Children's perspectives on their economic activity—Diversity,motivations and parental awareness

This research investigates how children from an affluent city in the UK exercise agency to construct their economic worlds. A survey (n = 484) showed that children (ages 10 to 14 years) conduct a range of monetary and non‐monetary activities. A second study (n = 83) with diaries, self‐documentation, and parental questionnaires, showed that children's economic activity involves individual and social motivations, occurs in formal and informal contexts, and is often self‐regulated. Parents acknowledge children's monetary activities and neglect non‐monetary activities. The results suggest that children's agency unfolds in diverse economic activities shaped by contextual factors and interactions with peers and parents, thereby supporting a relational view of children's agency.     

Teenagers’ Internet Use and Family Rules: A Research Note

The Internet poses challenges to parents who want their children to take advantage of online resources but also want to protect their children from questionable content. Using data from 749 dyads of American parents and their teenage children with Internet access, this study finds that the majority of parents report regulating their teenage children's Internet use, but parents report more monitoring (61%) than teens report (38%). Multivariate regression analyses indicate fathers, younger parents, parents who use the Internet with their children, and parents with younger teens engage in a higher level of parental monitoring. This study provides a first look at parental monitoring of children's Internet use and points to the need to study family rules from both parents’ and children's perspectives.     

Black Mothers' Perceptions of the Role of Race in Children's Education

Many Black parents consider racial climate and academic quality when thinking and making decisions about their children's schooling experiences. However, few studies have directly asked Black parents about the role they believe race will play in their children's schooling, if any. The authors interviewed 76 Black mothers (M_age = 34; SD_age = 6.67) of children entering first grade (M_age = 6.13; SD_age = 0.36), asking what role they believed race would play in their children's schooling. The authors found that mothers considered the racial composition of the school and the perspectives and behaviors of teachers and the administration to be important factors when assessing the role of race in their children's education. Mothers were also particularly concerned about the discrimination their sons may face because of their position as Black boys. Given these contextual factors, mothers considered themselves to be protective agents through their involvement in their children's academic lives.     

Income Changes and Cognitive Stimulation in Young Children's Home Learning Environments

Early home learning environments are the result of interactions between the developing children and the opportunity structures provided by their families. Income is one of several resources that affect the cognitive stimulation that children experience. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N= 2,174) this study examines the influence of household income on cognitive stimulation during the transition to school (aged 3–4 years to 7–8 years). Cross‐sectional and longitudinal fixed effects regressions are estimated to examine income's effect. Household income was positively related to the level of cognitive stimulation in children's home environments across both sets of analyses. Home environments of children in low‐income households were particularly sensitive to income changes over time. The implications of these results for programs and policies that reduce disparities in school readiness are discussed.     

Putting Fathers Back in the Picture

SUMMARY

Drawing on over a quarter of a century of Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, this paper examines links between childhood home environment (as reported by fathers during those childhood years) and children's outcomes in early adulthood. The emphasis is on the role of fathers and the unique contribution of their activities and characteristics to children's development, measured in terms of the children's completed schooling, wage rates, and nonmarital childbearing in early adulthood. The paper shows that fathers' abilities add substantial predictive power to models based on maternal characteristics. Fathers' church attendance and the precautionary actions of parents are also strong predictors of children's adult outcomes, although differentially so for sons and daughters.     

The terrible twos: How children cope with frustration and tantrums and the effect of maternal and paternal behaviors

Experimental Frustration Procedures with 158 children (15–39 months) of two-parent families were conducted, with each parent separately involved. We examined diverse characteristics of children's frustration and focused on specific behaviors of how children coped and parents supported them. In addition, external observers measured child attachment security (via Attachment Q Sort) toward the mother and the father during two home visits. Children with high attachment security became frustrated later and for a shorter time, and fathers, as compared to mothers, relieved these frustration patterns and reduced them. Although 22.2% children exhibited intense frustration responses up to tantrums, levels remained unaffected by child gender, but decreased with child age. Time-lag analyses revealed that children's self-comforting behaviors reduced frustration responses only by around 20%, but self-distracting (in younger children) and pretend-playing (in older children) by around 50% and 70%. Of the parent behaviors, demonstrating reduced children's frustration by up to 40% whereas distracting and reframing by around 60% (mothers) and 80% (fathers). In general, mothers tended to protect the child from distress, whereas fathers assisted the child in coping with frustration. However, if mothers soothed and fathers encouraged, children's frustration intensified.     

