According to coercion theory (Patterson, 1982, 2016), children's aggression is developed and maintained through transactional processes between parents and their children that unfold over time. The theory provides a model of the behavioral contingencies that explain how parents and children mutually "train" each other to behave in ways…

Questions that challenge the curriculum can put educators on the defensive. Lauren Porosoff discusses helpful ways that educators can be proactive about creating productive and meaningful conversations with parents and community members about curriculum choices and the reasons behind them.

Developmental processes are embedded in social contexts, such as with family members. Adolescent development involves significant reorganization of the parent-adolescent relationship, which is fundamental to the continued psychosocial development of both the adolescent and the parent. In this article, we introduce the model of parent-adolescent…

Many children, especially those from lower-income families, face considerable instability early in their lives. This may include changes in family structure, irregular family routines, frequent moves, fluctuating daycare arrangements, and noisy, crowded, or generally chaotic environments. Moreover, instability and chaos affect young children's…

The aim of this theoretical paper is to think about the emotional link that a mother establishes with her sick and disabled child as a creation of an artwork of care, which involves a process of comprehending and transforming the feelings of guilt, rejection, shame, pain and uncertainty regarding the presence of that child. In addition, the art…

Teachers navigated a vast set of challenges during the 2019-20 school year when a pandemic shut down school and changed the face of classrooms. The challenges that emerged during this time were heaped upon the already full plates of the novice teachers featured in this study who were just gaining confidence in the classroom. This article…

While grief is often perceived as an individual phenomenon, the grievers' family context before and after the death of a family member is always a stage set of their grief reactions. Operating from both meaning reconstruction and systemic perspectives, two case vignettes illustrate how the mourners' grief and adaptation were not only shaped by who…

The authors believe it's important to help gifted children recognize the emotions they experience. When gifted children are able to identify their emotions, they can ultimately gain control and regulate them. However, it's not always easy for children to identify or label how they are feeling on their own. They may need guidance to understand…

The teenage years can be difficult, filled with questions, emotions, and decisions. For high-achieving adolescents who may experience asynchronous development or experience the world more intensely, these years can bring about intense emotions, feelings of isolation, or difficulty understanding the injustices of the world. Parents, may try to…

Our commentary highlights the authors' conceptual and empirical contributions for understanding the incidence and dynamics of varying types of adoption breakdowns and their impact on adopted youth and their families. Important distinctions are made between legal, residential, and psychological/relational permanence for children. To date, most…

Told through the lens of Malawi customs, culture, and taboos, the authors describe the life experiences and mental health needs of Pilirani, a young Malawi Slay Queen, and her children. The article reveals the adversities she faced, her dreams for her children, how she and her children fared, and what helped them at various junctures in their…

Children and adolescents who experience parental incarceration are faced with significant challenges. Additionally, parental incarceration disproportionally affects African American families and families in urban settings. Due to institutional, economic, and social barriers, access to community mental health services for these affected children…

Considerable research has been published on society's expectations and attitudes toward females. Men think the most important qualities in the ideal woman are attractiveness, sexiness, and kindness. The media suggests females should value physical beauty and marriageability. Girls should be obedient, caring, pretty, and polite. These unreasonable…

Trying to jump in and fix everything when our children tell us that they have been mistreated by a friend, classmate, or teacher is an understandable response, but this tactic will not capture what children need in that moment. When children let their parent know that they are in pain or have been wronged, a parent's job is to acknowledge that…

The feeling of anxiety, boredom, and apathy is more prevalent in school than in the family or in the company of good friends (Olah, 1999). Positive psychology says that learning could be joyful and stress-free in schools. Seligman (2009) pointed out, that "well-being should be taught in school, even in three areas: to counterpoint depression,…