This study analyzes the twentieth-century American fertility swing. By viewing the three classical fertility determinants, fecundity, mate exposure, and birth control, as dynamic variables with both independent and interactive effects, it attempts to decipher the process by which some individuals gain control of their childbearingwhile others do…

The sexual attitudes and beliefs of 20 children who have been present at the labor and delivery of sibs are compared with 20 children who have not been present at delivery. These results are discussed in regard to current American birth practices. Presented at the Eastern Association of Sex Therapy, New York, March 5, 1977. (Author)

Examined determinants of occurrence and outcomes of premarital pregnancy. Found cohabitation, being black, poor grades and high peer activity in high school, use of illicit drugs other than marijuana and dropping out to be associated with increased risk of premarital pregnancy. Premarital births were overrepresented among blacks, as were abortions…

This article finds the empirical review of the intellectual effects of family factors by Lala Carr Steelman wanting because (1) it is selective and incomplete; (2) it ignores systematic aggregate effects; (3) it imposes linear analysis on nonmonotone relationships; and (4) it disregards most of the confounds identified by Steelman as crucial.…

The author responds to criticism by R. B. Zajonc on a review of the extant literature on the intellectual consequences of sibship size and birth order. (Author/LMO)

Communication in mother-infant dyads and mother-infant-sibling triads was examined to determine how variation in the number of people and type of activity affect the ways language is used by all participants. Homebased observations were made of 16 first- and 16 later-born children when they were between 18 and 23 months old. (Author/BN)

Observations from a 1977-78 study of children's cognitive development in Kadavu, Fiji, are discussed in terms of setting, adult work and education, medical care, marriage and residence patterns, infant birth and mortality, and, extensively, cultural values and infant care. It is argued that the observed pattern of infant care fulfills important…

Although the Yucatec pattern of child care conforms on the whole to the pattern seen in other agrarian societies, it is currently becoming destabilized as the society becomes more modern. Some of the developing customs, such as bottle-feeding, are maladaptive, at least in the short run. (RH)

Experimental group mothers reported significantly greater self-confidence and satisfaction with mothering and more favorable perception of infant temperament than did control group mothers. Differences between children on cognitive scores became significant at 36 and 48 months of age, when the experimental group caught up with normal children. (RH)

Examines the early development of low birthweight infants and its relationship to five categories of medical and environmental variables: (1) health; (2) family status; (3) family context; (4) family process; and (5) parenting. Results indicated that scores on the Bayley Mental Development Index at 18 months were related to all five categories of…

Results provide support for the existence of a relation between school behavior and the home environment of young adolescents, since both academic performance and externalizing problem behaviors in school were related to and predicted by the parent-adolescent relationship and/or maternal depression in the home setting. Data from mothers and,…

Examines the mental development scores for two groups of at-risk infants throughout their childhood--those classified as small for gestational age (SGA) and those twins falling below 1,750g birth weight--and determines that SGA twins showed only a modest deficit in IQ scores as compared to the full twin samples. (HOD)

Examines effect of cystic fibrosis (CF) on structure and social climate of the family using self-report scales and independent observations of family functioning. Families in which the child with CF was not the firstborn were found to be functioning more healthily than those in which the child was firstborn. (Author/NRB)

In this paper, the association of birth order with educational attainment is examined among Wisconsin high school graduates of 1957 and their siblings. There are not significant or systemic effects of birth order on schooling when other relevant variables have been controlled. (Author/DWH)