In his lectures published in 1902, George Still described 43 children in his clinical practice who had serious problems with sustained attention and self-regulation. George Still certainly did not use the current terminology for this disorder, but many historians of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have inferred that the children he…

Background: Research suggests that the inclusion of learning disabled people is contingent, unsatisfactory and incomplete. This paper will take a step back and look at the experiences of mothers of learning disabled children in public places. Methods: Seventeen women have taken part in the small scale qualitative study which used a combination of…

Parental power assertion is traditionally studied in the behavioral domain--discipline triggered by the child's immediate misbehavior--but rarely in the cognitive domain--parent-child discussions of the child's past misbehavior. Maternal power assertion was observed in "do" and "don't" discipline contexts from 14 to 45 months and in the context of…

Outside of the family, schools are one of the more pervasive socializing contexts, helping children to acquire the appropriate behaviors and values needed to become acceptable and productive members of society. Traditionally, North American schools and teacher training programs have focused almost exclusively on the academic curriculum or what is…

Objective: To examine the test-retest reliability of a new interviewer-based psychiatric diagnostic measure (the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment) for use with parents of preschoolers 2 to 5 years old. Method: A total of 1,073 parents of children attending a large pediatric clinic completed the Child Behavior Checklist 1 1/2-5. For 18 months,…

Background: Sleep problems are prevalent in American children. A critical need is to identify sources and processes related to sleep disruptions and their sequelae. We examined a model linking parental marital conflict and children's emotional insecurity, sleep disruptions, and their adjustment and academic problems. Method: One hundred and…

Archival data from a survey of parent observations was used to determine the prevalence of social and behavioral problems in children with agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC). Parent observations were surveyed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for 61 children with ACC who were selected from the archive based on criteria of motor…

Objective: The societal changes experienced by Western societies in recent decades have raised concerns about increases in the level of children's mental health problems. Although studies of secular changes in the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses have indeed shown increases, their results may have been influenced by methodological problems,…

Concurrent and longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity, children's sympathy and children's prosocial behavior were assessed with correlations and structural equation modeling when the children were 55-97 months old (N = 214; M age = 73 months, SD = 9.59) and eight years later (N = 130; ages 150-195 months old, M = 171 months,…

Children identified as having emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) may have different out-of-home care placements than their peers without EBD. This study compared the factors influencing placement movements for 362 children with EBD and 363 children without EBD, using clinical "Child Behavior Checklist" (CBCL) scores at baseline…

Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine the association between parental major depressive and generalized anxiety disorders and child behavior problems across family types: married, cohabiting, involved nonresident father, and noninvolved nonresident father. Among 3-year-olds in all families, maternal anxiety/depression is…

Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were examined to test whether: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms remain stable from 54 months through early elementary school; behavioral inhibition and attention deficits assessed at 54 months predict ADHD symptoms in elementary…

Background: The aim of this study was to determine (1) the prevalence of behavioral problems among two-year-old Pacific children living in New Zealand, (2) ethnic differences in behavioral problems, and (3) relationships between maternal and socio-demographic variables and problem child behavior. Methods: Data were gathered from the Pacific…

Background: Attaining a developmentally sensitive nosology for preschool disruptive behavior requires characterization of the features that distinguish it from the normative misbehavior of this developmental period. We hypothesize that "quality of behavior and its pervasiveness across contexts" are critical dimensions for clinical discrimination…

This study investigated the generalization of parenting skills to the home from PCIT delivered in a community mental health setting with four urban, low-income, single mothers at risk for child maltreatment. Using a multiple baseline design and direct observation in the home, the research examined changes in positive attention skills (praise,…