Parents, Personalities and Power: Welsh-medium Schools in South-east Wales is the first volume ever published to investigate in depth the interdependent influences on the phenomenal growth of such schools over the last half century. Derived from a sustained research investigation based in the School of Welsh, Cardiff University (2003–8), the research is set within a constantly evolving linguistic, social and political society. The authors underline the international interest in the sustainable and continuing growth of the Ysgolion Cymraeg, and, as the title suggests, note the various powers that have influenced the shaping of the Welsh-school movement. These reflect the increased interest in the language and identity of Wales and the future challenges these schools face.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Harris takes on the "experts" and boldly questions conventional wisdom of parents' role in their children's lives, asserting that it's not the home environment that shapes children, but the environment they share with their peers.

Norm Wright will show you how to recognize dys-functional patterns you may have inherited from your own parents, learn healthy, functional methods of communication, discover your child's personality type, understand his or her communication style.

Any agenda for family research in the 1990s must take seriously a contextual approach to the study of family relationships. The editors and contributors to this volume believe that the richness in family studies over the next decade will come from considering the diversity of family forms -- different ethnic groups and cultures, different stages of family life, as well as different historical cohorts. Their goal is to make more explicit how we think about families in order to study them and understand them. To illustrate the need for diversity in family studies, examples are presented from new and old families, majority and minority families, American and Japanese families, and intact and divorcing families. This variety is intended to push the limits of current thinking, not only for researchers but also for all who are struggling to live with and work with families in a time when family life is valued but fragmented and relatively unsupported by society's institutions. Students and researchers interested in family development from the viewpoint of any of the social sciences will find this book of value.

"George Holden embraces the idea that parenting is a dynamic process: children affect parents just as much as parents affect children. A multi-level, ecological approach to parenting and childrearing allows a full range of parenting styles, covering topics from co-parenting, evolutionary views, human behavioral genetics, to religious influences, and addressing challenges to be encountered across parenting courses, such as family violence, behavior problems, and the role of pathology in the family. Completely updated in a new third edition, Parenting: A Dynamic Process presents research in a way that is accessible and interesting but also accurate, current, and intellectually rich. Although written from a psychological perspective, views and applications from other disciplines - including sociology, criminology, anthropology, and pediatrics - are also discussed where appropriate. The text discusses contemporary issues, such as fertility problems, daycare, marital conflict, whether or not to use physical punishment, divorce, remarriage and step-parents, gay parents, the effects of poverty, risks and benefits of media use among children, and family violence. Additionally, Holden includes selected studies from developing and non-western countries as well as recent statistics on such topics as US & world birthrate, birth problems, adolescent pregnancy, child injury, divorce and remarriage, child maltreatment, and certain social policy issues"--

The examination of personality and individual differences is a major field of research in the modern discipline of psychology. Concerned with the ways humans develop an organised set of characteristics to shape themselves and the world around them, it is a study of how people come to be ‘different’ and ‘similar’ to others, on both an individual and a cultural level. The SAGE Handbook of Personality and Individual Difference is the broadest and most comprehensive overview of the field to date. With outstanding contributions from leading scholars across the world, this is an invaluable resource for researchers and graduate students. Its three volumes cover all of the central concepts, domains and debates of this globally-expanding discipline, including the core theoretical perspectives, research strategies, as well as the origins, applications, and measurement of personality and individual difference.