Due to changes in society, it is not uncommon to hear of very young children being expelled from their host preschool settings due to their out of control behavior. The destructive impact of negative societal influences outside school are now spilling over into the school setting and are increasingly being registered in conflicts between teachers…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field of autism research. The "Summary of Advances" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles nominated by…

When we measure social competence, the scores indicate that a person can become better and better just as in other school subjects such as history or geography. In general, these scores also give an actual picture of the status and/or progress of the person's social competence. However, it might be preferable to portray many of the dimensions of…

A child and adolescent psychiatrist describes the dyadic nature of family conflict and provides practical strategies for preventing and managing interpersonal aggression. When parents ignore basic needs such as sleep, hunger, hydration, safety, and security, their children are likely to display qualities like hyperactivity, hypervigilance. and…

School psychology in Singapore gained greater prominence with the development of the National Mental Health Blueprint in 2007 that included a focus on children and adolescents. A partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education was formed to develop a community mental health pilot program called 'Response, Early…

Bullying continues to be a pervasive problem in schools and requires a schoolwide approach. This article describes the action research process used to examine the impact of a 4-year, K-5 school bullying prevention and intervention. The school counselors collaborated with students, staff, and parents to implement the program, and collected and…

Despite the expansion of bully-proofing programs in recent years, many teachers feel they lack the training necessary to manage the complexities of friendship at work in the classroom and on the playground. Teachers want their students to be friends and to be kind to each other. The reality is, all children have moments in which they are unkind.…

There is a need for proactive support and early intervention to meet the needs of behaviorally at-risk students. There is limited opportunity to intervene with effective results, given that stability of antisocial behavior increases dramatically over time. Moreover, if antisocial behavior patterns are not addressed early on, these children tend to…

The problem of youth violence has become a national priority given both the cost and repercussions to youth, to the school systems, and to society. Over the past two decades there has been increasing research examining gender differences in the expression of aggression. This research has suggested that boys typically display their aggression…

The development, implementation, and evaluation of anger management programs have proliferated over the past decade. The programs aim to moderate the intensity, frequency, and severity of anger expression, and facilitate alternative nonaggressive responses to conflict and frustration. Cognitive-behavioral theory highlights cognitive processes such…

Aggression Replacement Training[R] (ART) is a psychoeducational approach to working with young people who experience difficulties with interpersonal relationships and prosocial behavior. ART[R] originated with Skillstreaming and developed into a three-component model. Arnold P. Goldstein recognized that the complex problems of youth would not…

Sibling conflict can rise to the level of a clinical problem. In Phase 1 a lengthy behavioral role-play analog sampling child reactions to normal sibling conflicts was successfully shortened. In Phase 2 normal children who lacked sibling conflict resolution skills were randomly assigned to a Training or Measurement Only condition. Training…

This column explores bullying from the viewpoints of the bully and the victim. It recommends an approach that goes beyond immediate follow-up to a broad-based effort that includes holding class meetings, building an encouraging classroom, and modeling inclusive group spirit. The authors cite research and illustrate their view through vignettes.…

We discuss how the five core competencies for healthy adjustment in adolescence (a positive sense of self, self-control, decision-making skills, a moral system of belief, and prosocial connectedness) are represented in theories of aggression and youth violence. We then discuss research supporting the relation between these core competencies and…

Adolescent sexual risk-taking behavior has numerous individual, family, community, and societal consequences. In an effort to contribute to the research and propose new directions, this chapter applies the core competencies framework to the prevention of high-risk sexual behavior. It describes the magnitude of the problem, summarizes explanatory…