Empathy has been suggested to facilitate effective collaborative problem solving in children. The current study adapted the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI, Davis, 1980), a well-validated empathy measure for adults, for use with children aged 8 and 9 years. Four hundred and thirteen school children aged between 7;11 and 9;11 years completed…

Past studies have identified a number of variables associated with children's perceptions of peers with or without disabilities, but tend to focus on few variables concurrently. Associations between multiple variables have not been explored in a comprehensive manner within one study. Thus, a principal components analysis was used to explore the…

It is assumed that students with EBD who have more severe deficits in academic, behavior, and/or social domains are placed in more restrictive settings. However, this assumption has not been empirically tested. This study compared students educated in self-contained classrooms to students educated in a self-contained school to determine if the…

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether naturalistic, interpersonal contact with persons with a severe mental illness (SMI) could reduce stigma. Participants from the agency Compeer (which pairs volunteers with people with SMI) were compared to volunteers from a control agency and to nonvolunteer participants from the community on…

In this study, the authors examined the construct validity of the Pervasive Developmental Disorder Rating Scale (PDDRS; R. C. Eaves, 1993), which is a screening instrument used to identify individuals with autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders. The PDDRS is purported to measure 3 factors--arousal, affect, and…

Emotional control has traditionally been emphasized in Chinese culture. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the relevance of early affect to social functioning in Chinese children. A sample of children, initially at two years of age, and their mothers in the People's Republic of China participated in this two-year longitudinal study.…

The range of effects of psychosocial interventions on quality of life among women with breast cancer remains uncertain. Furthermore, it is unclear which components of multimodal interventions account for such effects. To address these issues, the authors tested a 10-week group cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention among 199 women…

The present study examined relationships between leisure interests and the Big Five personality traits, positive and negative affect, and moods. Regression analysis identified particular personality but not mood or affect variables as significant predictors of leisure factor scores. Further exploration through factor analysis revealed factor…

The connection between out-of-school activities and school engagement was examined in 140, 6th through 9th grade African American adolescents. Youth's out-of-school activities were measured with a series of 7 nightly phone calls and focused on time in structured (homework, academically-oriented, extracurricular/sports) and unstructured (watching…

This investigation examined how cooperating teachers (CTs) influence the behaviors and quality of student teachers' (STs) reading instruction. Improving the reading achievement of early elementary students and enhancing teacher quality are two education reform priorities for Title I schools that have important implications for teacher education.…

Depression is an essential component in any consideration of emotional/behavioural difficulties in the schools. Depression can occur as a disorder or as a clinically significant array of depressive symptoms, both of which should be of concern to school personnel. The present paper reviews literature concerning the identification, prevalence, and…

In order to assess the effects of reform efforts to recruit more academically able teacher candidates over the previous decade, this study was designed to determine the relationships between selected personal attributes and the differences in the affective characteristics of a 1980's sample and a 1990's sample of teacher candidates. The subjects…

This study examined the interchange of emotional cues during interactions between parents and their popular or rejected children. Participants were 28 4- and 5-year-old preschool children and their parents. Children were selected as popular or unpopular using a sociometric nomination procedure conducted in their preschool or day care classroom.…

While human emotions are often considered instinctive, this paper examines the notion that indifference to events or circumstances which might seem to have a prima facie claim to emotional significance is related to the narrative construction of those events or circumstances in the life of the observer, and is not a result of absolute stimulus…

Resilience is the capacity of a person to do well facing difficult conditions in life. This implies capacities of resistance and of positive construction. Discovering the ways to contribute to resilience in children can begin with examination of resilient children. Research has suggested five interlinking bases for resilience: (1) social support…