This paper advances the hypothesis that young children use narrative play and stories to construct two types of fiction, the worlds of "what is" and "what if." Heinz Werner's conceptualization of children's spheres of reality, in which actions, symbols, and events are constructed in particular ways, is used as a theoretical framework for…

Child temperament was examined as a moderator of the link between family conflict and child behavior problems. Temperament assessed in early childhood was used to predict the relation between family conflict and externalizing behavior problems measured during the early elementary school years. For children with difficult temperament, a strong…

This article discusses a study of children's perspectives on disciplinary conflicts with their foster parents. Most children accept parental authority, but they also defend their personal autonomy and loyalties to peers. In this study, only birthchildren told real-life stories about fierce resistance to get their own way. Fierce resistance among…

This study examined the relations between maternal criticism and externalizing and internalizing symptoms in adolescents who varied in their risk for psychopathology. Both maternal-effects and child-effects models were examined. The sample consisted of 194 adolescents (mean age = 11.8 years) and their mothers: 146 mothers had a history of…

A 9-year-old clinic-referred boy, his mother, and his teacher were observed in 38 home and 38 school sessions on the same days. Categories of the boy's oppositional behavior and the inappropriate social attention of his mother and teacher were graphed to visually inspect changes during baseline, a parent-training phase, a follow-up phase, and a…

Cohort-sequential latent growth modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data for children's externalizing behavior from four overlapping age cohorts (4, 5, 6, and 7 years at first assessment) measured at three annual time points. The data included mother and father ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist and the Five-Factor Personality Inventory…

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported, parent-training program designed to teach parents specific techniques to manage the behavior of children between the ages of two and seven exhibiting extreme disruptive behavior. Over 30 published studies (see Herschell, Calzada, Eyberg, & McNeil, 2002b for a review) have lent…

Data were collected in a longitudinal study of 134 boys and 132 girls and their families during kindergarten and first grade. Four hours of parent-child interaction were coded to ascertain parent discipline practices. A structured interview assessed maternal attributions about child behavior. Maternal ratings of child conduct problems at…

Four-year-old children showing low levels of social behavior in a laboratory play session with unfamiliar peers were classified as reticent (unoccupied or onlooking behaviors) or solitary-passive (solitary constructive or exploratory play). Compared with a group of more social children, the children in both low-social groups were rated high on…

The present study investigated the relationship between behaviours exhibited by children with pervasive developmental disorders, particularly autism, and maternal stress levels. Participants consisted of 60 mothers who had a child diagnosed with a pervasive developmental disorder by an independent practitioner using DSM-IV criteria. Children were…

Violence in schools and communities is no longer an urban school problem; it is every school's problem ( Garbarino, 1999 ). What factors cause children to interact with increasingly violent and anti-social behaviors? What strategies can teachers and schools use in order to help these childhood bullies who grow up to be violent youths? This paper…

To assess predictions from social identity development theory (SIDT; Nesdale, 2004) concerning children's ethnic/racial prejudice, 197 Anglo-Australian children ages 7 or 9 years participated in a minimal group study as a member of a team that had a norm of inclusion or exclusion. The team was threatened or not threatened by an out-group that was…

For more than a quarter of century, researchers have been studying the effects of TV viewing on both children and adults. Although controversies still exist, the data presents a clear picture of increased aggression in all age groups following the viewing of ?violent? TV. In this article, the author discusses how to help a child who is negatively…

This article discusses the importance of humor and how it helps to understand children's thinking from birth to 6 years. The article presents three sections describing how a young child's sense of humor reveals much about the way he thinks. The first section is entitled "Giggles!" written by Carla Poole. Intended for babies from birth to 2, Poole…

Foster Parent College was recently developed through Northwest Media, Inc. as an interactive multimedia training venue for foster parents. Users can take brief parenting courses, either online (http://www.FosterParentCollege.com) or on DVD, on a variety of topics dealing with serious child behavior problems. Currently, these problems include…