Reports on a study that used 182 entering college freshmen to investigate the relationship between social position and level of study habits, and the prediction of study habits by the addition of two family correlates (birth order and family size) to social position. (RL)

Utilizing a role theory framework, the connection is made between the role behavior of an older sibling toward younger sibs and that of the older sibling as a parent toward future offspring. Factors leading to the assumption of the "parent-surrogate" role are examined as is the role enactment itself. (Author)

Uses nationally representative, longitudinal data from Great Britain to examine the fertility patterns of daughters (N=2,183) of teen mothers. Explores how early motherhood is reproduced across generations, including an earlier inherited age of menarche, poor family and educational environments, and an early ideal age of childbearing. (RJM)

Examines family formation and its effects on the career lives of both women and men academics from the time they receive their doctorates until 20 years later. Finds that there is a consistent and large gap in achieving tenure between women who have early babies and men who have early babies. Discusses policy implications. (EV)

Summarizes the novel, "Western Wind," by Paula Fox, lists 12 discussion questions, describes six activities, and contains an annotated bibliography of seven other novels related to birth, death, and families. (DGM)

A study examined rates of labor induction using pitocin in 41 boys with autism and 25 matched controls with either typical development or mental retardation. There were no differences in pitocin induction rates as a function of either diagnostic group (autism vs. control) or IQ level (average vs. subaverage range). (Contains references.)…

Explores mothers' and fathers' differential treatment (PDT) of their adolescent offspring and examines how siblings' personal qualities were associated with PDT. Sex was associated with parents' differential temporal involvement. Sex-typed personal qualities were related to parents' differential discipline. Both sex and sex-typed personal…

Used data from the 1975-76 Jamaica Fertility Study to examine relationship between fertility and the following transitions in sexual relationship: (1) from visiting to common-law; (2) from visiting to marriage; and (3) from visiting to termination of partnership. Results indicated that childbirth reduced the probability of all three transitions.…

Conducted exploratory multiple regression analysis, revealing that predictors of state teenage birthrates were state poverty rates, low school completion rates, low state per capita expenditures for public welfare, and high unemployment rates. States that spent less for education and public welfare had higher teenage birthrates. (Author/NB)

Notes that significant changes have occurred in recent times to the structure and dynamics of family life in Britain. Examines trends and issues related to marriage, cohabitation, fertility, extramarital births, divorce, one-parent families, remarriage and stepfamilies, children in families, employment, and the future of social policy in Britain.…

This study examines the effect of intergenerational educational mobility on the fertility of black women and white women. It finds only limited support for the hypothesis that upwardly mobile black women have lower fertility than their white counterparts. Instead, the parity was found to be more influenced by educational origins. (LZ)

Discusses the three "developmental crises" that take place during infancy and early childhood, namely birth, weaning, and opposition to parental authority. The latter crisis is best overcome by presenting toddlers with choices and working with them to demonstrate their importance in the family as independent human beings. (MDM)

A randomized clinical trial procedure was used at eight program sites to determine the impact of the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP), a parental education and support and child care program, on the home environment of 985 infants. Differences favoring intervention were apparent at three years, suggesting favorable program impact. (SLD)

Grandparental coresidence is associated with a delay of first birth beyond the teenage years among young women from two-parent and stepparent families as well as among those who live with neither birth parent. Grandparental coresidence has no association with early childbearing, positive or negative, among young women from single-parent families.…

Daniel Patrick Moynihan looks back on the Moynihan Report of 30 years ago and describes the transformation of American society it heralded. As the number of nonmarital births rises among persons of all races, a change from social organization derived from the family is increasingly apparent. (SLD)