An ongoing empirical study is being conducted of the professional socialization of Kentucky's state public administrators. The study proposes two measurable attitudinal latent traits: orientation to public service professionalism and political acuity. Relationships among independent, intervening, and dependent variables include education/training,…

Education is far more than the transmission of information. The importance of teachers as both authority figures and role models has often been overlooked in the educational and professional development of graduate students, as has been the importance of peer relationships. A study of 27 candidates for the Master's in Business Administration…

The Teacher Assistance Through Mentorship Program currently being implemented in Minnesota schools provides grant funding to 11 districts/coalitions willing to explore a variety of mentoring models. Legislative initiatives for expanding the program include grant funding, regional/statewide training, and technical services. This publication is…

Early socialization within the family and its differential effects on the development of verbal intelligence skills were the subjects of this longitudinal study. Fifteen families with one child between one and three years old and a second child born at the beginning of the investigation took part in a longitudinal study covering a seven-year…

This paper reports selected findings from a study undertaken to investigate the formation and development of preservice teachers' perspectives and the relative roles of institutional constraints and individual actions in that process. Preservice social studies teachers' (N=21) responses to the institutional contexts in which they practice taught…

To investigate how values influence parenting beliefs and practices, a test was made of Kohn's hypothesis that parents valuing self-direction emphasize the supportive function of parenting, while parents valuing conformity emphasize control of unsanctioned behaviors. Participating in the study were 65 mother-infant dyads. Infants ranged in age…

This multiple case study describes a socialization intervention program for three multiply handicapped 8-13 year-old children that was designed to teach prosocial behavior and promote generalization to non-teaching situations. Behavioral instruction procedures (such as role-play and role-play rehearsal) were used to teach peer social skills and…

Different theories have been offered about why some men rape. The interactive theory of rape describes coercive elements in heterosexual relations resulting from faulty socialization or abuse in childhood. Prevention according to this theory would involve mental health specialists incorporating preventive strategies into parent training, guidance,…

Previous studies have shown that both economic and familial factors affect the status of the elderly across cultures. The objective of this study was to identify other antecedents of the status of the elderly, especially those involving the familial and religious domains. The presence or absence of ancestor worship was used as an indicator of the…

Preschoolers' expression of various emotions and overall social-emotional competency may be related to mothers' emotional responsivemness to children's emotions. This research investigated, through extended naturalistic observation, (1) how maternal emotion displays differ according to antecedent child emotion (happy, sad, angry, or afraid) and…

The way that the concept of culture has been used in the higher education literature to account for certain aspects of faculty life is examined. Culture is defined as the collective, mutually shaping patterns of norms, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that guide the behavior of individual faculty and groups and provide a frame of…

Attachment theorists argue that the nature of children's bonding with their parents has a significant impact on their adjustment throughout life, affecting ease of socialization and susceptibility to anxiety and depression. To examine the relationship between parental attachment, social support, and current life satisfaction, 251 college students…

Interviews were conducted with adolescents (age 10-18) and with one parent of each to determine whether differences between parents and their adolescent children on political information and news media use had any impact at all on the amount of discussion about politics that goes on between them. The period during which the data were collected was…

Naturally occurring interactions recorded during participant observation in two preschools were analyzed in order to develop a distinctively sociological theory of gender identity acquisition. Attention was focused on the use of sex-categorical terms and the "grammar" of sex categorization practices underlying this usage. The analysis…

The act of disciplining children cannot be based upon merely "putting a stop" to negative actions by means of reactionary techniques of control. If educators begin to consider discipline as a major aspect of the educational aim of socialization of children, significant contributions toward their moral and social development will take place.…