Emotional regulation is the ability to understand emotions and develop strategies to modulate them. Regulating emotions is important for children because it enables them to focus their attention, approach and learn in new situations, and form lasting and sincere friendships. Emotional regulation contributes to success in the classroom, with one's…

Research on moral behavior in children is sorely lacking in the behavioral literature. Yet, behavioral research documenting effective treatment of children with behavioral and emotional problems has often failed to generalize or to focus on moral behavior. Developmental psychologists have researched moral behavior and have provided models of moral…

This article reviews current literature examining associations between components of the family context and children and adolescents' emotion regulation (ER). The review is organized around a tripartite model of familial influence. Firstly, it is posited that children learn about ER through observational learning, modeling and social referencing.…

This article describes the successful application of the Coping Power program by school-based clinicians to address a 10-year-old girl's disruptive behavior symptoms. Coping Power is an empirically supported cognitive-behavioral program for children at risk for serious conduct problems and their parents. The following case study illustrates the…

This study aimed to identify aggression patterns among students, compare teachers' and students' reports on aggressiveness, and examine whether emotional and behavioral problems and self-control intercorrelate with aggression and can explain it among students. The study investigated 363 students aged 8 to 11 years and their 12 homeroom teachers in…

Although major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with suicidal behaviors, some depressed individuals are not suicidal and others evidence various forms of suicidality. We thus investigated whether aspects of temperament and self-regulation of dysphoria represent risk factors for DSM-IV suicidality (recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent…

Debating whether or not teachers should teach values addresses the wrong question. Education already is a values-infused enterprise. The larger question is how to train teachers for positive character formation. Two teacher education strategies are presented in this article. A "minimalist" strategy requires teacher educators to make explicit the…

The 12 steps of the well-known mutual help group, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), begin with Step One, admitting powerlessness. Although Step One has helped many problem drinkers and other addicts, its spiritual concepts have been criticized. The possibility of reconceptualizing powerlessness as empowering, not only within AA and its offshoot programs,…

This study investigated the relations between different measurements of 33 4-year-olds' compliance and self-control and the relation between the children's cognitive ability and compliance and self-control. The four compliance ratings involved the child's behavior with mother and father in separate puzzle tasks, free play in the child care…

Three approaches (other than behavioral) for the management of behavior problems in special education are described. Values clarification (attributed to S. G. Simon) is described as a preventative approach emphasizing the student's role in managing him- or herself. Proponents of this approach view many behavior problems as arising from the absence…

Several dimensions of impulse control (i.e., delay of gratification, reflectivity, and motor control) were related to intelligence, mental status, and adjustment among 91 institutionalized aged women. The findings suggest that impulse control in its various forms has a consistent and significant relationship with indices of adaptation. (Author)

This study examined a group of white middle class adolescents from a high school where there exists a significant sub-group who engages in activities whose purpose is to reform society and protest what they see as social or moral injustices. (Author/RK)

Study suggests that findings relating locus of control to adjustment and self-concept among nondrug users are valid for narcotics users as well. Results imply that locus of control in drug users is not a function of the length of drug use or age of the user. (Author/PC)

Males and females from community and university samples were assigned to two self-management treatments, nonspecific, or no-treatment controls. At six month follow-up, differences were not significant. Results are discussed in terms of conceptualizations of self-management and the utility of treatments employed. (Author)