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Despite rapidly growing research on parental influences on children's executive function (EF), the uniqueness and specificity of parental predictors and links between adult EF and parenting remain unexamined. This 13-month longitudinal study of 117 parent-child dyads (60 boys; Mage at Time 1 = 3.94 years, SD = 0.53) included detailed observational coding of parent-child interactions and assessed adult and child EF and child verbal ability (VA). Supporting a differentiated view of parental influence, negative parent-child interactions and parental scaffolding showed unique and specific associations with child EF, whereas the home learning environment and parental language measures snowed global associations with children's EF and VA.

Recent research indicates that parental behaviours may influence the development of executive functions (EFs) during early childhood, which are proposed to serve as domain-general building blocks for later classroom behaviour and academic achievement. However, questions remain about the strength of the association between parenting and child EFs, more specifically which parental behaviours are most strongly associated with child EFs, and whether there is a critical period in early childhood during which parental behaviour is more influential. A meta-analysis was therefore conducted to determine the strength of the relation between various parental behaviours and EFs in children aged 0 to 8 years. We identified 42 studies published between 2000 and 2016, with an average of 12.77 months elapsing in the measurement of parent and child variables. Parental behaviours were categorised as positive (e.g. warmth, responsiveness, sensitivity), negative (e.g. control, intrusiveness, detachment) and cognitive (e.g. autonomy support, scaffolding, cognitive stimulation). Results revealed significant associations (ps < .001) between composite EF and positive (r = .25), negative (r = -.22) and cognitive (r = .20) parental behaviours. Associations between cognitive parental behaviours and EFs were significantly moderated by child age, with younger children showing a stronger effect size, whereas positive and negative parental behaviours showed a stable association with EFs across ages. We conclude that modest, naturally occurring associations exist between parental behaviours and future EFs and that early childhood may be a critical period during which cognitive parental behaviour is especially influential.

A total of 295 first-year students were recruited from multiple campuses of a state-wide university system. Multiple-group path analysis compared parental and peer influences between two student subgroups. First-year students attending 4-year institutions reported higher rates of alcohol use and were more likely to experience alcohol-related consequences than community college students. Baccalaureate students’ alcohol use was more strongly related to peer descriptive norms, relative to community college students. Multiple-group analyses within the community college sample indicated different patterns of associations for three demographic characteristics: gender, living arrangements and minority status. Future prevention efforts for first-year community college students need to consider unique risk and protective factors and may focus on targeting parental attitudes and behaviors that discourage underage alcohol use.

Parental involvement in education remains important for facilitating positive youth development. This study conceptualized parental involvement as a multidimensional construct—including school-based involvement, home-based involvement, and academic socialization—and examined the effects of different types of parental involvement in 10th grade on student achievement and depression in 11th grade (approximately ages 15–17 years). In addition, this study tested whether parental involvement influenced adolescent outcomes by increasing their academic engagement in school. A total of 1,056 adolescents participated in the study (51% males; 53% European American, 40% African American, and 7% other). Parental involvement was found to improve academic and emotional functioning among adolescents. In addition, parental involvement predicted adolescent academic success and mental health both directly and indirectly through behavioral and emotional engagement.

This study examines whether children's decontextualized talk—talk about nonpresent events, explanations, or pretend—at 30 months predicts seventh-grade academic language proficiency (age 12). Academic language (AL) refers to the language of school texts. AL proficiency has been identified as an important predictor of adolescent text comprehension. Yet research on precursors to AL proficiency is scarce. Child decontextualized talk is known to be a predictor of early discourse development, but its relation to later language outcomes remains unclear. Forty-two children and their caregivers participated in this study. The proportion of child talk that was decontextualized emerged as a significant predictor of seventh-grade AL proficiency, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, parent decontextualized talk, child total words, child vocabulary, and child syntactic comprehension.

Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn review recent studies that use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine why children who grow up in single-mother and cohabiting families fare worse than children born into married-couple households. They also present findings from their own new research. Analysts have investigated five key pathways through which family structure might influence child well-being: parental resources, parental mental health, parental relationship quality, parenting quality, and father involvement. It is also important to consider the role of the selection of different types of men and women into different family types, as well as family stability. But analysts remain uncertain how each of these elements shapes children's outcomes. In addition to providing an overview of findings from other studies using FFCWS, Waldfogel, Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn report their own estimates of the effect of a consistently defined set of family structure and stability categories on cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes of children in the FFCWS study at age five. The authors find that the links between fragile families and child outcomes are not uniform. Family instability, for example, seems to matter more than family structure for cognitive and health outcomes, whereas growing up with a single mother (whether that family structure is stable or unstable over time) seems to matter more than instability for behavior problems. Overall, their results are consistent with other research findings that children raised by stable single or cohabiting parents are at less risk than those raised by unstable single or cohabiting parents. The authors conclude by pointing to three types of policy reforms that could improve outcomes for children. The first is to reduce the share of children growing up in fragile families (for example, through reducing the rate of unwed births or promoting family stability among unwed parents). The second is to address the pathways that place such children at risk (for example, through boosting resources in single-parent homes or fostering father involvement in fragile families). The third is to address directly the risks these children face (for example, through high-quality early childhood education or home-visiting policies).

Bullying and cyberbullying prevention remain a major priority for schools, communities, and families, and research is clear that positive, constructive parenting practices can play a key preventive role. The current work explores six dimensions of parenting (warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion), and their specific relationship to school and online bullying. Using survey data from a nationally representative sample of 1474 English-speaking 12- to 17-year-old US youth, we found that students whose parent(s) exhibit warmth, structure, and autonomy support are less likely to have engaged in bullying or cyberbullying offending, while those with parental relations marked by rejection, chaos, and coercion are more likely to have participated in both forms of peer aggression. Implications for developing stronger parent-child relationships through improved parenting practices as a mechanism for bullying prevention are discussed.HighlightsApproximately 21% of US youth have bullied someone else at school in at least one or more ways in the last 30 days.Approximately 5% of US youth have bullied someone else online in at least one or more ways in the last 30 days.Positive parenting in the form of warmth, structure, and autonomy/support were linked to lower bullying and cyberbullying.Negative parenting in the form of rejection, chaos, and coercion were associated with higher levels of bullying and cyberbullying.Parental influence has a stronger impact on cyberbullying as compared to traditional bullying.

Previous research has shown that adolescents´ social media use predicts increased body dissatisfaction. However, little is known about social environmental factors that may attenuate this relationship. This study examines one such potential moderating social environmental factor: positive parent–adolescent relationships. A school-based survey was conducted among 440 adolescents aged 12 to 19 (M= 14.9, SD= 1.8, 47% female). On average, social media use was positively associated with body dissatisfaction, but this relationship was weaker among adolescents who reported a more positive mother–adolescent relationship. Positive father–adolescent relationship did not moderate the association between social media use and body dissatisfaction. These findings may indicate that adolescents’ social environment, notably the relationship they have with their mothers, can protect them against the detrimental effects of social media use on body dissatisfaction. However, longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to examine the direction of effects and test the validity of this interpretation.

Children and adolescents are frequent media users and research regularly examines the consequences of such use. This research, however, often does not examine parental factors relating to youth media use. Framed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study examines the role of media in the child’s ecological system by describing how parent attitudes, behaviors, and own personal media use are related to child media use. This study used data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents of 8- to 18-year-olds (N = 1819). This study documented that parents’ attitudes toward technology are mixed, suggesting that while parents are worried about certain aspects of technology use, they also see the positive outcomes of use for both their children and their own lives as parents. Further, the data indicated that parents of children and adolescents were heavy and regular media users themselves and that parent media use and media attitudes were strongly related to youth media use, even during adolescent years. These findings shed light on youth media use and suggest that, to fully understand media use among young people, researchers must also consider how parent factors influence the media ecology of the child’s home environment.HighlightsParent attitudes toward child technology use are relatively positive overall.Parent attitudes toward child technology use vary by the type of technology.Parents are heavy media users and parent media use is related to child media use.Many parents reported having rules about the content their children consume.

Physical activity (PA) benefits children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Evidence suggests that some barriers impede parents from providing PA support for their children with ASD. Parental perceived stigma is one of these barriers. However, few studies have explored how parental perceived stigma influences parental PA support. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental perceived stigma and parental PA support, the mediating role of parental self-efficacy, and the moderating effect of having other typically developing children or not. A total of 274 participants were recruited to participate in the study. The results showed that parental self-efficacy mediated the association between parental perceived stigma and parental PA support and the moderating effect of having other typically developing children or not.