Cognitive and behavioral coping strategies for eliciting reappraisal of stressful social situations were compared in a group of 49 preadolescents. Results indicated coping strategies were more effective in eliciting positive reappraisal of the stressful situation than was the control condition. The behavioral coping strategy resulted in greater…

The author maintains that children, through their own behavior, take on the role of modifier. He includes a case history to illustrate the usefulness of such an approach for children with parents and teachers. (Author)

A look at what we may expect in the future suggests some advantages to be gained from a motivational model, drawn from a synthesis of the latest research into behavior modification, and its link to contigency theories of organizations. (Author)

Eleven institutionalized psychotic children 4- to 13-years-old received 13 weeks of traffic safety training using operant conditioning. (CL)

Prior to treatment, a nonverbal, 8-year-old severly retarded child was confined in an enclosed crib 17 hours a day to prevent hazardous voluntary falling. (Author)

The newly developed, 72-item Q-Sort Inventory of Parenting Behaviors was administered to fathers and mothers of 84 young children in a 3-year longitudinal, cross-sectional study of stability and change in parents' child rearing priorities and the impact of the stability and change on child development during the first 5 years of life. Parents of…

An exploratory study investigated the success of a small group behavior change program in eliminating self-defeating behavior (SDB) in outpatients with chronic mental illness. Four of the six subjects were outpatients at the local mental health center but were currently not exhibiting psychotic behavior. The remaining two subjects were student…

There is increasing evidence that many children and adolescents who display behavior disorders have sustained a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury can take the following forms: closed head trauma in which the brain usually suffers diffuse damage; open head injury which usually results in specific focal damage; or internal trauma (e.g.,…

The study examined how adding students with learning disabilities (LD) to regular education classrooms changed the behavior of nonhandicapped students and their teachers. Initial observations were of mainstream classes containing no learning-disabled students. Observations were again conducted after LD students had been mainstreamed for 8 months.…

The paper addresses issues in counseling the retarded in the context of the research literature, identifies promising trends, and proposes a counseling model. Three issues are identified: the necessity for counseling to meet measurable objectives; the need for cost effectiveness; and the need for an integrated model. After proposing a definition…

A model to explain the adventure experience and to relate adventure experience to adventure education uses risk and competence as diagram axes with experimentation/exploration, adventure, peak adventure, misadventure, and disaster/devastation completing the framework. The model assumes that peak adventure, the point at which personal competence…

This paper discusses the concept of a family system in terms of an interactive system of interrelated, interdependent parts and suggests that VHS movies can act as perturbations, i.e., change promoting agents, for certain dysfunctional family systems. Several distinct characteristics of a family system are defined with particular emphasis on…

Six issues of the newsletter address practical matters for parents of handicapped children. The first issue examines behavior and offers suggestions such as avoiding inconsistency and idle threats while holding reasonable expectations. The second issue continues the discussion on behavior with ideas for disciplining the child fairly but…

The article describes language development techniques used with a 5-year-old autistic boy to increase his verbal behavior. Intervention consisted of 1.5 hour sessions four times a week over an 8-month period. The intervention focused on increasing nonvocal imitation, vocal imitation, verbal labeling, and verbal discrimination. Development of…

Changing a health behavior and maintaining a positive change can be very difficult. This study examined attributions for health behavior change by using retrospective reports to elicit college students' (N=466) current views of successes and failures at adopting health promoting behaviors. In completing the Health Behavior Questionnaire, 229…