Method effects as a source of construct invalidity were evaluated for parent, teacher, and child ratings of problem behaviors among 489 children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. Multitrait multimethod analysis indicated large method effects for each rater. Such effects may be measurement artifact, situational differences, or…

Discusses symptoms of posttraumatic stress in children. Presents a case study, then lists nine common symptoms with brief commentary on each. Discusses how adult caregivers can have a profound effect in helping to bring stability, predictability, and peace back to the life of a traumatized child. (ET)

Teachers in a mainstream elementary school setting initiated a program called "Circle of Friends," to provide support for a student with deafness and behavior problems and for other students having difficulty making friends. Learning activities involved interpreting the term "friend," helping students get to know each other, celebrating their…

The teacher of a second-grade gifted girl with disruptive classroom behaviors worked to modify the girl's behavior and to develop a cooperative relationship with the girl's mother despite early friction. Efforts included strengthening home-school communication, having the mother secretly observe the girl's behavior problems, and rewarding both the…

Ruben Perez, former assistant principal at Horace Mann Middle School in North Denver, achieved folk-hero status when he suspended 97 disruptive students on a single day. The school board reprimanded Perez for deviating from district discipline policy and transferred him to another middle school. Supported by disgruntled teachers, Perez is suing…

This study investigated behavior problems in 66 school-aged physically abused, neglected, and control group children in the Basque Country, Spain. Abused and neglected children had higher subscale scores for social problems, delinquent behavior, and attention problems and showed lower school adjustment. Neglected children appeared more aggressive,…

Associations between major or minor offending and developmental factors, family characteristics, environmental characteristics, and problem behaviors and symptoms were examined with 180 youth having severe emotional disturbance. Minor offending was associated with increasing age and parental incarceration. Major offending was associated with…

Assessed child behavior, maternal depression, and family socioeconomic status and observed mother-child interactions for 376 first graders and their mothers. Found that the quality of mother-child interactions mediated the relationship between maternal depression and child behavior problems for boys, girls, and Caucasians but not for African…

Three groups of Canadian secondary school students ("high risk" or "high achievers" junior high students and training school students) completed the Jesness Inventory, developed to study delinquency. The high-risk students' scores were more similar to the training school students' scores than to the high achievers', except on…

Schools must increasingly deal with children who brandish weapons and exhibit antisocial or violent behavior. Psychologists agree that young children are very susceptible to violence and that stored violent images can warp their interpretation of reality. To combat youth violence, many schools have adopted antiviolence curricula and conflict…

Four studies analyzed eye poking behavior of a youth with profound disabilities. Results demonstrated substantive reductions in the frequency of eye poking when goggles were worn and when a video game was provided as a competing source of visual stimulation and as a reinforcer. Music was less effective in reducing eye poking. (Author/DB)

A urine alarm, typically used to treat nocturnal enuresis, was effectively used to treat diurnal enuresis in a 15-year-old female with depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder. The study indicated that the alarm eliminated wetting in both treatment phases and that continence was maintained at three-month and…

This comment on an article by A. J. Cooper rejects the suggestion that a mentally retarded youth's playing of a "sexual game" with a child may be innocuous. Cooper reaffirms that such "sex offending" is usually merely a crude attempt to fulfill normal sexual impulses in the context of poor adaptive behavior skills, sexual naivety, and social…

Mothers' and fathers' subjective distress and self-restraint when their sons were preadolescents were related to 14 measures of sons' outcomes 4 years later. Subjects were 82 adolescent boys. Sons of fathers prone to low self-restraint were uniformly found to have subsequent difficulties across domains, including poor academic achievement, poor…

This study assessed patterns of parental responding to five children (ages four through seven) whose principal problem was noncompliance. Assessment data on parental error response patterns formed the basis for individualized instruction of parents. Results indicated the parent-instruction training procedure was effective in creating appropriate…