This study compares the social networks of mothers in families identified as abusive and mothers in control families and looks at the relationships between social networks and parenting beliefs and practices. Participants were mothers from 52 families who were part of a larger investigation of child‐rearing in physically abusing versus nonabusing families. Mothers were interviewed about their social networks and completed the Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1981) and the Child‐Rearing Practices Q‐Sort (Block, 1981). Mothers in abusing families were found to be more socially isolated than were those mothers in nonabusing families. They had fewer peer relationships, more troubled relationships with relatives, and more limited contact with the wider community. A pattern linking social support and parenting beliefs emerged, suggesting that the presence of peers in the network is related to greater enjoyment of and openness in parenting.

A simulation of workplace conflict examined the effects of a manager's pregnancy on male and female subordinates. Study participants-40 women and 41 men from an MBA program-each took part in two ten-minute long, videotaped, interactive role plays with two women managers (research confederates), one apparently pregnant and the other not. The participants' impressions of the managers were tapped using an author-developed questionnaire and brief interviews. Interactive data were analyzed to determine the nature of the expression of emotion and ideas. The results show that participants had more negative impressions of and lower satisfaction with the pregnant manager than with the manager who was not pregnant, and initiated more social conversations with the former than with the latter. Interview data suggest that participants had expected the pregnant manager to be passive, nice, and giving, and were surprised by her authoritative behavior. Implications for pregnant managers and limitations of the study are discussed.

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