Parental Work Schedules and Child Overweight or Obesity: Does Family Structure Matter?

The authors used longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 5,482) to investigate whether maternal and paternal work schedules affect child overweight or obesity. They took the novel step of examining whether this effect is consistent for children living in different family structures. Findings from child fixed effects models suggest that the probability of child overweight or obesity was higher for children living with mothers who worked standard shifts at a primary job and nonstandard shifts at a secondary job compared to children living with mothers who worked a standard shift at a primary job only. Fathers' work schedules were not associated with child overweight or obesity. Unexpectedly, maternal standard shift work at a primary job and nonstandard shift work at a secondary job was associated with overweight or obesity only among children living with married biological parents.     

The added impact of parenting education in early childhood education programs: A meta-analysis

Many early childhood education (ECE) programs seek to enhance parents' capacities to support their children's development. Using a meta-analytic database of 46 studies of ECE programs that served children age three to five-years-old, we examine the benefits to children's cognitive and pre-academic skills of adding parenting education to ECE programs for children and consider the differential impacts of: 1) parenting education programs of any type; 2) parenting education programs that provided parents with modeling of or opportunities to practice stimulating behaviors and 3) parenting education programs that were delivered through intensive home visiting. The results of the study call into question some general longstanding assertions regarding the benefits of including parenting education in early childhood programs. We find no differences in program impacts between ECE programs that did and did not provide some form of parenting education. We find some suggestive evidence that among ECE programs that provided parenting education, those that provided parents with opportunities to practice parenting skills were associated with greater short-term impacts on children's pre-academic skills. Among ECE programs that provided parenting education, those that did so through one or more home visits a month yielded effect sizes for cognitive outcomes that were significantly larger than programs that provided lower dosages of home visits.     

School Performances Among Internationally Adopted Children in Norway

ABSTRACT

A sample of 193 internationally adopted children from Colombia and Korea and a matched sample of 193 Norwegian-born children were tested for school competence. The results showed that as a group, adopted children had lower school performances than Norwegian-born children. The disparity within the adopted group's performances was considerable. Most of the disparity was explained by the adopted children's language skills, especially the ability to use the language at a higher cognitive level (school language), and a high frequency of hyperactive behavior. However, while country of origin also contributed significantly, the children's age of adoption did not explain much of the variance.     

School readiness of low-income children at risk for school failure

The goal of this research project was to gain information about the readiness skills of kindergarten children in 11 inner city schools with the highest poverty rates in the Salt Lake City School District. Kindergarten teachers and principals in these schools were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the readiness skills needed for these children to be successful in their schools. A summary of the readiness skills of the kindergarten children was derived from a state mandated Pre-Kindergarten Assessment. Most principals stressed children's social and emotional development as a priority in school readiness. The majority of teachers emphasized literacy as a prerequisite for school success. Yet, the Pre-Kindergarten Assessment revealed that one fourth of the children could not identify the front of a book and two thirds of the children did not know where to start or which direction to go when reading. Half of the parents of these children reported that they rarely read to their children and that they had only visited a library once or not at all. The gap between the readiness skills educators think these children need and the skills children enter school with presents a serious problem for educators and policy makers. Multiple intervention strategies are recommended including providing education and home activities to enhance children's readiness skills, coordinating access to early childhood programs, and educating parents on available community resources.     

