Relations between parental value concordance and parents' interactive emphases were more readily apparent for parents of boys than for parents of girls. For boys, converging parental value systems were associated with a maternal interactive style. Father-daughter dyads were particularly different from the other three types of parent-child dyads.…

Examined attitudes toward suicide survivors among 60 participants responding to case histories describing suicide of either child, spouse, or parent. Subjects first read either suicide- or death-related materials. Suicide information did not affect attitudes toward survivors. Reactions to survivors were generally negative; children of victims were…

Field theory is interactional. It asserts that genetic predispositions, acquired characteristics, uniqueness, and behaviors of individual impact are affected by events and people in environment. This can be seen clearly in development of children who join family rather than being born into it. Resulting complexities can be seen in family therapy…

Suggests that the findings in the study by Blass and Ciaramitaro reported in this monograph support the claim that two systems of infants' behavior state regulation accessible by oral stimulation are mediated by different neural pathways. Discusses the findings in light of the immediate aims of the study itself and for the broader context of…

Data on 3,015 cohabitation relationships indicates that, although the presence of children has a strong and positive impact on stabilizing cohabitation relationships, characteristics of children such as number, sex, and age appear to have no significant effect. (JPS)

Examined maternal talk about events regarding hidden, missing, or absent persons or objects, and the relationship of maternal language to children's acquisition of words for disappearance, among 12 mother-infant pairs. Results found that infants who had acquired "gone" and similar terms experienced more disappearance events than children…

Mothers viewed videotapes of interaction with their 20 full-term healthy, 20 preterm healthy, and 20 preterm sick infants between 11 and 26 weeks of age. Relationships between infant gazing, laughing, and fussing and maternal interpretation of emotional state, attention preference, attention curiosity, and physical needs were analyzed. (Author/SW)

Assessed the relationship between sleep problems and temperament in 63 toddlers who had night-waking problems and 35 nonreferred toddlers. On the Toddler Temperament Questionnaire, night wakers showed lower sensory thresholds and less adaptivity than did controls. On the Parental Stress Index, night wakers were rated as more distractible, less…

Focuses on coparenting, spouses as partners or adversaries in parenting role, in families raising toddler sons. Reviews preliminary longitudinal research findings concerning nature of coparenting and contextual determinants of different types of coparenting alliances. Proposes coparenting processes to interact with marital and parent-child…

Describes investigation examining utility of dyadic conceptualization of parent-child interaction using dyadic interaction style to predict school adjustment rated by teachers, peers, and observers. Results demonstrate positive adjustment was predicted by high levels of positive synchrony, low levels of nonsynchrony, and low levels of negative…

Monitored skin conductance of college students while they recalled experiences of separation, rejection, and threat from parents. Students who diverted attention from attachment information to deal with attachment-related issues showed increases in skin conductance levels from baseline. (BC)

Compared U.S. and German adolescents on self-esteem and perceived parental behaviors. Parents were perceived as engaging in similar levels of behaviors in each culture. Parenting behaviors (support and control) were significantly related to self-esteem in U.S. adolescents, but not in Germans. More general measure of quality of parent-adolescent…

Interviewed 174 care-receiving mothers and their caregiving daughters concerning contributions of care receivers. Majority of respondents perceived that daughters received aid from mothers in return for help given. Mothers who reported giving advice and money had better health whereas mothers who reported giving information were more dependent…

Examined the relationship between maternal praise and task performance of children ages 10 months to 4 years and 10 months. Found that children improved their performance as they grew older and that mothers praised the highest level of performance more often than the lower levels. Praise to older children referred to only the performance and not…

Analyzed data from National Survey of Families and Households to compare marriages and cohabiting relationships. Found several broad differences in nature of two types of relationships. Cohabitors expressed lower levels of commitment to their relationships, reported lower levels of happiness with their relationships, and had poorer relationships…