This study examined patterns of intra- and interracial best friendships during middle school and their associations with social and emotional well-being. We hypothesized that intraracial friendships would be beneficial for racial or ethnic minority youth because such relationships provide protection and solidarity in a discriminatory society.…

The elementary music class is an ideal setting for building socioemotional skills in children. These skills can assist children in their early music learning through brain development, and they become increasingly important as students reach higher levels of musicianship. Socioemotional learning programs are currently being used to reduce at-risk…

Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often lack independent task initiation skills, have difficulty staying actively engaged in academic tasks, and may require prompting to complete and transition between tasks or activities. In response to these difficulties, teachers often provide additional attention to students in the form of frequent…

Bullying has come to be recognized as a pervasive problem in schools today. Frequently bullying is not immediately recognized or viewed by classroom teachers as problematic behavior. As more students experience bullying, questions arise as to how well teachers understand the bullying dynamic and are aware of strategies for intervening when those…

Educational philosophers and sociologists have pointed out the potential risks of an educational trend of therapy, which seems to have connotations with Western macro-discourses of individualisation, popularised psychology and privatisation of the public room. The overall purpose of this article is to discuss potential risks and possibilities…

This study investigated the relationship between parental separation and aggressive and internalizing behavior in a large sample of Swiss children drawn from the ongoing Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths. Parents retrospectively reported life events and problem behavior for the first 7 years of the child's life on a…

Emerging evidence suggests that adolescent girls with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more socially impaired compared with their peers; however, research has yet to elucidate the nature of this impairment. We investigated overt (e.g., physical, such as hitting or kicking or verbal, such as teasing and taunting) and relational…

Various aspects of moral functioning, aggression, and positive peer regard were assessed in 153 preschool children. Our hypotheses were inspired by an evolutionary approach to morality that construes moral norms as tools of the social elite. Accordingly, children were also rated for social dominance and strategies for its attainment. We predicted…

Research Findings: Children's (n = 980) social competence during prekindergarten was assessed as a function of their teachers' (n = 233) exposure to the Preschool Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum and 2 levels of support through MyTeachingPartner, a Web-based approach to professional development. Children in classrooms…

VoiceThread is a website that allows users to create multimedia slideshows, or "threads," and then open these threads to other users for commentary or collaboration. This article shares the experiences of one multiage (3- to 5-year-olds) preschool classroom's use of VoiceThread. The purpose of the article is to introduce early childhood educators…

Webkinz World is a popular virtual world for elementary school-aged children, attracting millions of unique visitors per month. Despite its popularity, research has yet to explore how Webkinz World connects to children's emerging abilities or influences their cognitive and social development. Using in-depth observation and content analysis, this…

Early childhood educators know that home is a child's first learning environment. From birth, children are comforted by hearing and listening to their caregivers' voices. The language used by families supports young children's development of oral language skills. Exposure to print materials in the home also supports literacy development. Literacy…

We followed 74 children with autistic disorder (AD) and 39 children with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD NOS) for 17-38 years in a record linkage study. Rates of disability pension award, marital status, criminality and mortality were compared between groups. Disability pension award was the only outcome measure that…

This study evaluated the effects of the cool versus not cool procedure for teaching three children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder eight social skills. The cool versus not cool procedure is a social discrimination program used to increase children's ability to display appropriate social behaviors. In this study, the cool versus not cool…

Personal best goals (PB goals) articulate a target performance standard that matches or exceeds one's previous best. This study examined the role of PB goals in academic and social functioning. Alongside academic and social outcome measures, PB goal items were administered to 249 high-school students at the beginning and end of their school year.…