The position paper of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders critically reviews objections to special education service for children with conduct disorders and concludes with a series of recommendations for improving the assessment and identification of all children with behavioral disorders. (DB)

The Supreme Court's ruling in a flag-burning case raises questions about whether antiharassment policies that colleges and universities have adopted, penalizing slurs and epithets used by students to harass others, violate the First Amendment to the Constitution. If public college policies were found unconstitutional, private colleges would not…

Content-analyzes prime time television to determine the frequency of certain contexts in which prosocial activity is portrayed. Finds that prime time television continues to portray a great deal of prosocial content presented in prosocial contexts. (RS)

A study of 77 sixth-graders indicated that sociomoral reasoning correlated with both socialized and unsocialized aggressive behaviors, but not with attention problems, anxiety-withdrawal, or motor tension without aggression. A relationship between maturity of sociomoral reasoning and self-reported antisocial behavior was found among boys only. (RH)

Investigates physical and verbal aggression among 396 children of 15-16 years. Boys were involved in peer-group fights more often than girls, and responded in an aggressive manner to fights between peers. Boys believed more often than girls that their peers considered physical aggression to be clever or smart. (RJC)

A survey of 324 members of the Association for Stammerers in Great Britain addressed the frequency of bullying, types of bullying, teacher/family awareness, intervention, and short- and long-term effects of bullying. Eighty-two percent of respondents reported being bullied at some period in their school lives, and the bullying was often related to…

Many behavioral characteristics found in the terrorist/hostage literature appear to have a parallel in the behavior of the abuser, including personality characteristics, circumstances around the violence, beliefs held, and similar defensive behavior adopted by the hostage and the abused child. These parallels indicate the need for different…

Questioned 2,291 American males to determine the proportion of men who assault only extrafamilial persons, are violent only toward their wives, and are violent in both spheres. Results suggest that 90 percent of violent males specialized in their choice of victims, choosing to assault only wives or nonfamily members, but not both. (RJM)

Examined relationship between welfare status and perceived financial stress and children's emotional and behavioral problems using data from National Survey of Children. Found that levels of depressive symptoms, impulsive behavior, and antisocial behavior were higher among children who experienced either type of economic stress at least once…

Examined parenting practices of recently divorced mothers toward their elementary aged sons. Found that socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers had less effective discipline, and their sons were at greater risk for antisocial behavior problems. With older boys, mothers with antisocial qualities placed their sons at risk for antisocial behavior…

Findings from 209 recently divorced women suggest two routes to poor adjustment among single parents. First consists of ramifications of inadequate resources, whereas second involves consequences of antisocial orientation. Single mothers with little education had low access to social network support and those under severe economic pressure…

Examined relationships between negative social behaviors and social activity participation to self-reported drinking and driving behaviors of adolescents. Results from 6,868 adolescents showed negative social behaviors and social activity participation were critical precursors to drinking and driving problem among adolescents. (Author/NB)

Teachers are rarely prepared for violence, and their idealism may undermine credibility and lead to disillusionment. Reality, therefore, must inform theory to equip educators with action-based solutions. Teachers need adequate preparation on handling students who bring weapons to school. The paper presents principles to ponder regarding school…

The father of the communitarian movement presents a Character Education Inventory that gives specific guidance on how to build character education into a school setting. Schools must continually take inventory of their own actions to ensure that what they are doing matches what they are instructing children to do. The inventory should include…

An exclusionary clause in the Education for All Handicapped Children Act prohibits special-education services for "socially maladjusted or disaffected" children. Ingrained in public-education culture, this policy undermines educators' efforts to address the needs of students with evolving personality and character disorders.…