Research suggests that both emotion-laden discourse and positive affect facilitate the construction of emotional and relational understanding. Despite this, research has not typically examined simultaneously the connections among affect, emotional discourse, and socioemotional development. In this study, 51 preschool children (M age = 52.80…

Previous research has produced mixed findings on the role of child and family factors in the genesis of childhood cruelty. The authors examined the relationships of cruelty to animals to a range of child and family factors. First, the authors test the idea that cruelty is a callous aggression that will be more strongly associated with psychopathic…

This study explores perceptions of control in victims of school bullying, by surveying 108 adolescents with questionnaires. The result shows that there are significant gender differences in external control in general, internal control of sociality, and victimization of physical bullying. Physical victimization decreases as subjects grow older,…

Aggressive behavior in childhood has long been separated into that which is proactively motivated and that which is reactive. We report a meta-analytic review of the existing empirical literature that examines the associations of each type of aggression with six indices of psychosocial adjustment: internalizing problems, emotional dysregulation…

This paper is a review of the outpatient data and recidivism for an 18 month post treatment follow-up of Mode Deactivation Therapy (MDT). The follow up data suggests that effects of MDT generalized for over one-year post treatment in these adolescent conduct disordered males in an inpatient therapeutic setting. This research compared the…

This pilot study examined the effects of a short-term music therapy program on the classroom behaviours of newly arrived refugee students who were attending an intensive "English as a Second Language" secondary school. A cross-over design with two five-week intervention periods was employed with group music therapy sessions conducted one…

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine both social behaviors (i.e., aggression, shyness-withdrawal, and prosocial tendencies) and social understanding (i.e., attitudes and responses to such behaviors in hypothetical peers) of empathic and low empathic children. Participants were 136 children in kindergarten and grade one. Parents…

An ethnically diverse sample of 6th-grade students completed peer nomination procedures that were used to create subgroups of students with reputations as victims, aggressors, aggressive victims, and socially adjusted (neither aggressive nor victimized). Self-report data on psychological adjustment, attributions for peer harassment, and perceived…

The social goals and social problem-solving of children who varied in social adjustment were examined in the context of hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations in which provocateurs' emotion displays were systematically manipulated. Children rated the importance of six different social goals and explained how they would solve the problems.…

The previous article in this series introduced the triune brain, the three components of which handle specialized life tasks. The survival brain, or brain stem, directs automatic physiological functions, such as heartbeat and breathing, and mobilizes fight/flight behaviour in times of threat. The emotional (or limbic) brain activates positive or…

Adults condemn violence but teach children to fight back. The message that aggression is legitimate causes grave harm to untold numbers of children and youth in our violent culture. Children are literally losing their lives trying to gain "respect" and preserve their "dignity." The author draws on extensive direct professional work with violent…

This paper outlines a bully-proofing program that aims to shift power away from the fear of bullies to the "silent majority." The Bully Project is a comprehensive systems approach which changes the attitude and environment of the school. It does this by training the staff to recognize the difference between bully and victim behavior and…

Incidences of aggressive and violent actions in schools have been increasing. The goals of this practicum were to reduce aggressive and violent behavior in a large, comprehensive, public high school and to make students and staff aware of peaceful alternatives to conflicts. Solution strategies included teaching conflict resolution skills in the…

This study examined differences between maltreated and non-maltreated children in their perception of parental figures and explored differential perceptions of maternal and paternal figures. Using the Test for Detection of Parental Violence (TDPV), 22 maltreated 4- to 7-year-olds referred by Youth Protection Services were compared to 22…

Guided by the cognitive-contextual theory of J. H. Grych and F. D. Fincham (1990), which emphasizes the importance of children's perceptions of conflict as well as conflict characteristics and contextual factors, this study investigated children's appraisals of various types of simulated marital conflict. Seventy Latino children, aged 7 to 12…