Research examining set-shifting has revealed significant difficulties for adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). However, research with high-functioning children with ASDs has yielded mixed results. The current study tested 6- to 13-year-old high-functioning children with ASD and typically developing controls matched on age, gender, and IQ…

As children's exposure to violence (EV) has become more evident, concern for the implications that violence has on children has risen. Consequently, researchers have explored the relationship between exposure and outcomes, as well as potential mediators and moderators. In this study, we (a) examined EV in a sample of children from the Midwestern…

This article considers the issue of facilitating policies that enhance population happiness. An impediment to such action is the failure of most policy makers to understand that subjective wellbeing can be measured and understood within the framework of science. Additionally, they fail to realize that enhancing the subjective wellbeing of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) reactivity and proactive and reactive aggression in pre-pubertal children. After a 30-min controlled base line period, 73 7-year-old children (40 males and 33 females) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental tasks designed to…

This study examined expressed emotion in the families of children and adolescents who were (a) in a current episode of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), (b) in remission from a past episode of MDD, (c) at high familial risk for developing MDD, and (d) low-risk controls. Participants were 109 mother-child dyads (children ages 8-19). Expressed…

The use of Yoga and other complementary healthcare interventions for both clinical and non-clinical populations has increased substantially in recent years. In this context, we describe the implementation of Hatha Yoga in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program of Kabat-Zinn and colleagues. This is embedded in a more general…

This study investigated the relation between friendship, loneliness and depressive symptoms in adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Thirty-five adolescents with AS and 35 controls matched on chronological age, school year and gender distribution, completed questionnaires designed to ascertain the quality of their best-friendship, motivation…

Persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often have difficulty recognizing emotion in others. This is likely due to difficulties in interpreting non-verbal cues of affect. Although deficits in interpreting facial cues of affect are being widely explored, interpretation of vocal cues of affect has received much less attention. Accurate…

The "care challenge" is shown to be both broader and more successful than Walker and Frimer's (this issue, pp. 53-68) critique allows. The main philosophical and psychological tenets of the care challenge foreshadowed the direction of twenty-first century moral psychology.

Preschool-age children's ability to verbally generate strategies for regulating anger and sadness, and to recognize purported effective strategies for these emotions, were examined in relation to child factors (child age, temperament, and language ability) and maternal emotion socialization (supportiveness and structuring in response to child…

The study was designed to develop and evaluate the Early Childhood Generalized Trust Belief Scale (ECGTBS) as a method of assessing 5-8-year-olds' generalized trust. Two hundred and eleven (103 male and 108 female) children (mean age 6 years and 2 months at Time 1) completed the ECGTBS twice over a year. A subsample of participants completed the…

The theory of relative deprivation emphasizes that social comparisons contextualize how people experience impoverishment. An important application of this theory argues that relative deprivation that stems from unfavorable social comparisons can result in anger, normlessness and an increased likelihood of deviant behavior. We test this theory in a…

Background: Negative trauma-related cognitions have been found to be a significant factor in the maintenance of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults. Initial studies of such appraisals in trauma-exposed children and adolescents suggest that this is an important line of research in youth, yet empirically validated measures for use with…

This essay concerns applications of computer-mediated communication (CMC) research in groups toward the enhancement of relations between members of potentially hostile ethnopolitical groups. The characteristics of CMC offer several possible means of facilitating the reduction of animosity through online contact among intergroup constituents. The…

In this dissertation, I examine the mediating role of emotion during lived interactions between students and teachers at an urban charter high school. While the importance of student-teacher connectivity for positive school engagement has been well documented, research that attempts to describe the mechanism of that link is scarce. This…