Against the background of recent radical changes in the Canadian economy, this issue of the Canadian journal "Transition" examines the question of parents' concerns for their children's economic futures. "Changes in Family Incomes and Labour Market Participation in Post-War Canada" (David Ross and Clarence Lochhead) charts…

Family life in Canada is alive and well, even though it may seem at times to be under attack. Families are changing in the functions they serve. One of the significant changes has been the increase in the number of women with paying jobs outside the home. This change has not necessarily caused families to be better off economically. Today, both…

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to specify and investigate the determinants of parental intention through data collected from 200 parents of youths aged fifteen years. Results showed that Greek parents guide their children to follow upper secondary education rather than technical education for a number of reasons but mainly: technical…

This study is one part of a two-part inquiry into subsidies for post-secondary education in Canada. Governments in Canada spend over $4 billion each year in transfers to individuals for the purpose of post-secondary education. Roughly half of this money goes out in need-based loans and grants, while the other half goes in "universal"…

This paper investigates the impact of economic and social reforms in New Zealand since the mid 1980s on the well-being of children. Although the reforms emphasizing the role of market forces and markedly reducing the welfare state and the direct role of the state in the economy were among the most sweeping in scope and scale in any industrialized…

This telephone survey examined the early childhood education (ECE) experiences, home experiences, and home resources of near-5-year-olds in New Zealand, as identified by their parents. Participating were 767 New Zealand families in Wellington and Porirua, a sample selected to be comparable to those selected in other longitudinal studies. The main…

This paper provides an in-depth review and analysis of literature on dropping out from school, and focuses on children who have gained access, but fail to complete a basic education cycle. The main discussion is around why and how children drop out from school. Here drop out is not presented as a distinct event, but rather a process where a range…

Fundamental features of the financial aid systems for college students in 10 European countries are described, as are the theoretical framework and research topics of the study on which this report is based. The study is intended to determine the per capita degree of subsidization in each country; to describe the effects of the financial aid…

This third annual report presents the broad findings of studies attempting to provide a comprehensive description of the nature of families in Australia today and seeking to identify and analyze the many factors affecting their well-being. Studies that have not yet reached completion are also described. Specifically, six chapters cover (1) a…

The costs of education are usually shared by governments and students. Cost benefit analyses have failed to indicate how these costs should be apportioned, since such analyses measure only economic benefits and leave out the psychological, sociological, and political benefits governments and educators must consider in financial planning.…

This study of the effects of three years of piano instruction is based on a sample of 117 fourth-grade children attending public schools in Montreal. The children had never participated in formal music instruction, did not have a piano at home, and their annual family income was below $40,000 Can. Children in the experimental group (n = 63)…

A statistical study of Brazilian education reveals that children of high-income, well-educated groups enjoy better educational opportunities and a usually higher rate of return on their educational investment than do the children of low-income groups. Poorer regions of the country, however, have a higher rate of return than do regions with a…

This monograph describes the developmental context of disadvantaged children in the English-speaking Caribbean. Reported in nontechnical language are the frequencies of responses on a parent interview schedule made by a sample of heads of households with children 0 to 3 years of age. Section 1, part 1 presents information on type of family union,…

While questions of children's engagement in physical activity are being widely debated, little is known about how physical activity is valued and managed within families. This paper reports on qualitative data from a multi-method study on lower primary aged children. The focus of the broader study was to determine the relationships between young…

This study was designed to determine attitudes of prospective primary school teachers toward gender equity. The specific objectives were: (1) to find out their attitudes toward gender equity, that is, whether they were positive or negative; and (2) to compare the attitudes in terms of the following independent variables: gender, age, grade, type…