Conceptions of Family and Adoption Among Older Adoptees

ABSTRACT

Research on older child adoptions that incorporates the adoptee's perspective is noticeably absent from the literature. Drawing on the theoretical, clinical and empirical literature on children's understanding of family and adoption, this paper reports a study that examined older adoptees' conceptions of family and adoption relative to nonadopted peers. Interviews with 15 children adopted between ages 8 and 11 and a sample of 15 demographically matched nonadopted children (47% male; 84% Caucasian, 13% African American, 3% Biracial Asian/American) provided data that were analyzed for differences in children's understanding and elaboration of family and adoption concepts. Although no group differences were found in children's basic understanding of family or adoption, differences emerged in children's ratings of the acceptability and typicality of family constellations, as well as in the nature of concept elaboration. Older adoptees were more likely to accept and view as typical nontraditional family constellations. Whereas nonadopted children relied more on biological themes, older adoptees' concept elaboration was qualitatively richer, reflecting their varied birth family and foster care experiences. Within-group comparisons among older adoptees revealed differences: Children with more experience in foster care and children who lived in the adoptive home longer displayed higher levels of family understanding and a more realistic perspective of the permanence of the placement. Implications for future research and adoption service delivery are discussed.     

Marital Satisfaction,Family Emotional Expressiveness,Home Learning Environments,and Children's Emergent Literacy

The current study investigates associations among marital satisfaction, family emotional expressiveness, the home learning environment, and preschool‐aged children's emergent literacy skills among 385 Midwestern mothers and their children. Path analyses examined how marital satisfaction related to emotional expressiveness in the home and whether this path was associated with the home learning environment and children's literacy skills. Higher maternal satisfaction was associated with higher levels of positive and lower levels of negative family emotional expressiveness. Additionally, family emotional environments characterized by mothers with higher positive expression were related to better home learning environments, which in turn were associated with higher literacy skills in children. Study findings underscore the importance of marital and family processes when considering young children's academic development.     

Exploring the needs of parents for achieving reunification: The views of foster children,birth family and social workers in Spain

BackgroundFamily reunification refers to the process through which children and adolescents under a measure of temporary separation (foster care or residential) return to live with their biological families. The research has begun to reflect a paradigm change in intervention and support for these families that affects the consolidation of reunification and the prevention of new processes of separation and reentry into the protection system.ObjectivesThis article examines the needs of parents who are susceptible to an educational intervention from a positive focus that contributes to the consolidation of family reunification.MethodEighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted and 22 discussion groups were convened with 135 participants (63 protection-system professionals, 42 parents and 30 children and adolescents). The data were analyzed through content analysis and were subject to peer revision.ResultsA series of parents' specific educational needs when their children return home was recognized. These needs can be the objects of family intervention based on a positive focus directed toward highlighting parents' strengths and are related to awareness of family progress, emotional management, giving and receiving help from other families and social support. The participants' comments show that feelings of self-sufficiency and positive reinforcement are fundamental for consolidation of the process.ConclusionsSocial support through formal and informal networks may be a path to explore for providing more and better support after returning home. Empowering families so that they can be agents of support for other families can be a way to consolidate reunification, allowing families to be active agents in the reunification process. In addition, listening to children's voices can be a good strategy for family consolidation.     

Do Young Mothers and Fathers Differ in the Likelihood of Returning Home?

Building on research examining “boomerang” adult children, the author examines multigenerational living among young parents. Returning home likely differs between young mothers and fathers given variation in socioeconomic characteristics, health and risk taking, their own children's coresidence, and union stability. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the author finds that more than 40% of young parents (n = 2,721) live with their own parents at their first child's birth or subsequently. Mothers are generally less likely to move home than fathers but only when not controlling for child coresidence and union stability. Individuals who live with all their children are less likely to return home, and controlling for child coresidence reverses gender differences, though this association disappears in the full model. Young parents who are stably single and those who experience dissolution are highly likely to return home compared to the stably partnered, with the association significantly stronger for fathers than mothers.     

