Strategies for the prevention of adolescent suicide are frequently designed to identify those young people who represent a high risk in order that services and support can be effectively targeted. This study explored the experiences of parents who had lost a child through suicide. The findings suggest that the range of behaviours perceived by…

Play assessment is gaining attention as a measure of the developing skills of young children. The procedures and methods of coding child behaviours vary considerably across researchers and practitioners. Because of this, definitive statements about the use of play assessment cannot be made without further research. The present study is an attempt…

Children's fears about strangers are often intense and vivid. While various educational, policing and media initiatives have made children suspicious of strangers, the question of who the figure of the stranger is has not been addressed. The sociology of the stranger anticipates that visible minorities are marked out as strangers. However, for the…

Nocturnal enuresis is one of the most prevalent and distressing of all childhood problems. The treatment of nocturnal enuresis has shifted in the past few decades from a strictly psychopathological perspective to a biobehavioral perspective. Although the primary clinical features of this disorder are medical/organic, there is currently strong…

We evaluated a supervisory protocol that targeted preparation of behavior support plans by administrative staff at a school for children with developmental disabilities. Using a multiple baseline design, the protocol was applied sequentially to three components of behavior support plan preparation. Intervention procedures included goal…

Fifty-two clinic-referred (20) and volunteer (32) mother-child dyads were observed in their home settings for 1 hour per dyad. Observers monitored the mothers' responsiveness during interactions with their children, and mothers' use of ''do'' and ''don't'' instructions were recorded; the children's compliance with instructions was also recorded,…

"Science Briefs" summarize the findings and implications of a recent study in basic science or clinical research. This brief reports on the study "Are there Long-Term Effects of Early Child Care?" (J. Belsky, D. L. Vandell, M. Burchinal, K. A. Clarke-Stewart, K. McCartney, M. T. Owen, M. T., and The NICHD Early Child Care Research Network).…

This study examined solitary sleeping and co-sleeping arrangements in families with a young child. Data were obtained from questionnaires completed by two independent samples, one of mothers (N = 100) and one of fathers (N = 38) of preschool-aged children. Types of family sleep arrangements included children who slept in their own room from…

Inattention/hyperactivity is a childhood outcome of low birth weight. However, the mechanisms by which low birth weight leads to inattention/hyperactivity are unclear. This study examined arousal, activation, motor speed, and motor coordination as possible mechanisms, attending to sex differences. 823 children (400 males) from Detroit and…

The association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and childhood antisocial outcomes has been demonstrated repeatedly across a variety of outcomes. Yet debate continues as to whether this association reflects a direct programming effect of nicotine on fetal brain development, or a phenotypic indicator of heritable liability passed from…

The importance of carefully planned transition programs for children commencing school has been advocated in the literature. These programs should be based on sound principles of transition and reflect the voices of parents, preschool and school staff, and children. A variety of practices exists, and children's participation in transition programs…

This study answers the following questions: "In what kinds of environments do preschool children want to play?" and "In what kinds of environments do boys and girls want to play?" Methodologically, the study draws on grounded theory, with data collected among Finnish preschoolers through creation sessions consisting of 15…

Children (n = 88) aged 8 and 10 years participated in a minimal group study in which their rejection versus acceptance, by one other person versus a group of three people, was experimentally manipulated. Analysis of their self-reported negative affect, self-esteem, and maladaptive social behavior, revealed that, regardless of the source of the…

In this article, the author reports on a practical strategy originally developed for use with pupils with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). Based on a small-scale research project, the article focuses on the use of Social Stories to promote pro-social behaviour with a group of non-ASC pupils. The topic was chosen for systematic enquiry by the…

Objective: To explore the contributions of genetic and environmental influences to individual variation and covariation of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) DSM-oriented scales (DOS) originally proposed by Achenbach and associates in 2001. Method: A classic twin study of 398 twin pairs ages 8 to 17 years belonging to the population-based Italian…