A practicum designed to strengthen and expand day care staff members' knowledge about working with preschool children from crisis families had the following goals: (1) to provide staff with information about children in stressful situations; (2) to help staff recognize child behaviors that call for special attention; (3) to help staff implement…

Conceptualizing stress as an interaction of organizational or work characteristics (stress stimuli) and individual characteristics (stress resistance), this paper reports a study of teacher stress in 42 elementary school organizations and 45 secondary school organizations. Organizational stress is operationalized as the aggregate average response…

This study examined whether the widely reported positive relation between "authoritative" parenting and adolescent adjustment is moderated by the ecological context in which adolescents live. A socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of approximately 10,000 high school students provided information about their parents' behavior…

Four policy papers delineate a progressive family policy for the 1990s that makes the family central among social issues and children central in families. An extensive introduction delineates the split between leaders' and ordinary citizens' views on the family and provides a summary of the papers. The first paper offers an economic review of the…

The paper considers pressures on bright children and the relationship of such pressures to underachievement. It gives specific suggestions on the prevention of underachievement to both parents and teachers. Pressures often felt by gifted children include pressures to be brilliant, to be creative, to do something spectacular, to find oneself, to be…

Results of an assessment of 50 ecological and stress management competencies that were developed as part of a Kansas project to improve retention of special education personnel are presented in narrative and data sections. Ecological considerations include those that contribute to job success, such as job challenge and community atmosphere, while…

This issue of "Focus" includes seven essays addressing various concerns related to community college curriculum, instruction, and instructors. "Money, and the Good of Humanities," by Dr. Demont H. Howell, explores the utility of humanities education in preparing students for coping with the present and the future. "Teaching High Level Thinking in…

Perceived well-being and personal stress indicators among various subpopulations in two small western towns (one stable, one affected by an energy development boom) are examined to assess the notion that residents of energy boom communities experience generalized social pathology and disruption. A 2-stage data collection process used…

The Developing Child Sub-Committee of the Australian International Year of the Child Committee of Non-Government Organizations prepared papers on the main problems facing children from birth to 12 years of age. Topics designated for attention were (1) the parenting role, including the influence of parents on children, factors influencing parental…

The case study illustrated how the principles of the ecological paradigm guided the entry, assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation of three collaborative interventions in a rural Oregon high school. A core group of faculty and administration at the small high school serving 370 students in grades 8-12 requested four University of Oregon…

Focusing on children between 6 and 13 years of age, this book describes both the negative and the positive aspects of the experiences of latchkey children and projected consequences. (The term "latchkey children" denotes children who are regularly left without adult supervision during some period of the day.) Chapter 1 indicates the…

Designed to assist consumer and homemaking education teachers and district administrators in California to initiate, expand, or integrate parenting programs in their secondary schools, this publication consists of eight chapters. Most of these, after a brief introduction, are divided into two or more sections, with accompanying activities. Each…

The stressful effects of advanced academic training were examined in a comparison of six graduate and professional programs at Vanderbilt University. The focus was on the nonacademic, daily stressors and negative mood states of 152 students in medicine, business, divinity, graduate department of religion, and two graduate psychology departments.…

This collection of articles evolved from papers presented and issues discussed at a workshop entitled "The Health Care/Education Relationship: Services for Infants with Special Needs and Their Families," held in March, 1981, for members of the Handicapped Children's Early Education Program (HCEEP) network. During that workshop, staff…

Described as differing from most books about teaching, this handbook deals with what teachers identify as their greatest concerns. These concerns are uniformly matters of classroom management (such as discipline, time, pressure, effectiveness, and working with parents). The first chapter of the handbook, which provides an overview of classroom…