Community Literacy Resources and Home Literacy Practices Among Immigrant Latino Families

ABSTRACT

This paper reports relationships among communities, families, and Spanish-speaking children's language and literacy development in kindergarten and grade 1. Findings from a study of 35 communities show that communities with greater concentrations of Latinos are less likely to have printed materials, and available materials are more likely to be in Spanish. Communities with higher income and education levels have more literacy materials in English. Contrary to predictions, there are few associations among community literacy resources, frequency of children's home reading activities, and children's literacy achievement. This lack of association is due to within-community variation in home literacy practices and to schools' impact on home literacy. However, there are associations among community and family language characteristics and child literacy outcomes in Spanish and English, suggesting that at least in the early stages of literacy development, communities' influence on Spanish-speaking children's literacy development is through language-learning opportunities rather than literacy-learning opportunities per se.     

Children's Emotional Regulation and Social Competence in Middle Childhood

SUMMARY

Associations among parental behaviors, children's emotional reactivity, and dimensions of children's social competence were examined. Fourth grade children (N = 103) and their parents participated in a laboratory discussion task. Parent-child relationship qualities, parental emotion socialization behaviors, measures of children's emotional regulatory abilities, and social competence (assessed by teachers and peers) were obtained. Results indicated that parents' behaviors in the discussion task were related to both children's emotional and social competence. Both mothers' and fathers' behaviors were linked to children's emotional regulatory abilities and social competence. In addition, children's emotional regulation was related to children's social competence. Only limited evidence of the mediating role of emotion regulation was found. Implications for relative roles of mothers and fathers in the emergence of emotional and social competence were noted.     

A Prospective Study of Behavioural Disturbance in Children Who Subsequently Experience Parental Divorce

This study examines changes in children's behaviour as a function of parental divorce. As part of a large scale general population study on the effects of marital disharmony on children, 139 children from the general population were followed up from a previous study. These children and their mothers were interviewed first between 1979 and 1982 (time 1) and then followed up between 1984 and 1986 (time 2). Between the time 1 interview and the time 2 interview, 16 children's parents had separated or divorced. This paper deals with the mothers' report of changes in the behaviour of these children between time 1 and time 2 as a function of their parents' divorce, and compares this with changes in children's behaviour whose parents live in disharmonious (N = 40) or harmonious homes (N = 50). Children's reports of their own behaviour at time 2 are also presented. The data show that children in disharmonious homes and children whose parents subsequently divorce show higher levels of disturbance than children in harmonious homes. Children whose parents subsequently divorce show their disturbance prior to the divorce. Children's coping strategies in response to divorce were also investigated and and an association was found between children's behavioural problems and (a) self-blame and (b) not having friends whose parents had divorced.     

Caseworkers' perspective on risk factors in the family environment influencing mothers' difficulties in meeting children's needs

ObjectivesThis study examines, from the caseworkers' point of view, which needs of children are the most difficult for parents in neglectful contexts to respond to and which risk factors make this response more difficult.MethodA sample of 55 parents being followed by child protection services for neglect or high risk of neglect accepted to participate in the study. Their caseworker filled out a grid regarding the response provided to the children's needs and the risk factors in the family environment.ResultsThe results indicate that the children's age is related to the difficulties of responding to their needs. The caseworkers are particularly concerned about guidance and boundaries provided to preschool-age children, but less so about that provided to school-age children. When the children's age is controlled for, parents' mental health problems explains a significant proportion of the variance in parents' response to their children's need for stimulation, emotional warmth, and guidance and boundaries. Caseworkers' worries about drug and alcohol misuse also explain a significant proportion of their concerns about the mothers' ability to ensure their child's safety.ConclusionCaseworkers are more worried about the parental response offered to preschool children than to school-age ones. However, a constant and coherent response to growing children is still important for their developmental trajectories. Moreover, mental health and substance abuse explain caseworkers' concerns about mothers' engagement toward their child. These data raise questions about which type of services to offer, because intervening in families where parents deal with personal issues while addressing child neglect is complex.