The display of antisocial behavior by children and youths in America is recognized as one of the most pressing concerns facing educators today. To meet the educational needs of these students while maintaining safe school environments, school districts across the nation have increasingly looked toward alternative educational programs.…

The aim of the present study was to make a 16-year follow-up of children of psychosocial risk mothers as concerns emotional/behavioural problems, self-esteem, life events, and academic grades. Forty-three teenagers (index group) and 61 reference teenagers were personally interviewed and asked to answer the Youth Self-report (YSR), the Self-image…

Objective: To study familial and nonfamilial environmental influences on attention problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in monozygotic twins discordant and concordant-high and low for these traits. Method: Ninety-five twin pairs from The Netherlands Twin Register were selected. Longitudinal survey data were collected at 1,…

A 24-item short form of the 96-item Developmental Behaviour Checklist was developed to provide a brief measure of Total Behaviour Problem Score for research purposes. The short form Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC-P24) was chosen for low bias and high precision from among 100 randomly selected item sets. The DBC-P24 was developed from…

Successful music education programs pay special attention to the national standard components and are generally able to service at-risk students with music classes that, when consistently attended, serve as venues for building self-esteem and social skills as well as improving behavior. However, not all at-risk students receive music instruction.…

The Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is examining the characteristics of children receiving preschool special education, the services they receive, their transitions across educational levels, and their performance over time on assessments of academic and adaptive skills. PEELS…

Social and behavioral problems can interfere with a child's acquisition of age-appropriate skills, which may lead to antisocial behavior in adolescence and adulthood. Thus, determining how best to support positive skills during early childhood is critical. Using data from the first three phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth…

Exposure to alcohol in utero is considered to be the leading cause of developmental disabilities of known etiology. The most severe consequence of such exposure, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), is characterized by a distinct constellation of characteristic facial anomalies, growth retardation, and central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. Some…

Developmental science integrates concepts from developmental medicine, human genetics, developmental and clinical psychology to understand behavioural adjustment and maladjustment in children, adolescents and adults as a product of the transactions between the child, its biological organization and its social experience. Put into such a…

Many adolescents experiment with marijuana; the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 46% of high school seniors have tried this drug at some time. Pushing boundaries is what young people do, and some researchers believe that trying marijuana is a normal part of growing up. RAND Corporation researchers have revisited Shedler and Block's…

Residential treatment programs provide a range of services, including drug and alcohol treatment, confidence building, military-style discipline, and psychological counseling for troubled boys and girls with a variety of addiction, behavioral, and emotional problems. This testimony concerns programs across the country referring to themselves as…

This paper describes a nurture group pilot project that took place in three schools in Hampshire. Results suggested that children in the nurture groups made significant social and emotional gains after attending a group. These gains were recognised by the children themselves and their parents. They were also generalised into the classroom.…

The present study examined the role of emotion and emotion control in children's externalizing problems. Third- to sixth-grade children were administered a self-report measure of positive emotion, negative emotion, and emotion control. Peer- and teacher-reported adjustment problems were assessed. Structural equations modeling revealed that…

Background: Pediatric obesity is a significant public health concern, with rising prevalence rates in both developed and developing countries. This is of particular significance given that overweight children and adolescents are at increased risk for multiple medical comorbidities, as well as psychosocial and behavioral difficulties. The current…

Behavioral difficulties of school-aged students are typically dealt with in a reactive, rather than preventative manner. This article examines a proactive approach, consistent with the Response-to-Intervention model, using a screening measure designed to identify students at risk for behavior difficulties and targeting these students for early…