We tested the hypothesis that training a parent in wheelchair-user and caregiver wheelchair skills would improve the child's wheelchair skills. We studied an 11-year-old girl with spina bifida and her mother. The mother received 4 training sessions averaging 42.5 minutes per session, over a period of 3 weeks. The total pre-training and, 4 weeks…

A cross section of mother/daughter pairs was analyzed in order to increase understanding of the mother/daughter relationship during latency. In each pair, the daughter was 9 to 11 years old, and the mother was divorced or living with her husband and employed or at home full-time. A total of 41 pairs were recruited from after-school day care…

In recent years, society has emphasized the desirability of being thin. Although children may learn the attractiveness of being thin from society, another influential component may be their parents' attitudes toward food, eating, and eating restraint. This study investigated the dieting practices and beliefs in fourth-grade children and their…

Inner-city mothers (N=86) and their 8- to 12-year-old children completed a 60-minute interview on the consequences of drug use, and overall concepts of health. A 15-minute conversation between mother and child regarding health was taped and coded for content and nature of the messages exchanged. Mothers and children also independently completed…

A community-based sexuality education program for parents and their puberty-aged children is described, and findings of a follow-up survey of the program are reported. The program was developed to provide factual information about puberty and sexuality which would serve as a basis for increased communication about sexuality between parents and…

Research indicates that a secure relationship with the custodial parent buffers children from some of the negative consequences of divorce. To test the hypothesis that the quality of open communication between mothers and children as well as their perceptions of acceptance and rejection moderate children's appraisals of divorce and their…

A sample of 212 urban, black mothers and their 8- through 12-year-old children responded to questionnaires about the frequency of potentially stressful life events experienced by the children and the feelings the children had when the events took place. A 49-item questionnaire addressed childen's concerns regarding the stress categories of home…

As part of long term research on the effects of a small, yet intensive, early-age intervention, this study examined the family communication style of 54 mother-child dyads and the scholastic perfomance of the target children. The 19 experimental dyads were of low socioeconomic status and had participated in Project Know How. In this project,…

Adding to prior literature on adults' and children's appraisals of stressors, this study examined relationships among children's negative cognitive errors regarding hypothetical negative divorce events, positive illusions about those same events, the actual divorce events, and children's post-divorce psychological adjustment. Subjects were 38…

A 16-item questionnaire concerning independence and 3 divergent thinking tests were administered to 3 groups of preadolescent boys (N=91) and their mothers as part of an ongoing longitudinal study of exceptional giftedness. Results indicate significant correlation of mothers' and boys' independence scores with divergent thinking test scores. (TJH)

This study investigated the effect of parent involvement on the academic achievement of middle school students and examined the role of parent and student gender in that relationship. The study also explored the effects of out-of-school activities on eighth-grade students' academic achievement. Data were derived from the National Educational…

This study investigated the stresses confronting homeless adolescents and the coping strategies that enable stressed urban minority children to achieve in school. A total of 176 homeless children ranging in age from 9 to 14 years were interviewed, and 199 control subjects who were not homeless were surveyed. Academic achievement was determined…