Used an ecological model of human development to assess the interrelationship between psychological determinants of parenting, parental age, and parenting skill for a sample of parents (N=310). Found parents' race to be significantly related to attitudes toward childrearing, knowledge of child development, and perceived social support. (Author/ABB)

In individual, open-ended interviews, 10 women and men living alone were asked to describe all the places they had lived. Findings indicated that home has varying environmental and psychological dimensions across people's lives and does not seem to depend upon traditional family structure for its meaning. (Author/RC)

Employed data from the National Family Violence Survey to explore predictors of fear of future abuse among married or cohabitating women (n=356) whose partners abused them. Fear was higher in women whose partners initiated the violence; subjected them to forced sex or; made them afraid to retaliate in violence. (SNR)

Examined relationship between help seeking behavior and family functioning. Adolescents who sought help clustered into two groups of families - one high in conflict and low in democratic parenting style, and one low in conflict and high in democratic parenting style. Complex relationships between help seeking behavior, type of family, and type of…

Compared families with an adolescent girl who scored high on maturity, with families with an adolescent girl who scored low. Adolescents in the high scoring group came from families described as flexible and trusting. The high scoring adolescents were less likely to be triangled into the marital relationship. (Author)

Describes a preventive intervention that was randomly offered to a group of (n=67) non- to mildly distressed couples who participated in a larger study on relationships. At nine-month follow-up, couples in which one partner experienced parental divorce demonstrated increased problem intensity, decreased problem-solving ability, and rational…

Examined adolescents' perceptions of variables at three levels of the family system in relation to four dimensions of adolescent empathy. Results show that gender, family cohesion, parental support, self-esteem, and communicative responsiveness were related to empathic concern. Personal distress, perspective taking, and fantasy were also…

Discusses the social construction of adoptive parenting and adopted children as reflected in clinical and adoption triangle research. Although clinicians view adoptive families as second best to biologically related families, a random sample of 150 respondents did not differentiate between the functioning of adoptive and biologically related…

Studied parent, child, and marital attributes to explore factors that are most closely tied to levels of overall family functioning in households containing young developmentally disabled children. Surveyed 88 families using in-home interviews of parents. Found that level of family functioning had no relationship to specific child attributes but…

The present study investigated the associations between family functioning, acculturation between parents and their adolescents, and adolescent adjustment problems. Chinese adolescents and their parents (N=41) living in the United States and Canada participated in this study. Results showed that differences in acculturation between parents and…

Examined husbands' and wives' perceptions of parents' relationships with shared and unshared children, and spousal differences in these perceptions, in first married and remarried families. Found significant differences in parental relations with "his,""hers," and "their" children, and in parental perceptions of these…

Reviews the literature on the foster family characteristics that are thought to contribute to the behavioral and emotional problems of foster children. The review is shaped by an understanding of the personal and familial factors associated with children's problem behaviors. Factors include parenting, family home environment, family functioning,…

Examined factors related to the quality of home environments that 83 teenage mothers provided for their 12-month-old infants. Findings show that teens who fostered supportive environments were less depressed and more empathic, had infants who were heavier at birth, received more support from the father, and lived in relatively safe neighborhoods.…

Explored influences of mobile telework on family life as reported by teleworkers in a large national corporation. Compared this group to office workers within the same company. Teleworkers reported greater work flexibility. Some described positive family influences, whereas others revealed family problems arising from blurred lines between work…

Investigated how 657 fathers' job satisfaction and job stress were related to four domains: individual, parent-child, marital, and child. Results showed that the job affected all four domains. Job stress and job satisfaction were directly related to family functioning. Discusses implications for families with school-age children. (RJM)