Third-grade children with high or low social and academic self-concepts that were either consistent with or discrepant from external indices of social and academic competence were contrasted on a variety of measures using multiple assessment methods. Findings suggest the relation between self-concept and adjustment might be explained by the…

This article surveys the past 35 years of social interaction research relating to autism. Ways in which understanding social deficits in autism has influenced attempts to analyze and ameliorate problem behaviors are discussed, and emerging concepts relating to social interaction are examined, including the importance of maintaining social…

Implemented a comprehensive, school-based instructional and social-competency-promotion program to prevent problem behavior in a middle school. Evaluation of the five-year program showed that it was ineffective, with no dependable results on youth behavior. Discusses implications of these findings. (SLD)

A study analyzed whether obsessive behavior could be used functionally as the theme of an appropriate social game and whether the game would increase social interactions between three children (ages 5-8) with autism and their peers. Results indicated that after being taught a socially appropriate game, social interactions increased dramatically.…

A study investigated whether an academic or a social skills intervention would be more effective in increasing academic performance and social competence and in decreasing problem behavior of 53 first-graders. Academic, social, and behavioral outcomes measures were examined. None of the interaction terms was significant for any dependent variables…

The aim of this study was to investigate the toddler and preschool predictors of early peer social preference. Behavioral and social functioning were examined in a sample of children across the toddler and preschool years from parent and teacher observations. Kindergarten social behavior and peer social preference were assessed in the children's…

Accurate descriptions of sex differences in the development of childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency will inform theories of their causes in fundamentally important ways. Using data on 4,572 offspring of a national sample of women, we tested descriptive hypotheses regarding sex differences. As predicted, the magnitude of sex…

Conscientious educators grapple with the challenge of teaching all students, including emotionally troubled, high risk students. The general expectation is that teachers should know how to reach and teach every student--even the most irritating and obstinate child. To do that, teachers must be able to identify basic psychological factors of…

Many challenging behaviors can be prevented by designing environments that promote children's engagement and teaching children new social skills (Lawry, Danko, & Strain, 1999; Neilsen, Olive, Donovan, & McEvoy, 1999; Strain & Hemmeter, 1999). Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph, and Strain (2003) have described a framework for promoting children's…

There is little research regarding interventions for children with internalizing behaviors in schools, both within classrooms and in nonclassroom environments. In response to this need, a nonclassroom treatment package, consisting of (a) social skills instruction, (b) mediated self-management, and (c) a reinforcement system, was implemented to…

The assessment of children's social skills is an important task for school psychologists in both applied and research settings. The present study examines the psychometric properties of parent ratings of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), in kindergarten through third grades, testing for measurement differences between boys and girls, between…

Analysis of the relationships between teachers' ratings of children's behavior and an index of teacher-pupil compatibility objectively demonstrated a significant relationship between behaviors representative of serious psychopathology and teacher-pupil compatibility. This study provides inferential support for the contention that school behavior…

The effectiveness of using earliest school recollections as a diagnostic device for classifying different types of gifted and talented students with social adjustment problems at school was evaluated. Significant agreement was found between classification on the basis of earliest recollections and classification on the basis of observable behavior…

The validity of using self report to assess competence on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales was investigated with 16 mentally retarded adults. Self report and informant report showed close agreement for both daily living skills and socialization. Higher functioning subjects provided more information regarding problem behaviors than did their…

Teacher ratings of 94 learning disabled and 241 normal girls, grouped as three age levels, on school emotional and behavior problems revealed that personality problem (e.g., anxiety, withdrawal) was the only factor dimension that differentiated LD from non-LD girls, and these differences were not apparent at every age level. (Author/CL)