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Parents' involvement in early intervention (EI) services fosters positive developmental trajectories in young children. Although EI research on parenting skills has been abundant, fewer data are available on parents' knowledge of normative child development. Sixty-seven mothers of children participating in a Midwestern city's EI program completed the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory. Compared with mothers in normative referent samples, mothers of children enrolled in EI reported significantly less knowledge of normative child development and were significantly more likely to underestimate the timing of normative developmental milestones. The race/ethnicity of mothers of children in EI was significantly related to their milestone accuracy scores even after the mothers' education level was controlled. Implications of the findings are discussed within the context of providing EI services that are family centered.

Outcome studies of mentoring programs have demonstrated that they hold considerable promise in promoting competence across multiple developmental domains. A theoretical model of mentoring identified modification of youths' perceptions of their interpersonal relationships as a contributor to positive outcomes. To date, however, there has not been a direct examination of the role of the mentor-youth bond in this process. The present study examines whether the quality of the mentoring relationship uniquely predicts other relationship-based outcomes at two time points. Regression analyses indicated that the quality of the mentor-youth bond significantly predicted youths' scores in most relationship-based outcomes (i.e., friendship with and self-disclosure to adults) at 8 and 16 months. Study implications and directions for future research are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

Mentoring programs hold great promise for fostering competency in disadvantaged youth. Although considerable theoretical work has been conducted to explain the role of mentoring relationships in promoting positive youth outcomes, very little empirical research has directly investigated this alliance. The present study developed and validated a tool to assess mentees' perceptions of their relationships with their mentors and to investigate the relationship between this alliance and youth competency. Based on pilot data from four cross-national mentoring programs (N = 276), a 10-item, two-factor Mentor-Youth Alliance Scale (MYAS) was created. Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses conducted on national evaluation data from a multi-site study of mentoring programs (N = 219), generated a 10-item, one-factor solution. The one-factor MYAS significantly predicted youths' scores in four competency domains: Family Bonding, Relationships with Adults, School Bonding, and Life Skills, at 8-months post-intake. Higher competency youth were more likely to be female, younger on average, and have a higher quality of relationships with their mentors than were lower competency youth. Implications for the development of the mentor-protege relationship are discussed. (Contains 7 tables.)

The present study investigates whether the gender identities of African American adolescents mediate sex differences found in their multidimensional self-concepts. The sample included 174 African American adolescents who completed the 21-item Children's Personal Attributes Questionnaire and the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Results indicated that two dimensions of gender identity, Independence and Leadership, mediated the relationship between sex and self-evaluations in the areas of Friendship/Acceptance and Romantic Appeal. The findings of this study fill significant gaps in the current literature by providing data on African American adolescents' self-evaluations in multiple self-concept domains and by offering an empirical explanation for how biological sex influences these self-evaluations. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study investigated the most strongly endorsed problems for a group of affluent suburban girls (n = 58) and boys (n = 148), between ages 13 to 18, who were referred for educational counselling in the United States. Considerable overlap existed for male and female adolescents with regard to their most frequently reported problems, with boys and girls reporting seven common endorsements. Of particular interest was the prominence of items related to depression, compulsivity and achievement. Girls tended to report more depressive symptoms, whereas boys tended to report more symptoms related to compulsivity and achievement. Additionally, a significant age by sex interaction emerged for items related to achievement issues. Implications of these results for working with youth in cross-national educational counselling settings are discussed. (Contains 1 table.)

A path model examining the direct and indirect effects of demographic, individual, and contextual variables on the academic achievement of 174 African American adolescents was assessed. Results indicated that participant sex indirectly impacted participants' sense of self-worth through their perceptions of themselves as possessing leadership or independence qualities. Whether adolescents felt good about themselves (global self-worth) was a direct outcome of their perceptions of their leadership or independence qualities. In turn, participants with higher levels of self-worth were more likely to be bonded to their school, and those who felt more bonded to their schools reported higher school grades. Study findings are discussed within the context of helping educators to better meet these students' educational needs. (Contains 2 notes, 1 figure, and 1 table.)

Studied the factor structure and other psychometric properties of S. Harter's (1988) Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents for 174 African American early adolescents. Findings yielded six conceptually relevant factors and also indicated gender differences in several domains. (SLD)

To date, little research has addressed within-group variables as predictors of academic achievement among middle-class African American youth. The present study helped fill this gap by investigating the role of sex, self-perceptions, and school bonding as predictors of academic success among 174 middle class early adolescent boys (n = 91) and girls residing in a large Midwestern city. Results of a path analysis indicated that gender identity fully mediated the relationship between biological sex and adolescents' perceptions of peer acceptance. Perceptions of peer acceptance were positively related to perceptions of behavior, which, in turn, were related to school bonding. School bonding was then related to academic achievement. The findings are discussed within the context of helping educators to better meet students' educational needs., A significant body of research has addressed the achievement gap between African American and Caucasian students over the past four decades (Coleman et al., 1966; Jencks & Phillips, 1998). Different [...]

Opportunities created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act along with the increased prevalence of pediatric behavioral and mental health concerns provide new challenges for pediatric health care providers. To address these matters, providers need to change the manner by which they provide health care to families. A novel approach is providing brief, rapid response, evidence-based parenting interventions within the pediatric primary care setting. Family-focused parenting programs support the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations of improving mental health via supports in pediatric primary care to maximize the social and psychological well-being of families. A considerable body of research indicates that parenting interventions reduce the severity and frequency of disruptive behavior disorders in children and provide support to parent by bolstering parental resilience and improving overall family functioning. Providing these services within the pediatric primary care setting addresses the need for fully integrated health services that are family-centered and easily accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptive behaviors can be of comparable or greater concern to parents than the core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Provision of effective interventions to address these behaviors within the first year of initial diagnosis holds great potential for improving the child's, parents', and family's functioning. We piloted a four‐session, manualized, positive parenting program on 21 parents of newly diagnosed children ages 2 through 12 years using a mixed methods design. Seventy‐five percent of parents completed four sessions, with 100% reporting high levels of service satisfaction. Preliminary results indicated clinically and statistically significant reductions in child maladaptive behaviors, as well as improvements in parental and family functioning. Practitioners and parents identified several potential implementation adaptations, including additional sessions to focus on ASD education and real‐time parent–child interactions. Taken as a whole, these data suggest that a brief positive parenting intervention may be a feasible way to improve child, parent, and family functioning during the first year of ASD diagnosis. Findings point to the need for additional research to determine treatment efficacy and to assist with the identification of moderators and mediators of effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]