Background: Health risk behaviors like substance use (alcohol, tobacco, soft/hard drugs) and risky sexual behavior become more prevalent in adolescence. Children with behavior problems are thought to be prone to engage in health risk behaviors later in life. It is, however, unclear which problems within the externalizing spectrum account for these…

Background: All previous longitudinal community studies assessing the continuity of child behavioral/emotional problems were conducted in developed countries. Method: Six hundred and one children randomly selected from a Brazilian birth cohort were evaluated for behavioral/emotional problems through mother interview at 4 and 12 years with the same…

One strategy for addressing the persistent challenge of advancing empirically based social work practice is to engage practitioners in the formulation of empirically developed practice guidelines. Although this approach is promising, there has been relatively little work to guide practitioners, and perhaps consequently, few examples of…

Background: This study assessed the co-occurrence of cognitive problems and difficult temperament characteristics in children aged 3 to 5 years exhibiting aggressive behavior. Methods: Thirty-one children with high ratings on the Aggressive Behavior subscale of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist or Teacher Report Form were recruited from a…

Two Oregon students create a racist profile on a social networking site, with cartoons about lynching and racist language. Other students link to the profile and post ugly, racist comments. Teachers report that many of the school's minority students are frightened. In another instance, several high school students create a "We Hate…

A stratified sample of 34 three-year-old to five-year-old boys and their parents (30 mothers) was observed in their homes during free-play and problem-solving interactions. Observer-ratings of behaviors of parents in each interaction were examined in relation to teachers' ratings of the boys' problem behaviors in a childcare setting. Parent…

This pilot study assessed the performance of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC) in correctly classifying the presence or absence of PTSD, as determined by the Diagnostic Interview for children and Adolescents-Parent (DICA-P). Participants included 34 children, ages 4 to 12, referred for outpatient treatment. The 11…

Two studies employing a mixed experimental design were conducted to determine if perceptions of bullying, attitudes towards victims, and students' sense of safety at school were influenced by bystanders' reactions to different types of bullying. In Study 1, 217 middle-school children were randomly assigned to read a hypothetical scenario…

Objective: Abusive fathers perpetrate a substantial portion of child physical abuse. Despite this, little is known about how they differ from non-abusive fathers. This study compared a broad range of cognitive and affective factors between physically abusive and non-abusive fathers. Methods: Abusive (n = 24) and non-abusive (n = 25) fathers…

Adolescence is considered a critical life transition that can lead to heightened vulnerability. Acculturation takes on increased importance during this period. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between acculturation and perceived health concerns of early adolescent Latinos in rural North Carolina. A qualitative descriptive…

To describe trajectories of aggressive behaviors for adolescents living in rural areas, we compared the patterns, timing and sex differences in development of physical and social aggression using five waves of data collected from youth in school surveys administered over 2.5 years. The sample (N = 5,151) was 50.0% female, 52.1% Caucasian and 38.2%…

This study investigates the extent to which students from Australia, Israel, and China report that their teachers' classroom disciplinary behaviour affects their attitudes towards schoolwork and the teacher. They also report how justifiable a teacher's intervention appeared. In all three settings, both punishment and aggression relate…

In this article, I review the literature on school bullying with an emphasis on elementary schools. Bullying is defined and described, 3 types of bullying are discussed, and the importance of relational bullying is emphasized. I review existing programs to reduce bullying with attention to empirical studies. Barriers to implementation of effective…

Objective: The goal of this study was to identify links between observed conflict interactions and risk for child abuse and harsh parenting among a multiethnic sample of adolescent mothers (14-19 years) and young fathers (14-24 years). Methods: Prior to childbirth (T1), observation-based relationship data were collected from 154 expectant…

Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group structural equation modeling were used to test correlates of overt and relational aggression between young adolescent siblings across four groups (i.e., male/male, male/female, female/male, and female/female sibling pairs), using 433 predominately European American families. Similar patterns…