Homophily, a term used to describe the tendency to associate with similar others, serves as a basis for attraction among children. The converse may also be true. Dissimilarity appears to contribute to dislike. In one of the only published studies to examine homophily and its converse, D. W. Nangle, C. A. Erdley, and J. A. Gold (1996) found that…

The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) are widely studied components of Gray's sensitivity to reinforcement model. There is growing interest in integrating the BAS and BIS into models of risk for psychopathology, however, few measures assess BAS and BIS functioning in children. We adapted a questionnaire…

Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is the process of identifying the events in the environment that consistently precede and follow challenging behavior. The use of FBA has increased significantly following the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997, which mandated FBAs be conducted when children with…

We used functional communication training to teach Bob, a 10-year-old student with autism and severe language delays, to reject items by touching an icon. Our initial assessment revealed that Bob's behaviours serving a rejecting function consisted of pushing away, yelling, bear hugging-grabbing, and leaving. We used prompting, differential…

Many programs serving troubled youth struggle with behavior management systems that are not focused on treatment and do not provide the skills needed by youth to transition back to their communities. Looking outside the boundaries of traditional point and level systems can be one way to eliminate these problems. This article describes the authors'…

Grounded in attribution theory, this investigation examined explanations students provide when college teachers misbehave, and the influence of perceived teacher immediacy shaping those interpretations. Across two different samples, college students responded to questionnaires assessing perceptions of their teachers' immediacy, teacher…

The current research is among the first to examine whether gender or the level of competitiveness affects a person's motivation to gamble. One hundred fifty two participants completed a scale to measure whether they were intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to gamble (Gambling Motivation Scale) and a scale to measure their level of…

This study focused on various treatments for addressing the classroom misbehavior of sleeping during class. The findings revealed that students found some methods of addressing this problem behavior by the instructor more acceptable than other methods of treating the behavior. College students rated the most acceptable instructor treatment for…

Using the principles of mental health and behavioral consultation, combined with concepts from positive psychology, this paper generates a new preventative model of school consultation. This model has two steps: (1) the school psychologist aids the teacher in the development and use of his/her personal positive psychology (e.g., optimism,…

There are many different reasons why children have problems paying attention. One child might be visually oversensitive and thereby distracted by bright sunlight coming in through a window or by too much color on a bulletin board. Another child, who is oversensitive to smells, might be distracted by the teacher's perfume or by the odor coming from…

This article deals with students hacking school computer systems. School districts are getting tough with students "hacking" into school computers to change grades, poke through files, or just pit their high-tech skills against district security. Dozens of students have been prosecuted recently under state laws on identity theft and unauthorized…

Physical educators are often frustrated when a student behaves in a way that compromises the learning environment for the entire group. Inappropriate behavior may vary from kicking a ball across the room rather than returning it under the net, to consistent wisecracking during class. When such behavior is limited to one or two students, individual…

Past research suggests that young children are incapable of reporting information about their own behavior problems. To test this, we examined the validity and the usefulness of children's self-reports in the E-Risk Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 2,232 children. We used the Berkeley Puppet Interview to obtain children's…

Why are some people successful with students although others have given up on them? This author believes it is because they have a strength-based focus and an optimistic perspective. These educators move "out of the problem and into the solution" by exhibiting eight behaviors of strength-based teachers.

This article is a description of a relationship-intensive intervention strategy for students with emotional and behavioral problems. This strategy has been used as a supplement to the point and level system to insure that all kids have positive experiences with staff and gain a sense of belonging. Students are selected by staff based on the belief…