Investigates the extent to which attitudes, family, and environmental correlates are associated with the escalation from nonviolent to violent offending among incarcerated youths. Beliefs that power equates safety and a violent home environment were salient in understanding escalation in offending behavior, and prior criminal victimization was…

Identifies difficult patron issues in academic libraries from the librarians' perspectives and offers solutions to try and prevent them from becoming problems. Topics include labeling academic library users; eliminating sources of conflict between faculty and library staff; and conflicts between students and library staff. (Author/LRW)

Investigates sources of variation in parents' assessment of parental stress and the effects of early institutionalization. Participants included 109 mother-father pairs who adopted children from Eastern Europe. Significant differences between mothers and fathers were obtained on child- and parent-related stress. Results indicated that children's…

Describes a nine-month study conducted in an urban middle school to attempt to reduce the level of aggression of a small group of seventh graders by assigning them a positive role as mediators to fifth- and sixth-grade disputants. Pretest and posttest measures of self-concept and teacher's perception of problem behavior showed dramatic…

Frustrated by her ninth graders' misbehavior with a substitute teacher, a high school English teacher shelved her recriminations and engaged miscreants in a problem-solving exercise examining the incident. Establishing a protocol to talk about problems openly, without fear of retribution, made a big difference. Boys admitted to some poor choices;…

Coping strategies used by 84 sexually abused children ages 7-12 were evaluated along with related symptoms and factors. Avoidance behavior was associated with fewer behavioral problems but greater sexual anxiety. Internalization was associated with increased guilt, and active/social coping was associated with no symptoms or benefits. Expressive…

A survey was conducted to catalog the assessments used by 125 practitioners to evaluate the problem behaviors displayed by clients with mental retardation. Results indicate most practitioners rated functional assessment procedures as extremely or very useful. Findings are discussed with emphasis on the difficulties in conducting functional…

A study examined 391 adult referrals to a mental health clinic serving individuals with mental retardation to explore the relationship between referral source and referral reason. Externalizing behaviors were found to be the most common referral reason; however, referral reason did vary as a function of referral source. (Author/CR)

For pairs of full siblings, half-siblings, and cousins, analyzed maternal ratings of children's behavior problems at three times between ages 4 and 10. Found that nonshared environmental influences were substantial at each age but did not contribute to continuities in children's problem behaviors. Results favor a liability model that relates…

Describes a physical education program for troubled youth attending an adolescent treatment center which promotes physically and psychologically safe, fair and flexible participation, with students encouraged to play just for fun and lack of competence considered an opportunity to learn. The paper incorporates the "Circle of Courage" to…

Children growing up in households where aggression, physical abuse and other antisocial acts are the norm often act out in school. Rather than treating these children simply as troublemakers, it is imperative to get to the root of the problem and help them deal with their anger appropriately. (GCP)

This paper examines predictors of attendance at parenting workshops. Variables that were considered as predictors of parent attendance include social demographic characteristics, parent characteristics, and child characteristics. Parent education and parent's perception of their child's antisocial behavior both had positive and statistically…

Teachers in three day care programs completed temperament questionnaires and behavior problem checklists for 133 preschoolers. Results indicated that correlations between temperament and behavior problem variables were generally higher for boys than for girls. (BG)

The article describes a participant observation study with two kindergarten classes which focused on explaining child behavior in terms of its context. Case studies of three children illustrate alternative interpretations of behavior problems when seen from the point of view of the child or a nonauthoritarian adult "child's aide." (DB)

Abusive, potentially abusive, and control group parents (N=62) were presented with vignettes describing a child with either mild or severe behavior problems and asked to rate the acceptability of four discipline procedures (positive reinforcement, timeout, timeout with spanking, and spanking). Overall, parents rated positive reinforcement as more…