Elena L. Grigorenko - Family Environment and Intellectual Functioning: A Life-span Perspective

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Family Environment and Intellectual Functioning: A Life-Span Perspective

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Edited by

Elena L. Grigorenko

Yale University

Moscow State University

Robert J. Sternberg

Yale University

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
Mahwah, New Jersey	London

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Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers

10 Industrial Avenue

Mahwah, NJ 07430

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Family environment and intellectual functioning: a life-span perspective / edited by Elena L. Grigorenko, Robert J. Sternberg.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8058-3184-3 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. FamilyPsychological aspects. 2. Cognition. 3. Intellect. 4. Developmental Psychology. I. Grigorenko, Elena, L. II. Sternberg, Robert J.

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America

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Many of us spend a good part of our adult lives trying to either recapture or escape from the family structure and family processes we observed when we grew up. Even as we pass into middle age and then old age, these family structures and processes continue to enrich our livesor to haunt them. What is the role of the family environment, particularly with regard to our intellectual functioning? Does the role of early family environment wear off, as some researchers have suggested, or does it maintain or possibly even become more important as we grow older?

This volume examines the interrelationship between family environment and intellectual functioning in a life-span perspective. Its 11 chapters cover a wide range of topics and provide what is perhaps the most comprehensive examination available of life-span family influences on various aspects of intellectual function. In addition the book can serve as a companion volume to Environmental Influences on Intellectual Functioning , also published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

The present book is written for all students and professionals with an interest in family influences. Students will find it useful when learning about family effects. Researchers will find it useful to update themselves in this currently active area of investigation. Therapists will find the information useful for understanding problems of intellectual functioning in their clients and in treating these clients successfully. And educators may have a better grasp of how the students they teach are products, not only of their genes and environments, in general, but of their family environments, in particular.

We are grateful to the National Science Foundation (Grant REC-9979843) and the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Grant No.

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R206R950001) of the U.S. Department of Education, which have funded much of our related research and our time in preparing this book. This book, of course, does not necessarily represent the position or policies of the National Science Foundation, Office of Educational Research, or the U.S. Department of Education, and no official endorsement should be inferred. We are also grateful to Sai Durvasula for help in the preparation of this manuscript, and to Judi Amsel for contracting the book.

Elena L. Grigorenko

Roberti. Sternberg

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Alice S. Carter

Karla Klein Murdock

University of Massachusetts, Boston

Men are like plants: the goodness and flavour of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow .

Michel Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur (1782/1968, p. 50)

Few would question the notion that the family endows some qualities of the composition, cultivates the growth, and bears witness to the ripening of an individual's potential. Philosophical and poetic musings about the importance of the family are difficult to challenge. At the same time, exploring the role of the family in psychological development is a complex puzzle. This volume illumi