A questionnaire about "spoiling" an infant was completed by 303 parents. Three types of spoiling beliefs (disbelievers, believers, and happy spoilers) were identified and correlated with demographics, definitions of spoiling, and belief about spoiling's impact on development. Results have implications for early interventionists working…

Examined the relationship between physical discipline at home, as reported by parents, and children's aggressive behaviors at school. Children who required physical discipline at home exhibited more aggressive behaviors than other children. Children who received frequent physical discipline exhibited more acting-out behaviors than children who…

Comparison of the home environments provided by 38 low-income mothers with IQs less than 75 and 27 low-income mothers with IQs over 85 found significant differences, indicating greater developmental risk for children of low IQ mothers resulting from environmental deprivation. Most of the variance was in the area of interaction. (Author/DB)

We investigated the effects of secrecy regarding their mothers' incarceration and social support on behavioral problems in a group of 116 children (aged 6-13 years, M = 9.00). Children with low levels of social support had more externalizing and internalizing problems, and children who had experienced more life stressors reported more…

The present study examined the independent and joint relations of parental self-efficacy beliefs and parent knowledge of child development to maternal behavioral competence among mothers of high-risk infants. Sixty-five mothers completed questionnaires regarding parental self-efficacy and knowledge of child development and were assessed for…

Objectives: To examine suicidality among urban youth and its relationship to patterns of adult support. Methods: Study surveyed 879 adolescents. Suicide ideation and attempts, perceived adult support, family and formal network availability, and network activation were assessed. Results: Only half of those reporting a suicide attempt had spoken…

This cross-sectional study examined risk and asset factors thought to be associated with fighting among a sample of 1,642 African American children and adolescents in a central Alabama school district. Results show that poor grades, parental abuse, and gang affiliation were significant risk factors associated with higher frequency of fighting.…

There is a dearth of research that examines the impact of family systems therapy on problems among sexually and/or physically abused youth. Given this void, differential outcome and predictors of substance use change were evaluated for abused, as compared with nonabused, runaway adolescents who were randomly assigned to family therapy or treatment…

Objective: To study whether behavioral and emotional problems during childhood predicted early sexual debut, risky sex at age 21 years, and sexually transmitted infections up to age 21 years. Some possible mediational pathways were also explored. Method: Participants were enrolled in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n =…

Substance abuse among adolescents continues to be a serious problem and a national concern. Most of the research on family correlates of substance abuse has been conducted with teenage addicts and has consisted primarily of reports obtained from the substance abusing adolescent only. This study attempted to identify clusters of family variables…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognize child maltreatment as a serious public health problem with extensive short- and long-term health effects. In addition to the immediate physical and emotional effects of maltreatment, children who have experienced abuse and neglect are at increased risk of adverse health effects and…

"Data Trends" reports present summaries of research on mental health services for children and adolescents and their families. The article summarized in this "Data Trends" indicates that children who have a parent who is depressed are at greater risk of depression themselves, as well as more frequent behavioral and school problems. Early detection…

This prospective, birth cohort study addressed three questions: Which individual and family-of-origin characteristics predict the age at which young men make the transition to fatherhood? Do these characteristics predict how long young men live with their children? Are individual differences in the amount of time fathers spend living with their…

This 14-minute videotape recording describes Florida's Born to Read program, which teaches young at-risk parents the importance of reading to their children, even infants and toddlers. It notes that librarians, health care providers, and community service organizations form partnerships that reach out to at-risk expectant and new parents. In the…

The interactive creation of an attachment bond of affective communication between the psychobiologically attuned primary caregiver and the infant is central to human emotional development. These emotional transactions directly influence the experience-dependent maturation of the infant's early developing right hemisphere, which is in a growth…