Emotion knowledge has not been explored in children with cerebral palsy (CP). To evaluate differences in emotion knowledge between children with CP and their typically developing peers (TDP), and explore its associations with affective regulation and behavioral psychopathology. 36 Children with CP and 45 TDP completed the Emotion Matching Task…

Agreement among informants' ratings of children's and adults' internalizing and externalizing problems is moderate. Each informant contributes unique information about an individual's problems. Thus, it has been advocated to obtain ratings from multiple sources in child psychiatry, whereas adult psychiatry relies mostly on self-reports.…

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to test the premise that children's effortful control (EC) is prospectively related to their academic achievement and to specify mechanisms through which EC is related to academic success. We used data from 214 children (M age at Time 1 [T1] = 73 months) to test whether social functioning (e.g.,…

The relationship between complexity and usefulness can be captured by a U-shaped curve. This comment explores that relationship. Complexity may be useful for one of the main aims of developmental psychology (causal inference) but not for another (description of developmental phenomena). Currently, developmentalists conduct complex analyses that…

Prevalence rates of behavioral problems in children with motor disabilities are commonly based on questionnaires developed for a general population (e.g., Child Behavior CheckList). These questionnaires do not take into account lower levels of intellectual functioning. The first aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of parent-reported…

The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/6-18) is a widely used parent-report measure of youth internalizing and externalizing problems. Accumulating evidence, however, suggests that the CBCL may not adequately assess clinical problems in diverse populations. We investigated the measurement equivalence (ME) of the CBCL in an African American adolescent…

Objective: To support ongoing monitoring of child response during treatment, we sought to develop a brief, easily administered, clinically relevant, and psychometrically sound measure. Method: We first developed child and caregiver forms of a 12-item Brief Problem Checklist (BPC) interview by applying item response theory and factor analysis to…

This study examined the relationship between attention problems and expressive language and academic readiness skills in preschool-aged children from middle-class families. Forty-three children (44% female) were assessed individually for expressive language skills and knowledge of basic academic concepts (e.g. colours, letters and numbers). The…

The present study examined associations between the quality of teacher-child relationships and behavior problems among elementary school students using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a study of 1,364 children from birth through adolescence. There were two main findings. First, high-quality teacher-child…

Utilizing a developmental-ecological framework, the purpose of this study was to understand the unique impact of multiple maternal risks across time on ethnically diverse, low-income, preschool children's cognitive skills, pro-social behaviors, and behavior problems. Additionally, this study sought to understand the variability of maternal risks…

Standardized rating scales remain the primary mechanism through which child behaviors are recorded. Despite the many advantages of such systems, the documented lack of agreement among different informants' ratings of the same child remains a pervasive problem for clinicians. This study examines the degree to which observed behavior ratings were…

A growing body of evidence indicates that for some children, early incidences of challenging behaviors are predictors of later difficulties. These incidences of challenging behaviors may predict mental health issues, social adjustment issues and/or increased challenging behaviors that will impede school success and impact transition to adult life…

Proximal environmental variables illustrate aspects of the environment that are experienced directly and specifically by the child. The current study examined the associations between three proximal environmental variables: (1) quality of the home environment, (2) regularity of family routines and (3) frequency of parenting daily hassles and…

The present study used an ecological framework to examine the relationships among adolescents' perceptions of school climate, social competence, and behavioral and psychological adjustment in the middle school years. This study improved upon prior studies by using "structural equation modeling" to investigate the hypothesized mediating…

Studies in Hong Kong indicated that there is a tendency for young children to use internalizing as a means to cope with their daily difficulties. Mother-child relationship has been seen as a factor affecting a child's adaptive coping skills. In this study, we explored the prevalence of internalizing problems among primary school children in Hong…