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Most working parents face a common dilemma—how to care for their children when they are not in school but the parents are at work. In this article Kathleen Christensen, Barbara Schneider, and Donnell Butler describe the predictable and unpredictable scheduling demands school-age children place on working couples and single working parents.

The authors assess the potential capacity of schools to help meet the needs of working families through changes in school schedules and after-school programs and conclude that the flexibility parents need to balance family-work responsibilities probably cannot be found in the school setting. They argue that workplaces are better able than schools to offer the flexibility that working parents need to attend to basic needs of their children, as well as to engage in activities that enhance their children's academic performance and emotional and social well-being.

Two types of flexible work practices seem especially well suited to parents who work: flextime arrangements that allow parents to coordinate their work schedules with their children's school schedules, and policies that allow workers to take short periods of time off—a few hours or a day or two—to attend a parent-teacher conference, for example, or care for a child who has suddenly fallen ill. Many companies that have instituted such policies have benefited through employees' greater job satisfaction and employee retention.

Yet despite these measured benefits to employers, workplaces often fall short of being family friendly. Many employers do not offer such policies or offer them only to employees at certain levels or in certain types of jobs. Flexible work practices are almost nonexistent for low-income workers, who are least able to afford alternative child care and may need flexibility the most.

Moreover the authors find that even employees in firms with flexible practices such as telecommuting may be reluctant to take advantage of them, because the workplace culture explicitly or implicitly stigmatizes or penalizes employees for choosing these work arrangements. The authors conclude by making a case for creating a workplace culture that supports flexibility. Such a culture, they argue, would enable working parents to better meet the responsibilities of their jobs as they care for and build strong relationships with their children.

Abstract
In children, intensive near-work affects the accommodation system of the eye. Younger children, due to anatomical parameters, read at smaller distance than older children and we can expect that the accommodation system of younger can be affected more than that of older children. We wanted to test this hypothesis. Some authors showed that the norms of amplitude of accommodation (AA) developed by Hofstetter (1950) not always could be applied for children. We also wanted to verify these results. A total of 106 (age 7-15) children participated in the study. Distance visual acuity was measured for all children and only data of children with good visual acuity 1.0 or more (dec. units) were analysed (73 children). Accommodative amplitude was measured before and after lessons using subjective push-up technique (with RAF Near Point Ruler). The results showed that the amplitude of accommodation reduced significantly (p < 0.05) during the day and decrease of AA was similar in different age groups (about ~0.70 D). Additional measurements are needed to verify that the observed changes in AA were associated with fatigue effect. The results showed lower accommodation values compared to average values calculated according to the Hofstetter equation (p < 0.05).

"April 1982"--Cover. ; "DoD 6060.1-M-6." ; "Military Child Care Project." ; Mode of access: Internet.

AbstractImpulsivity is a salient individual difference in children with well‐established predictive validity for life outcomes. The current investigation proposes that impulsive behaviors vary systematically by domain. In a series of studies with ethnically and socioeconomically diverse samples of middle school students, we find that schoolwork‐related and interpersonal‐related impulsivity, as observed by teachers, parents, and the students themselves, are distinct, moderately correlated behavioral tendencies. Each demonstrates differentiated relationships with dimensions of childhood temperament, Big Five personality factors, and outcomes, such as report card grades. Implications for theoretical conceptions of impulsivity as well as for practical applications (e.g. domain‐specific interventions) are discussed.

AbstractChronic loneliness is a risk factor associated with adverse psychological, physical, and academic outcomes. Converging evidence suggests that young children experience and can reliably report on their own loneliness: thus, a clearer understanding of the risk factors for child loneliness is needed. The aims of this study were two‐fold: (a) to examine if temperament (i.e., negative affect, effortful control, inhibitory control), and attachment security assessed at the age of four predict loneliness at the age of six and (b) to determine if social competence at the age of five mediates the relation between temperament and attachment security at the age of four and loneliness at the age of six. Participants included a diverse sample of 796 4‐year‐old children, about half of whom were male. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that lower levels of effortful control and inhibitory control at the age of four significantly predicted greater loneliness at the age of six. Also, while lower levels of negative affect (NA) and higher levels of effortful control and attachment security at the age of four significantly predicted higher levels of social competence at the age of five, social competence at the age of five did not predict loneliness at the age of six. There was no evidence that social competence at the age of five mediated the relation between the age of four temperament, attachment security, and the age of six loneliness. These findings reveal that early self‐regulation is associated with later child‐reported loneliness and that intervention for children who struggle with behavioral regulation may be effective in decreasing risk for later loneliness.

This study describes the worries of Israeli parents regarding their school-age children. A total of 1,751 parents responded to a survey asking how worried they were about their children with regard to a list of 13 worries. Parents worried most frequently about a terrorist attack on their children, followed by injury in a traffic accident, injury during military service, and serious illness. Parents worried more about boys, mothers worried more than fathers, and parents with college degrees worried less than others. Results indicate that parents worry less when they feel they have some control over the risks their children face. Increasing parents' control over these risks may be a role for social work.

Breakfast is considered as one of the most important meal within a day, specifically this is important among school age children due to the nutrients content. The goal of this study was to investigate nutrients provided by breakfast meal and to describe the type and amount of breakfast consumed among school age children in Jakarta, Indonesia. 2nd Indonesian National Basic Health Research Survey (RISKESDAS) data in a cross-sectional setting was analyzed. The main sample consisted of children age 6- to 12- year old randomly selected in Jakarta area (n = 945). A 24-hr dietary recall was used for evaluating the breakfast nutrient contribution to the total daily nutrient intake. Breakfast meal contributed higher proportion of nutrients intake in younger age, higher SES, and also in boys. In every demographic subgroup, breakfast meal contributed high amount of carbohydrate, ranging from 39.2% to 44.6%, high amount of fat, ranging from 35% to 49.6%, and very low fiber content ranging from 3.6% to 4.8%. Vitamin C was notably the least consumed micronutrient by this population in all different sub groups (0% to 1.3%), as well as calcium (3.0% to 8.4%). Breakfast among school age children in Jakarta mostly consisted of rice (25.9%) with fried foods as side dishes. Breakfast consumption significantly contributes to whole diet nutrient adequacy. Breakfast consumption in Jakarta should be more stimulated in lower SES, older age, and girls group. Moreover, due to inadequacy of micronutrient intake, consumption of more whole fruits and fruit products during breakfast should be encouraged along with fat free or low fat milk products. This might be encouraged through a more holistic program from related stakeholders, including family, food companies, school, as well as government.

Medical status changes between foster care placements were investigated to determine whether medical status improves and whether medical status changes predict reentry into care. Three hundred and ninety-two school-age children reentering foster care received comprehensive medical evaluation on each foster care entry. Results indicated that students reentering care had worsened medical status. Comparison with matched students having a single foster care placement did not show medical status predictive of foster care reentry but suggested that some medical status declines were age related.

The Children's Environmental Response Inventory (CERI) is introduced as a means of measuring environmental disposition, or what has been termed "environmental personality." This test is shown to have sound psychometric properties. It has been administered to a large sample of school-age children in the age range 9 to 16 years. Differences are found among responses to the eight domains: Pastoralism, Urbanism, Environmental Adaptation, Stimulus Seeking, Environmental Trust, Antiquarianism, Need Privacy, and Mechanical Orientation. Associations are found between individual dispositions and extracurricular activities. Differences related to personal status characteristics-age, sex, and geographic place of residence-suggest that there are important variations in the acquisition of environmental disposition.