Assessed aspects of the adjustment of 233 secondary school students in Jamaica. Students reported satisfaction in seven areas: (1) impulse control; (2) emotional tone; (3) body image; (4) social relationships; (5) sexual attitudes; (6) mastery of the external world; and (7) superior adjustment. Students reported dissatisfaction in the dimensions…

Outlines the principles and components of the "Classroom Community," a model used in an urban high school for students with emotional and behavioral problems. The model employs a shared-responsibility approach to facilitating the development of self-discipline and social responsibility. (MKA)

A longitudinal study evaluated child-care effects on young children's self-control, compliance, and problem behavior. Findings indicated that mothering was a stronger and more consistent predictor of child outcomes than child care. There was little evidence that early, extensive, and continuous care was related to problematic child behavior.…

Describes using behavior maps to help students identify and change nonadaptive patterns of interaction with adults and peers. Strategies are presented for developing and using behavior maps, and three examples of behavior maps of differing complexity are provided. Evaluation of behavior mapping efforts is also discussed. (CR)

Strategies for curbing disruptions in the classroom include setting expectations, naming and defining behaviors students must learn, modeling appropriate and alternative behavior, setting up routines showing that self-control is important, settling on predictable consequences for blurting out, having children start over if communication breaks…

Assessed the possible confounding of preadolescents' temperament as a predictor of psychological adjustment, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and expert ratings. CFAs demonstrated that temperament could be reliably measured after eliminating overlapping items. Negative emotionality and impulsivity were negatively related to symptom…

This discussion of the developmental underpinnings of self-determination for students with disabilities considers metacognition, self-perception, social problem solving, and autonomous decision making. It urges developing school policies contributing to self-sufficiency; ameliorating curricular, instructional, and service delivery systems…

Examined longitudinally committed and situational compliance in "Do" and "Don't" contexts and internalization of standards among 108 young children through age 4. Found that the "Do" context was more challenging than the "Don't" context. Both forms of compliance were longitudinally stable, but only within a given context. Committed compliance was…

Examined relation of different types of negative emotion and regulation and control to 55- to 97-month-olds' internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Found that children with externalizing problems, compared to children with internalizing problems and nondisordered children, were more prone to anger, impulsivity, and low regulation.…

Cognition, motivation, and emotions are recognized by psychologists as the three fundamental classes of mental operations, yet most research in educational psychology has focused on the first two classes. Educational psychology textbooks for preservice teachers contain chapters on learning, problem solving, assessment, and motivation, but not on…

An important goal in preventing writing disabilities is to provide effective early instruction to at-risk students to maximize their writing development. This study examined whether or not explicitly teaching six at-risk second-grade writers, including children with disabilities, how to plan and draft stories would improve their story writing as…

The developmental trajectories of behavioral control and resiliency from early childhood to adolescence and their effects on early onset of substance use were examined. Behavioral control is the tendency to express or contain one's impulses and behaviors. Resiliency is the ability to adapt flexibly one's characteristic level of control in response…

College students face a myriad of pressures and challenges in the academic environment as they seek to maintain optimal performance or even to remain in the academic program. In 2002, it was reported that more than 30% of first-year students did not return for their second year of college (Smith), and only 40% are reported to actually compete…

The hypothesis that the relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's agreeableness would be at least partly indirect through their resiliency was tested. Eighty-two children (M age = 58.67 mos.) were participants. Children nominated peers on agreeableness and completed a behavioral measure of effortful control. Teachers and a…

Interventions that mobilize the parents to coach and reinforce their children's social skills have been shown to improve children's social functioning and decrease inappropriate social behaviors in the home and at school. However, few studies have examined whether these treatment outcomes can be successfully transferred from the research to the…