Compared the mother-son and father-son interactions of male toddlers who were completely home-reared with the parent-child interactions of male toddlers who participated in a daily three-hour playgroup. (JMB)

Explored differential effects of home strategy training on 184 German and 161 American second-graders. German children were more strategic than American children. Differences were paralleled by strategy instruction in the home. Children's metacognition was significantly correlated with parents' strategy instruction. (RJC)

Results indicated a fairly consistent relationship between Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME) scores and children's developmental status in spite of the fact that there were some ethnic and social status differences in the relationship. Measures of specific aspects of the child's home environment were more strongly related to…

Assessed 26 lesbian couples' division of labor, their satisfaction with division of labor and their relationships, and their children's psychosocial adjustment. Found that parents were more satisfied and children were more well adjusted when the labor involved in child care was more evenly distributed between parents. (MDM)

Maternal treatment of sibling pairs with affectively ill and well mothers was examined in relation to child psychiatric status across childhood and early adolescence. Found that older siblings' symptoms were predicted by maternal bipolar or unipolar illness, whereas younger siblings' symptoms were predicted by lower maternal engagement and higher…

Investigated genetic and environmental contributions to relationship between family and school environment and depressed mood; also potential sex differences in genetic and environment contributions to variation in and covariation between family connectedness, school connectedness, and depressed mood. Subjects were 2,302 adolescent sibling pairs.…

Several hundred children in various group care programs were compared for cognitive development with same-age children reared at home. The group-reared children did not show any of the developmental deficiencies usually attributed to institutional care. (NH)

Examined mother-infant teaching interactions, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) scores, and infant attachment security in 197 adolescent mothers and their infants. Adolescent mothers who were living with neither their own mothers nor their partners had better teaching interactions but lower HOME scores than those…

Examined the sexual orientation of 82 adult sons of 55 gay men. Found that more than 90% of the sons whose sexual orientation could be rated were heterosexual. Gay and heterosexual sons did not differ on potentially relevant variables such as length of time they had lived with their fathers. (MDM)

Examined relationships between unsupportive environments and adolescents' valuing financial success relatively more than affiliation, community, and self-acceptance. Eighteen-year olds who rated the importance of financial success aspirations higher than other values were found to have mothers who were less nurturant. Further, these subjects grew…

Explored patterns of consistency and change in maternal reminiscing style across conversations with different young children in the same family. Found that mothers evidenced striking stylistic consistency. Mothers' use of a stylistic dimension with one child predicted her use of the same dimension with the other child, above the variance accounted…

For 720 same-sex sibling pairs from 10 to 18 years of age, parents and adolescents provided information about family environment and adolescent adjustment. Found that adolescents' perceptions of their parents' conflict-negativity mediated the relationship between parental conflict-negativity and adolescent antisocial behavior. (BC)

Used quantitative genetic design to examine between- and within-family variations and gene-environment processes in parent-child mutuality among 3-year-old identical and same-sex fraternal twins. Found that greater mutuality was associated with higher socioeconomic status. Moderate sibling similarity in parent-child mutuality was accounted for by…

This study compared the intellectual development, attachment to mother, peer interaction, and physical health of day care and maternal home care children. The results indicate that very young children who experience high quality group day care differ little from home-reared children. (JMB)

Home-environmental processes, socioeconomic indicators, and family structure measures were canonically correlated with four mental abilities of 185, 11-year-old boys. Verbal and number abilities were the most predictable, with the process measures contributing the most to prediction. (DP)