Lois Wladis Hoffman

The employed mother in America

This study explores whether maternal employment leads to emotional maladjustment of children and disruption of traditional marriage patterns.

The influence of the family environment on personality: Accounting for sibling differences.

Findings from behavioral genetics indicate that environment affects personality but that siblings are not alike. This has been interpreted as challenging the idea that child rearing and family events are important. Research from behavioral genetics and developmental psychology is reviewed

The Value of Children to Parents in the United States

Data from a national survey of the value of children to parents were analyzed to (a)report the satisfactions of parenthood perceived by married American couples in the childbearing years, (b) test the adequacy of the kloffman and Hoffman (1973) need-based category scheme for conceptualizing the value of children, and (c) examine subgroup diff(~rences to test the hypothesis that groups with fewer alternative means for satisfying a particular need will value children more highly for this quality. Results indicated that the Hoffman and Hoffman (1973) scheme was adequate with some modifications. In both structured and unstructured questions, the two most important values were Primary Group Ties and Stimulation and Fun. The alternatives hypothesis received some support: Groups with less access to economic resources (less educated and blacks) gave more importance to economic-utility values than did others; women with traditional sex-role definitions gave more importance to adult status than did others; unemployed women gave more to fun and stimulation; Jews and nonaffiliated more to immortality; urban residents more to purpose in life. The alternatives hypothesis alone did not work as well in other cases, particularly achievement, probably because the intensity of the need was not considered in this analysis.

Relations of parental supervision and monitoring to children's functioning in various contexts: Moderating effects of families and neighborhoods☆

Interactions among supervision and monitoring, maternal marital status, and neighborhood safety and their relations to child outcomes were examined using a sample of 355 third- and fourth-grade students in a large midwestern city. Three levels of supervision were considered: no adult supervision or monitoring, no adult supervision with distal parent monitoring, and full-time adult supervision. Results show that, although supervision and monitoring do not produce any main effects on childrens social, emotional, and cognitive functioning, interactions between supervision and contextual variables do produce significant effects. These effects differ according to the outcome variable studied. Neighborhood crime rates were found to moderate the effects of supervision on childrens behaviors, peer relations, locus of control, and language achievement. Although children in dangerous neighborhoods who experience low supervision and monitoring showed good behaviors and language skills, they also showed lower self-efficacy. Maternal marital status moderated effects of supervision on childrens school achievement, with a lack of supervision and monitoring relating to low achievement for children in single-parent but not married-parent households. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of considering contextual factors when searching for effects of parenting practices on childrens development.

The Value of Children to Young and Elderly Parents.

A sample of elderly parents in the state of Florida was contrasted with a national sample of parents in their childbearing years with respect to the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of having children. For both groups, children were most commonly seen as satisfying the needs for love and companionship and fun and stimulation. The Older group was more likely than the younger to report that children fill economic-utility needs. The older group was also more likely to indicate that there were no disadvantages to having children, and they were less likely to specifically mention disadvantages such as restrictions on freedom or financial costs. This study found that elderly parents are actually more likely to be giving financial help to their children than receiving it, and that contact with children was frequent despite geographical barriers.

Progress and problems in the study of adolescence.

The increase in research on adolescence is considered with attention to its transitional aspects during the adolescent period and as a bridge between childhood and adulthood. In addition, the new effort to examine interactional processes between parent and child and between environment and genes is discussed with respect to the articles in this special issue.