian, Finnish, and Swedish mono- and bicultural families. Three monocultural groups consisted of 17 Estonian, 19 Swedish, and 18 Finnish families living in their…

This booklet reports the findings of a study that focused on the well-being and lifestyle of 479 families of children (ages 2-17) with Down syndrome (DS) in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. A comparative study of families of typical children in the Nordic countries was also done. The results of the study indicate that bringing up a…

A cross-national comparison of infant behavior in the Strange Situation was designed to determine whether preseparation episodes made any difference in attachment classifications and whether infant behavior before separation from mother was the same in different countries. Infants in different countries made similar primary appraisals of the…

Examines the effect of day care environments on the social and emotional development of young children in India, particularly considering the cultural context. Considers evidence from a study of families using day care in India, and compares maternal behavioral profiles in mother-infant interaction between India and the United States, Kenya,…

A theory of normal mother-infant relationship based on Margaret Mahler's theories is the basis of a treatment program for disturbed mother/infant relationships. This theory includes the concept of symbiosis which for the child is an undifferentiated condition, a fusion with the mother where the two have a common outward border, thereby protecting…

Examined data on family patterns in Greece and Sweden covering relations between parents and children, and family and child care settings. Found that Greek mothers stressed the general importance of their children's day care setting program more than did Swedish mothers, particularly concerning the socializing and learning aspects of the program.…

A 15-year study examined the lives of male alcoholic inpatients and their children. Found differences in social adjustment and health status between the children of alcoholics and the control children. These children also required greater social assistance, particularly those in homes where alcohol and drug use combined. Boys were more vulnerable…

Among 800 Swedish 13-year olds of high mathematical or verbal ability, boys with high verbal ability were found to have highly educated parents. Girls of high mathematical ability had high father presence and highly educated mothers. Educational choices in secondary school were more affected by gender than by ability. (SLD)

The purpose of the international symposium on Violence Toward Children was to lay foundations, identify priorities and put forward guidelines for further research and action designed to reduce the level and frequency of violent acts perpetrated on children. This document presents an edited account of the major questions addressed. The main thesis…

Sampled the speech of American, French, and Swedish mothers to their one-year olds, to analyze distribution of phonetic parameters of adult speech, as well as children's own early words. Found that variability is greater in child words than in adult speech, and mother-child dyads showed no evidence of specific maternal influence on phonetics of…