Everyone, including children with developmental disabilities, encounters stimuli they find aversive every day (e.g., the sound of a classmate tapping their pencil). These aversive stimuli may not be problematic for typically developing individuals, because they learn to behave in ways that allow them to escape or avoid this aversive stimulation.…

The ability to engage in classroom activities is associated with better academic outcomes (Downer et al., 2007; Ponitz et al., 2009), and characteristics of children can affect how a child is able to engage in classroom activities (McWilliam & Bailey, 1995; Kishida & Kemp, 2006). Yet, support from adults can enhance the engagement of…

The literature on school suspension contains negligible discussion from the perspective of the student. This paper begins to contribute that missing point of view. It presents the findings of an ethnographic study with students in middle childhood who have been suspended from school. For the overwhelming majority of study participants, being…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,870) and cross-lagged path analysis, the authors examined whether spanking at ages 1 and 3 is adversely associated with cognitive skills and behavior problems at ages 3 and 5. The authors found spanking at age 1 was associated with a higher level of spanking and externalizing…

Although many studies of personality and aggression focus on multidimensional traits and higher order personality disorders (e.g., psychopathy), lower order, unidimensional traits may provide more precision in identifying specific aspects of personality that relate to aggression. The current study includes a comprehensive measurement of lower…

Students may say a teacher's lesson is boring, a researcher says, when frustration is really what they feel. While boredom is a perennial student complaint, emerging research shows it is more than students' not feeling entertained, but rather a "flavor of stress" that can interfere with their ability to learn and even their health. An…

Patterns of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and their association with other psychological difficulties were studied in a community sample of young Swedish adolescents, by a two-wave longitudinal design with a 1-year interval. Hierarchical cluster analysis at T1 identified eight NSSI subgroups in each gender, of which five were clearly replicated…

Emotional and behavioral problems assessed with the "Child Behavior Checklist" (CBCL) were analyzed from 2,739 Dutch children referred to Families First (FF) or Intensive Family Treatment (IFT) from 1999 to 2008, to examine time trends. From the year 2004 onward, six of the eight CBCL-syndrome scales yielded significant decreases from the…

Recently, a growing body of research has focused on the sustainability of evidence-based interventions aimed at promoting the social emotional and character development of children (SEL) and preventing or reducing problem behaviors in schools. Current discussions of systemic reform in the education system address the capacity of individual schools…

The term "Special Needs" is one which is poorly defined in general and particularly nuanced in the Lifelong Learning Sector, where its meaning has been extended to incorporate economic and social needs in addition to the more "traditional" interpretation of the term. Although the sector apparently operates inclusively,…

Research suggests that corporal punishment is related to higher levels of child externalizing behavior, but there has been controversy regarding whether infrequent, mild spanking predicts child externalizing or whether more severe and frequent forms of corporal punishment account for the link. Mothers rated the frequency with which they spanked…

Sleep problems of adolescents and older children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were compared to toddlers and young children in 1,859 children. Sleep was measured with the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Total sleep problems were significant across all age groups, however the factors contributing to these problems differed. Adolescents…

Students who continuously misbehave are frequently excluded from class, allowing them time to reflect on their inappropriate behavior. This paper examines students' perceptions of the teacher's behavior toward them prior to, during, and after the exclusion, focusing on teachers' explanations, punishments, and follow-up conversations. The results…

The aim of this study was to examine whether vandalism, bullying, and truancy among pupils at school are associated with absence due to illness among teachers. Data on such problem behaviour of 17,033 pupils in 90 schools were linked to absence records of 2364 teachers. Pupil reported vandalism and bullying at the school-level were associated with…

Reinforcing an alternative response in the same context as a target response reduces the rate of occurrence but increases the persistence of that target response. Applied researchers who use such techniques to decrease the rate of a target problem behavior risk inadvertently increasing the persistence of the same problem behavior. Behavioral…