The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program (HS) is designed to provide support for new parents through the pediatrician's office. We present findings of the effect of HS on the quality of mother-child interaction, security of attachment, and child behavior using observational data from two of the HS sites that utilized a randomized treatment…

Little research has been published on tattling, even less on its social impact, and we found none directly investigating tattling by adolescents. This study assessed the extent to which tattling, as perceived by peers and caregivers of adolescents in a residential care program, was associated with various dimensions of social status and other…

Emotional and behavioral problems of students in the classroom have been rated as a major concern for teachers, administrators, and the public (Hardman & Smith, 2003; Macciomei, 1999). Without effective behavior management, a positive and productive classroom environment is impossible to achieve. The most effective model for producing behavior…

This study examined the stability and continuity of early-identified behavior problems and the factors associated with this stability. Children and their mothers (N=125) were seen when the children were 2 and 4 years of age. Maternal reports of child externalizing behavior and laboratory observations of child noncompliance were stable from age 2…

Functional analysis methodology is an assessment strategy that identifies sources of reinforcement that maintain problem behavior and prescribes individualized interventions that directly alter the conditions under which behavior occurs. In this article we describe the environmental determinants of problem behavior, methods for conducting…

In the present study the neuropsychological, academic and social-emotional profiles were examined in Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) children. Subjects: 17 NF1 children (ages 7-11) with NF1 without serious medical problems and with a full scale IQ (FSIQ) above 70. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), academic tests and an…

Since many problem behaviors of individuals with mental retardation are maintained by multiple functions, this project developed the Functional Assessment for multiple CausaliTy (FACT), an informant-based, forced-choice measure designed to identify the most prominent function associated with the occurrence of problem behaviors. This paper…

Fragile X syndrome is the most common heritable form of mental retardation caused by loss-of-function mutations in the "FMR1" gene. The "FMR1" gene encodes an RNA-binding protein that associates with translating ribosomes and acts as a negative translational regulator. Recent work in "Drosophila melanogaster" has shown that the fly homolog of…

Different genetic disorders predispose individuals to display specific, etiology-related profiles, personalities, and maladaptive behaviors. Using groups with genetic etiologies as stand-ins or proxies for a specific behavior or set of behaviors, one can then examine how others in the child's environment react and whether such reactions are…

Although functional behavior assessment (FBA) has been widely recognized as a promising practice for providing proactive interventions with students exhibiting challenging behaviors in typical schools, questions persist as to how FBA should best be trained and used in such public settings. Debate has balanced the issue of what is practical for…

Dextromethorphan is the d-isomer of levorphenol, and an ingredient in antitussive preparations. A 10 year-old male diagnosed with Autistic Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder was administered this medication initially to treat a medical condition. This became a quasi-experimental ABAB design (A = baseline,…

The purpose of this study was to determine if specific classroom antecedents were associated with motor and vocal tics in two males diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome. A functional assessment consisting of teacher and student interviews, direct observations, brief functional analysis, and confirmatory naturalistic observations indicated that…

Since the re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 functional assessment has become popular in designing interventions for people with challenging behaviour. The purpose of this study was to assess the applications of functional and structural analysis in the assessment of problem behaviour. The study analysed…

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate a methodology for analyzing the interactive effects of two different antecedent variables on child noncompliance in an outpatient clinic. Phase 1 of this study consisted of antecedent manipulations to identify situations that occasioned problematic behaviors (i.e., presence or absence of the…

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…