The author talks about graduation ceremonies getting out of hand, wherein graduates misbehave and act without proper decorum. Here, she presents the graduation ceremony at Plainfield High School as an example, when students bounced inflated condoms among their ranks. News of the resulting chaos was plastered in headlines in Chicago-area…

This case control study examined the relationship between psychopathological profiles and self reported suicide attempts among rural adolescents of China. Cases consisted of 142 adolescents who reported a suicide attempt in the past 6 months in a questionnaire survey (n = 1,365). An equal number of adolescents without reporting a suicide attempt,…

Childhood temperament and family environment have been shown to predict internalizing and externalizing behavior; however, less is known about how temperament and family environment interact to predict changes in problem behavior. We conducted latent growth curve modeling on a sample assessed at ages 5, 7, 10, 14, and 17 (N = 337). Externalizing…

The Circle of Courage identifies four universal needs of all children: Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity. When these needs are met, children grow and thrive. But when these growth needs are frustrated, multiple problems follow. The Circle of Courage defines problems of youth in terms of strengths and developmental needs. These…

Research shows that established emotional and behavioral problems predict chronic and pervasive troubles across the life span. Attempts to ameliorate children's emotional and behavioral problems have resulted in limited success. The failure to systematically elicit and include caregiver and teacher perspectives in effective interventions is…

This study explored how the histories of young people entering residential treatment in New York State varied depending upon the age and gender of the residents. Specifically, we asked whether children who were admitted to residential treatment centers (RTCs) under 12 years of age had a different set of characteristics than young persons who were…

Background: The purpose of the present study was to test a maternal attachment model of behavior problems in early childhood using phase I data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, a prospective study of 1,364 children from birth through sixth grade. Methods: Mothers' and caregivers' ratings of children's internalizing and externalizing…

In addition to cognitive disability, fragile X syndrome (FXS) is associated with behavioral problems that are often functionally limiting. There are few controlled trials to guide treatment; however, available information does suggest that medications can be quite helpful for a number of categories of behavioral disturbance in FXS. Specifically,…

Environmental restriction or deprivation early in development can induce social, cognitive, affective, and motor abnormalities similar to those associated with autism. Conversely, rearing animals in larger, more complex environments results in enhanced brain structure and function, including increased brain weight, dendritic branching,…

Due to the relatively late age of clinical diagnosis of autism, the early brain pathology of children with autism has remained largely unstudied. The increased use of retrospective measures such as head circumference, along with a surge of MRI studies of toddlers with autism, have opened a whole new area of research and discovery. Recent studies…

Very few existing empirical studies have explored the putative association between exposure to negative life events and psychological well-being in adults with developmental disabilities. In the present study, data on exposure to life events in the previous 12 months, adaptive behavior, problem behavior, and psychiatric problems were provided by…

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the associations between maternal depressive symptoms and perceptions of children's problems. One hundred and nineteen mother-child dyads were followed from the third trimester of pregnancy for almost 10 years. Depressive symptoms and background factors of the mothers and the anticipated/perceived…

The study examined the unique relationship between multiple dimensions of classroom behavioral adjustment problems and salient social-emotional competencies for urban Head Start children. These relationships were investigated using a hierarchical model that controlled for the variance in social-emotional outcomes attributed to age, gender, and…

Major physical illnesses usually have an impact on the psychological well-being of any individual. An illness of early onset, with necessity of frequent diagnostic and therapeutic interventions can adversely affect the emotional balance and behavioural adaptation of children and adolescents. This is applicable for congenital heart disease,…

This article explores psychometric characteristics of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), one of the most widely used instruments to assess the prevalence of violent and other high-risk behaviors in secondary school settings. Response patterns were analyzed for a subset of 414 youths who indicated that they had carried a weapon to…