Investigates the role of maternal affective arousal as a moderator of the effect of mothers' child rearing practices on children's empathic responding. (PCB)

Examined perceptions of decisional autonomy and decision-making processes among 64 elderly mothers and caregiving daughters. Mothers were highly involved in decisions affecting their lives, from daily care to major health decisions. Daughters were influential over major health, financial, and housing decisions. Mothers' level of personal care…

Examined possible transmission of psychopathology from Jewish Holocaust survivors to their children and grandchildren. Adult children of Holocaust survivors obtained significantly higher scores on self-report measures of psychopathology than did control Jewish participants. Grandchildren received significantly higher psychopathology ratings from…

Evaluated Stress Management and Alcohol Awareness Program (SMAAP) for children from alcoholic families, in which 79 children of alcoholics between the ages of 9 and 13 participated in 8-week school-based curriculum on alcoholism, self-esteem enhancement strategies, and coping strategies. Found greater positive coping strategies, decreased…

Tested the hypothesis that development of secure attachments is predictable from synchronous, and insecure attachments from asynchronous interactions across the first year. Findings from 30 dyads (10 secure, 10 avoidant, 10 resistant) supported the hypothesis at one and three months, with synchronous interaction observed at significantly,…

Examined reunions between 170 birth parents and their children who were placed for adoption. Found similarities between groups of birth parents who had searched for their children and those who had not, including age at which they had surrendered their children and how they felt about their decision. Found birthparents felt reunions led to a sense…

Two studies examined the relationship between maternal responsiveness, child compliance, and mood in 54 mothers and their 4-year-old children. Responsive play increased positive mood but did not affect arousal levels. Children induced into positive moods complied more and with shorter latencies than children induced into negative moods. (RJC)

Discusses three major approaches to family therapy for child abuse which emphasize systems theory. These approaches include the psychoanalytic, integrative, and communicative-integrative approach. A case example of family-centered treatment is included. (RJC)

Investigated the quality of 5 mothers' interactions with facially deformed infants aged 17 weeks. Results revealed that mothers of deformed infants rated their parental and life satisfaction more positively and behaved in a less nurturant manner than did mothers of normal infants. (RJC)

Examined four popular hypotheses of family labor--time-available, socialization/ideology, external-resources, and specialization-of-tasks--to explain gender differences in caregiving to elderly parents. Data from adults with mother over age 70 revealed that these theories of gender differences in divisions of family labor did not adequately…

Explores some of the difficulties children of alcoholics experience in separating from their homes. Describes relationship fantasies used by adolescents to work through unresolved feelings about their families. Discusses the nature of these fantasy types: nurturance, self-sufficiency, incompetence, perfectionist, revenge, and…

Describes today's youth from three different perspectives, examining how they are changing as a population cohort; their attitudes about work, marriage and family, intergenerational and interpersonal relationships, and their views about the future; and their behaviors in terms of work schedules, earnings and spending patterns, drug and substance…

Addresses the parental alienation syndrome, which is the process by which one parent overtly or covertly speaks or acts in a derogatory manner to or about the other parent during or subsequent to a divorce proceeding, in an attempt to alienate the child or children from that other parent. (Author)

Discusses the theory of self-efficacy, the ways in which young children learn self-care and self-efficacy, and methods parents and other caregivers can use to encourage self-efficacy in young children. (RJC)

A study of the relationship between parental opportunities for and management of children's peer interactions and the social competence of their child suggests important links between parental opportunities provided for play and the peer social system. (JOW)