Bullying has never been easier. Any child, operating in relative anonymity on the Internet at any time of day or night, can harass and intimidate peers. Bullying has gone high tech as kids, usually between age 9 and 14, use personal computers, cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) to intimidate and manipulate their peers. Bullying…

Aggression in a proportion of people with intellectual disabilities is often assumed to be due to social-cognitive deficits. We reported on two studies in which we compared the emotion recognition and perspective-taking abilities of 43 frequently aggressive individuals and 46 nonaggressive peers. No difference was found between the groups' ability…

The specific aim of this investigation was to map cultural factors associated with aggressive behavior in Latino adolescents. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 481 foreign- and U.S.-born Latino adolescents living in North Carolina and Arizona. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate a conceptual model linking adolescent and…

We evaluated interventions designed to reduce multiply controlled problem behavior exhibited by a young boy with developmental disabilities, using a multiple baseline design. Each intervention was designed to address a specific social function of problem behavior. Results showed that the separate interventions were useful in reducing problem…

Objective: Prenatal smoking is robustly associated with increased risk of conduct problems in offspring. Observational studies that provide detailed phenotypic description are critical for generating testable hypotheses about underlying processes through which the effects of prenatal smoking may operate. To this end, we use a developmental…

This study investigated the effect of full-time nonparental care during infancy on children's acquisition of developmentally inappropriate patterns of interaction with peers and teachers in preschool classrooms. Subjects, 105 children with a mean age of 53 months, were divided into 3 groups of children who had: (1) full-time nonparental care…

This report examines part of a qualitative study on the micropolitical classroom strategies, goals, and consequences that occur among the students and a teacher in an elementary classroom. The paper focuses on the students' micropolitical strategies and goals, and the resulting consequences on their classroom teacher. Micropolitics describes the…

This summary report by the American Psychological Association's Commission on Violence and Youth examines individual and societal factors that contribute to youth violence in the United States and offers intervention strategies to reduce such violence. It examines biological, family, school, emotional, cognitive, social, and cultural factors which…

This position paper explores the issue of violence in northern Canadian schools and personal perceptions and reactions to the violent events. Spindler's phrase "sociocultural contextualization" is viewed as placing and examining education and the educative process within the social and cultural environment of the community served by the…

Despite previous research indicating that early negative child behavior and the quality of parent-child relationships are predictive of later externalizing problems, few investigators have attempted to trace these antecedents back to infancy. In a sample of 100 infants from low-income families, infant persistence and maternal responsiveness were…

Noting that just as violent behavior is learned, so is nonviolent behavior, this instruction program is designed to help children in grades 2-4 learn to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. Through the program, children develop important skills of managing anger and choosing alternatives to violence, respecting different points of view…

This study examined the prevalence of bullying and victimization among Canadian school children. Using a questionnaire developed by Olweus, the study surveyed 4,743 children in grades 1 through 8. Six percent of children acknowledged bullying others "more than once or twice" in the preceding 6 weeks, and 15 percent of children reported…

This study examined high-aggressive and low-aggressive boys' ratings of the effectiveness of aggressive and assertive strategies for solving social problems involving hypothetical peers and actual peers. Subjects were 66 third-grade boys (11 groups of 6 boys each for a total of 22 high-aggressive, 22 low-aggressive, and 22 average aggressive boys)…

Forty second and third grade children identified by their teachers as aggressive were randomly assigned to a child problem solving skills training (PSST) or teacher consultation. PSST consisted of 20 45-minute sessions of three to five children, held twice weekly at school. Teacher consultation involved four 30-minute individual sessions.…

This study investigated teacher and peer perceptions of aggression in minority elementary school students enrolled in three urban public schools in southern California. Students (N=650) in grades 3, 5, and 8 were rated by teachers and completed a peer assessment questionnaire. Boys received significantly more peer nominations for aggressive…