Administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory to parents (N=342) of children seen for psychiatric services at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute during the 1970s. Results suggested a parent population in which mothers were suffering considerably more psychological distress or psychopathology than fathers during the 1975-79…

Ego-control and ego-resiliency were evaluated in seven assessments conducted when subjects were 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, and 18 years old. Ego-control refers to an individual's tendency to express or contain impulses, feelings, and desires. Ego-resiliency refers to the capacity to modify one's modal level of ego-control as a function of environmental…

Behavioral literature on childhood fears, including conceptual models, normative research, and fear-reduction studies is reviewed. (Author/MP)

This is a first step in the extension of a method usually used with individuals in the 17-70 age range to children 6-16 measuring psychological states on the basis of the content of small speech samples. Comparisons are made between children's and adult's scores, sex differences, and developmental trends. Results show that a larger populace must…

Survey of elementary and secondary school students showed an increase in depressive symptoms from the beginning to the end of adolescence. Girls demonstrated a higher level of depression, while boys became less depressed once they entered adolescence. Results demonstrated no fluctuation in global scores on irrationality as a function of age or…

Hope has been theorized to be a stable cognitive mindset that develops over time, as children experience success at meeting challenges and in conquering obstacles to their goals (Snyder et al, 1994). To determine the effects of children's violence exposure, both as victims and as witnesses, to children's hope, 99 children living in violent areas…

A 2x2x2 factorial design was utilized to investigate the effects of race of expressor (black and white), race of perceiver, and sex of perceiver on perception of emotion (POE) in children. Perception of four emotions (anger, happiness, surprise, and pain) was analyzed in terms of three scores as DV's: (1) overall accuracy scores, (2) correct…

This study sought to determine whether identification with a storybook hero is a function of physical status of hero and reader and whether friendship preference also is a function of physical status. Physically disabled and nondisabled four-to-seven-year-old children were randomly assigned to two storybook treatments. The control version depicted…

Assessed sleep patterns, sleep disruptions, and sleepiness of second-, fourth-, and sixth-graders. Found that older children had more delayed sleep onset times and increased reported daytime sleepiness than younger; girls spent more time in sleep than boys and had increased percentage of motionless sleep; and 18 percent of children had fragmented…

Argues that field research can provide evidence about the long-term socialization and developmental effects of media violence on viewer's behavior. Summarizes findings from a number of quasi-experimental studies about the effects of naturally occurring media violence. Concludes that these findings are often consistent with the hypothesis that…

Five studies, involving 70 male, 133 female, and 6 unknown adults, examine potential determinants of gender differences in helplessness of children by investigating 2 steps in the expectancy confirmation process: gender-based expectations, and proposed differential treatment for inadequate academic performance based on gender. (SLD)

Improving prognosis for many forms of childhood cancer has resulted in increased attention on the quality-of-life experience. Conditioned anxiety and pain associated with recurrent diagnostic and treatment procedures have been identified as major sources of distress in children with malignant disease. To evaluate the efficacy of various…

Estimates indicate that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been sexually abused as children. These statistics may be underestimated based on anecdotal information relayed by many therapists who specialize in working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Effects of childhood sexual abuse have far reaching implications for the survivors' abilities…