Objective: To use a lifetime assessment of victimization experiences to identify children and youth with high cumulative levels of victimization (poly-victims). Also to compare such children to other victims and non-victims, and assess the contribution of cumulative victimization to levels of psychological distress. Design: A national sample of…

Prosocial behavior is an important aspect of normal social and psychological development. Adult and child twin studies typically estimate the heritability of prosocial behavior to be between 30 and 50%, although relatively little is known about genetic and environmental influences upon prosocial behavior in adolescence. We therefore examined…

Background: Repetitive questions and temper outbursts form part of the behavioural phenotype of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). We investigated the phenomenology of temper outbursts in PWS and their relationship with other PWS behavioural characteristics. Method: Four individuals with PWS were observed (5-10 h), during a number of experimental and…

Arguably, the most important outcome measure for services to people with intellectual disabilities is quality of life. Quality of life has been defined in numerous ways and may consist of many aspects, including physical, material, and emotional well-being, as well as interpersonal relationships, personal development, self-determination, social…

There are scant data documenting the relationship between caregiver strain and suicidal behavior among youth. This study includes data from the caregivers of 1,854 youth who received services through the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. Caregiver strain, family functioning, and youth…

This article reports on a study conducted in Israel at an academic institution. The study investigates the correlation between students' attitudes toward open and distance learning (ODL) and their perceived self-esteem and loneliness at the last stage of their online learning experience. For this study, 120 students were asked to complete a…

Although happiness as a state of mind may be universal, its meaning takes culture-specific forms. Drawing on the concept of folk theories, this study attempted to uncover lay beliefs about the nature of happiness in Germany and South Africa. To that end, 57 German and 44 black South African students wrote free-format essays in response to the…

Background: This paper examined children's fearful, sad, and angry reactivity to interparental conflict as mediators of associations between their exposure to interparental aggression and physiological functioning. Methods: Participants included 200 toddlers and their mothers. Assessments of interparental aggression and children's emotional…

Categorical perception, demonstrated as reduced discrimination of within-category relative to between-category differences in stimuli, has been found in a variety of perceptual domains in adults. To examine the development of categorical perception in the domain of facial expression processing, we used behavioral and event-related potential (ERP)…

Extraversion and neuroticism influence behaviour and mood. Extreme expressions of these personality traits may predispose individuals to developing chronic functional pains and mood disorders that predominantly affect women. We acquired anatomical MRI scans and personality scores from healthy male and female adolescents and measured gray matter…

Background: The present research extended previous research by broadening the dimensions of personality traits, and focusing on burnout and psychological well-being among staff working with people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour. Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey in which 103 staff completed questionnaires…

This paper explores some of the reasons that primary head teachers in urban schools give for staying in a highly complex and demanding professional occupation. The paper is divided into two sections. The first section contains an overview of what is involved in primary headship in the English setting and what is distinctive in the urban setting…

Using daily diary data from 28 later life couples where one spouse had diabetes and osteoarthritis, we examined crossover effects of target spouses' daily activity limitations and their partners' daily mood. On days when target spouses' daily activity limitations were higher than average, partners' positive mood decreased and negative mood…

The field of grief counseling has yet to see an integration of Buddhist psychology. Drawing on Buddhist psychology literature and Western models of grief, this article explores possible integrations of two approaches. To lay the foundation for this discussion, the authors introduced a brief overview of the history of Buddhism as well as a Buddhist…

This article discusses the concepts of happiness, emotional well-being and mental health in the light of recent work on children's spirituality, to argue that such a consideration can help to avoid simplistic and individualistic views of each. Distinguishing between happiness as short-term gratification and as longer-term flourishing, the latter…