A psychologist reflects on the lessons learned in working with children with autism, their families, and their schools: there is no way to predict child development, no child and no family go untouched by the diagnosis, and the feelings that parents have related to an initial diagnosis change over time. (CR)

Narratives of three graduate and five undergraduate black women reentering education were analyzed using black feminist thought. They faced issues involving power relations based on race, gender, and class that are usually ignored in studies of reentry students. They used strategies of silence, negotiation, and resistance. (SK)

This article offers an abbreviated curriculum to help middle school students learn to use humorous strategies to cope with stress. An introductory discussion reviews the literature on coping and the benefits of humor. Outlined for the curriculum are student goals, unit concepts and generalizations, differentiated learner objectives, differentiated…

Examined the personal, situational, and contextual correlates of coping in 315 adolescents. Found that adolescents who used more approach-coping responses were older, more active, and appraised stressful events as controllable and as challenges, whereas adolescents who used more avoidance coping were easily distressed, had more chronic stressors,…

Mothers of 6 cohorts of infants at ages 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months were interviewed to determine their children's responses to potentially stressful daily events. Found older infants and temperamentally more difficult infants experienced more events and reacted with distress to a greater proportion of the events than did younger infants and…

Examined female child welfare workers' perceptions of their work. Found that despite positive aspects, subjects felt that their work had adversely affected their physical and mental health; they used a variety of problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies to cope. Findings posed implications for intervention strategies and the appropriateness…

The second in a two-part series providing a mental skills curriculum for instruction in physical education and youth sport settings follows up on the first part, which included lesson plans for introducing children to mental skills. This part provides lesson plans for helping children relax and manage anger or stress, develop facilitative…

A study examined stress and coping processes among 133 married mothers and fathers of adults with mental retardation. Mothers used significantly more problem-focused coping strategies. Unlike fathers, mothers' use of problem-focused coping strategies and lower use of emotion-focused coping buffered the impact of caregiving stress on their…

Examined Blacks' and Whites' conflict coping preferences using a scenario that manipulated an offender's race. In one study, Blacks more than Whites preferred behaviorally expressive conflict management and eschewed more reserved tactics. People were less confrontational with offenders of their same racial group. In another study, there was weaker…

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 55 teachers and support staff at special schools for children with mental retardation found that use of maladaptive coping strategies for challenging behaviors constitutes a risk for staff burnout and this risk is in addition to that associated with exposure to challenging behavior. (Contains references.)…

Examined the impact of parental divorce during adolescence, interparental conflict, and intimacy with parents on young adult adjustment. High levels of interparental conflict were found to be negatively associated with adjustment and current intimacy of parents. (Author)

What are the lessons young people will learn from how adults in their lives deal with terrorist strikes on the United States? What lessons will be learned about justice compassion, and revenge? This article discusses the responsibilities adults have in helping children cope with and understand the recent terrorist attacks. (Author)

Examines the scope of poverty and the growing disparity in income among people. Discusses the consequences of poverty for adults and children and presents strategies to improving their resilience. Although focusing on individual characteristics can enhance resilience, it suggests that the best changes will come about with improved national…

Presents 54 thank you letters written by authors (of children's literature, young adult literature, and professional texts) to classroom teachers, from the shadow of the events of September 11th, 2001, offering their thanks for teachers' efforts to face those events with children, offering their personal thoughts about the events, or their…

This article poses three questions: What do childhood cancer survivors worry about? What characteristics prompt some to worry more and others less? What effect do worries have on survivors' self-image and life outlooks? Data demonstrated significant relationships among worries, "objective" factors like physical after-effects or relapse,…