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Report of a study designed to discover how children from a wide range of families view family life and how the individual child uses the family as a base from which to control the environment.

Becoming a grandparent is something that most people look forward to. There is the joy of the birth and anticipation of the fun the grandparents will have with the new grandchild, without the responsibility that being a parent involves. However, it is the grandparents relationship with the generation in between, and events in that family, which will govern their relationship with their grandchild. Grandparents, grandchildren and the generation in between clearly sets out the major issues involved in being a grandparent today.

This paper gives a brief overview of the changing relationship between school and family in Australia. Discussion first concerns major changes that have occurred in Australian families, particularly in the period since World War II. Next explored are the many forms of school and family relationships. These range from informal get-togethers to the formal requirement that parents should have a part in the decision-making processes of schools. A distinction is made between parent participation (in which parents have the right to make decisions regarding the education of their children in partnership with professionals) and parent involvement (in which parents' and teachers' mutual interests in children are interwoven, but there is less concern with power and rights). In subsequent commentary, attention is given to the situation in Victoria, Australia--a state in the process of legislating for closer working relationships between parents and schools through local school councils. Objections to parent participation in the decision-making process and beneficial results of such participation are both specifically discussed. Concluding remarks concern the new role of teachers and schools in communities with active parent participation; in particular, these new roles are discussed in terms of teacher training and liaison with social services and in terms of relationships with children whose parents prefer old patterns of involvement. (CB)

The Institute's Early Childhood Study provided an opportunity to find out how the 591 working mothers in the study had coped with the care of pre-school children when they were sick during working hours. The paper focuses on mothers' and fathers' attitudes to sharing the care of sick children; mothers' feelings about care arrangements; suggestions for making the care of sick children easier; and some comparisons with practices in other countries. A selection of case studies is included.

The authors present the methodology, findings and conclusions of the Australian Institute of Family Studies' Early Childhood Study, designed in response to changes in early childhood care contexts and concern about their long-term effects. The study took a sample of children in their first year of school, identified the types of child care experienced in their preschool years, and assessed the links between differing child care contexts, cognitive skills, and social-emotional development. The authors' conclusion is that their analysis does not suggest that exposure to long hours of non-parental care in the first year of life, even when such care continues throughout the preschool years, is associated with long-term negative effects on Australian children. Family, mother and child characteristics were found to be more important in explaining both social-emotional and cognitive outcomes than child care contexts in the preschool years. They suggest that studies are needed which, rather than focusing on the long-term effects of non-parental care, instead take a holistic approach to the daily lives of children.