This report identifies and analyzes five strengths of black families: adaptability roles, strong kinship bonds, strong work orientation, strong religious orientation, and achievement orientation. These five characteristics have been functional for the survival, advancement, and stability of black families. Most discussions of black families tend…

Follow-up study of mildly mentally retarded adults (N=40) hospitalized as adolescents for psychiatric disorders 10 years earlier rated 30 percent as having "fair to good" vocational and social adjustment; 42.5 percent indicated "marginal" adjustment. These ratings were poorer than those found for mentally retarded individuals without psychiatric…

Teachers can help lessen their students' frustrations, make classroom time more productive, and prevent behavioral and learning problems by providing students with information and skills with which to make informed, positive, and independent choices regarding their emotional, social, physical, and mental well-being. This resource for teachers…

Data were collected on children's (N=80) sex, race, stanine score on achievement tests, and pretest performance in order to determine the differential effects of the Project AWARE. Findings indicated that children involved in the program achieved greater personal adjustment and accepted responsibility for negative outcomes in social situations.…

Describes the organizational, managerial and instructional characteristics of an urban school that worked effectively with problem students. Examined and discussed are the specific practices, procedures, programs, and behavioral patterns implemented by the school as well as results. (Author/JLF)

Developed measures of relational aggression for young children. Found that relational aggression appears at young ages and can be distinguished from overt aggression. Preschool girls are more relationally and less overtly aggressive than boys. Relational aggression is related to social-psychological maladjustment. (Author/KB)

Rates of change in behaviors in relation to community adjustment were examined for 292 participants in the 7-year longitudinal National Adolescent and Child Treatment Study (NACTS) as they transitioned to the adult world. Participants with initially higher social-adaptive behavior and whose behavior improved over time attained higher adjustment…

Compared the competence and self-esteem of 136 Australian primary school-aged children from different single-parent residency arrangements to those of a matched sample of two-parent children. Found that overall, single-parent children were not significantly different from two-parent children in competence levels and self-esteem. Found subtle…

Explains an intervention project which was initiated in response to the apparently increasing alienation of youth from traditional social organizations, their preoccupation with self and their diminishing concern for the welfare of others. Describes this longitudinal field experiment relative to background, research design, variables measured,…

Measures of 4traits (cognitive competence, social competence, social maladaption, and personal maladaption) were obtained on 157 persons with mental retardation, using 3 measurements: standardized assessment instrument, day shift staff ratings, and evening shift staff ratings. The multitrait-multimethod matrix procedure demonstrated strong…

This response to Maag and Howell (EC 602 677) stresses that the prevention and treatment of students' emotional and behavioral problems requires system restructuring, a change of values, and such coercive change techniques as a revised, more inclusive, federal definition of emotional and behavioral disorders. (DB)

Issues related to the exclusion of students considered socially maladjusted from consideration in Public Law 94-142 are discussed in light of current research evidence and school practices. A broader, more inclusive perspective is advocated, including early intervention and special education for such at-risk pupils. (Author/PB)

Urban secondary school students (n=1,064) were administered the Dean Alienation Scale to determine differences in feelings of alienation among African Americans, Caucasians, and Latinos, as well as sex and age differences. Higher levels of alienation reported by African Americans and Latinos and by males in all ethnic groups are discussed as a…

This study examined the impact of parental involvement on four outcomes for 28 young children with hearing loss. Although parental involvement was a significant positive predictor of early reading skills, maternal communication skill and the child's degree of hearing loss were more significant predictors for positive language and academic…

Assessed 8-year-olds' perceptions of emotional support from mother and best friend. Found that preschool attachment security predicted age-8 maternal-support perceptions better than did mother's behavior. Identification of best friends as part of the support network related positively to social competence. The more insecurely attached children…