Examination of self-restraint in 99 adults with severe/profound mental retardation who exhibited self-injury found that 46% exhibited self-restraint. A higher occurrence of compulsive behaviors was found for subjects who engaged in self-injury and self-restraint. When self-restraint was prevented, subjects responded negatively. Results support a…

Three developmentally normal adolescents with chronic hair pulling were treated with a simplified habit-reversal procedure consisting of awareness training, competing response training, and parental social support. Treatment resulted in immediate reduction to near-zero levels of hair pulling with one to three booster sessions. Results were…

Examined development of inhibitory control using a stop-signal procedure with subjects ages 6 to 81 years. Found that the speed of stopping becomes faster with increasing age throughout childhood, with limited evidence of slowing across adulthood. The go-signal reaction time clearly increased through childhood and slowed markedly through…

Reviews theories of management and shows how they are interrelated. Highlights include environmental factors, such as behavioral settings; socio-technical systems that represent the interaction of people with tools and techniques; science, technology, and society (STS); self-control; performance improvements solutions; and action research. (LRW)

A study examined the effects of progressive relaxation training on the disruptive behaviors of a 12-year-old boy with autism. The participant acquired progressive relaxation skills, displayed more relaxed behavior after performing the procedures, and showed a decrease in the duration of his disruptive behavior upon completing progressive…

Emotion regulation has emerged as a popular topic, but there is doubt about its viability as a scientific construct. This article identifies conceptual and methodological challenges in this area of study and describes exemplar studies that provide a substantive basis for inferring emotion regulation. On the basis of those studies, 4 methods are…

Emotion regulation cannot be temporally distinguished from emotion in the brain, but activation patterns in prefrontal cortex appear to mediate cognitive control during emotion episodes. Frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) can tap cognitive control hypothetically mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex, and developmentalists have used these…

In error management training, participants are explicitly encouraged to make errors and learn from them. Error management training has frequently been shown to lead to better performance than conventional trainings that adopt an error avoidant approach. The present study investigated self-regulatory processes mediating this effect. Fifty-five…

Objective: The primary goal of this pilot study was to examine emotion management skills (i.e., emotional understanding, emotion regulation) in children who had experienced neglect and a control group to determine the ways that neglect may interfere with children's emotional development. Method: Participants included children 6-12 years of age and…

Utilizing a clinical sample, this study examined relations between adolescents' subjective distress over their emotional/behavioral problems, their perceptions of parental distress over these problems, and parents' reports of their own distress over their adolescents' behaviors. Additionally, adolescents' perceived control over these behaviors was…

A number of learning-based interventions for problem drinking have emphasized the importance of behavioral self-control skills to help manage responses to high-risk cues. Self-management interventions typically have been based on the premise that effective self-regulation involves the use of conscious, controlled strategies to override habitual…

Background: Individual differences in conduct problems arise in part from proneness to anger/frustration and poor self-regulation of behavior. However, the genetic and environmental etiology of these connections is not known. Method: Using a twin design, we examined genetic and environmental covariation underlying the well-documented correlations…

The importance of carefully planned transition programs for children commencing school has been advocated in the literature. These programs should be based on sound principles of transition and reflect the voices of parents, preschool and school staff, and children. A variety of practices exists, and children's participation in transition programs…

Research spanning the fields of social, developmental, and neuropsychology provides cogent and comprehensive evidence that experiences in the very early years of a child's life serve as a foundation for later academic performance, behavior, personality, and social skills. In recent years, researchers have begun to identify complex…

"Don't tell me no; I tell you no!" is a classic example of a frustrated mother reprimanding her toddler. Certainly, other parents and even teachers of young children experience and/or understand this sentiment as they pursue the slow process of teaching infants and toddlers self-control and self-regulation. This article illuminates how teachers…