Gilligan (1982) proposed that men and women have different moral ideologies, that men use a logic of rights and rules while women use a logic of care and relationships. Russ and Alexander (1984) found significant sex differences in their research on justice, such that women responded more positively to overreward or more negatively to underreward…

Development of a psychosocial explanation of antisocial and delinquent behavior to guide prevention efforts has recently gained attention. This study considered several types of social stressors and compared their effects on levels of antisocial and delinquent behavior. Male and female adolescents (N=84) were surveyed for socioeconomic status,…

The present study attempts to move beyond the social address research design to investigate the process by which socioeconomic status (SES) exerts its influence on parenting practices. Of particular interest were maternal practices related to cognitive outcomes in children. The conceptual model of the study was based on the reliable finding that…

The maternal affective environment to which children are exposed, conceptualized by (1) percentage of total emotional displays (happy, sad, angry, tense, or tender) and (2) global indices of current maternal psychosocial functioning, is likely to be related to children's expression of emotions and overall social-emotional competence. Thus,…

Investigated were: (1) sex differences in the ability of 20 boys and 20 girls between 8 and 9 years of age to draw a plan of their house; and (2) variables related to such differences. Subjects were tested on four Piagetian tasks (verticality, horizontality, and two Euclidean space tasks), plan drawing, and vocabulary. After children completed the…

Research on family relationships has indicated that the family is the primary basis of security for adults in later life. To explore the family environment and interactional experience of multigenerational families in which the elderly grandparent is chronically ill, 12 families (12 grandparents, 13 adult children, and 11 grandchildren) completed…

An attempt was made to identify aspects of the family environment that predict social competence in the school environment. A total of 69 second graders were administered a revised verion of Furman and Buhrmester's (1985) Network of Relationships Inventory. Social competence was assessed sociometrically and with seven behavioral nominations.…

Twenty-four children (aged 7-16 years) with seizure disorders (SD) were compared to 30 children with diabetes mellitus (DB) and 30 children with no chronic illness. Using a variety of assessment devices, the children were compared on intelligence, academic achievement, attention, memory, perceived competence, and parents' perceptions of child and…

The recent concern with industrial achievement has reinforced a growing tendency to be concerned with educational achievement. This study, the first in a series, examined whether or not student motivation made a unique contribution to achievement that could be separated from other factors known or thought to contribute to student achievement such…

The study investigated the psychological home environments of 150 trainable mentally retarded (TMR) students and 250 slow learners (largely educable mentally retarded--EMR--and some educationally handicapped--EH). Data were gathered at annual intervals by home interview and school visits. The home interview included structured questions and…

This study addresses three questions: (1) whether sex is related to ability and interest in computers; (2) whether a relationship exists between the presence of a computer in the home and a child's ability and interest in computing; and (3) the combination of factors that account for students' perceptions of success in developing programming…

The perceptual process involved in parental guidance and discipline of children may be sensitive to distortion by aversive environmental conditions. Married couples (N=24) completed a written interview to examine the relationship between exposure to disruptive life-events and a parent's ability to discern different types of child misbehaviors.…

Father absence and measures of sex role attitudes in children have been examined in previous research. To investigate whether father presence is more likely to be positively related to instrumentality in both boys and girls, children and their parents completed questionnaires. Boys scored higher than girls on the instrumentality measures. Children…

Several conclusions about child language were drawn from the data collected during the Bristol longitudinal study, "Language at Home and at School": (1) the amount of speech that adults address to their children is significantly associated with the children's rate of progress; (2) although many topics are introduced by parents, an equal…

Possible explanatory theories of the relationship between broken homes and crime include the following: (1) broken homes lead to crimes if there are "catalytic agents"; (2) broken homes lead to crime if these homes fail to provide certain conditions which promote socialization; and (3) broken homes and crime have a common source, but not…