Tested relations between low-income children's emotional regulatory skills and their social competence. Also examined children's use of self-distraction as an index of their regulatory skill. Found that children's use of self-distraction predicted a significant amount of variance in peers' ratings of social preference and in teachers' ratings of…

Compared behavioral, self-evaluative, and attributional responses of boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to those of typically-developing boys on a social success and failure laboratory task. Found that ADHD boys rated their own performance more favorably than controls, were more likely to attribute success to external…

Draws on contemporary sources to provide strategies for cultivating self-discipline. Advocates self-healing for the adult to be free from destructive attitudes and personal history that can keep adults from being mindful of the child's needs, perspective, and potential. Concludes with ways to facilitate a truly Montessori approach to discipline.…

Reviews the literature on the foster family characteristics that are thought to contribute to the behavioral and emotional problems of foster children. The review is shaped by an understanding of the personal and familial factors associated with children's problem behaviors. Factors include parenting, family home environment, family functioning,…

Examined individual differences in young children's understanding of emotion and potential correlates in the domain of family experiences. Found that individual differences in children's understanding of negative emotions were related to specific aspects of family experiences. Findings suggest complex influences of family functioning on children's…

Investigated linkages between aspects of emotional competence and preschoolers' social skills with peers, as well as parental emotion socialization practices as predictors of social skill. Found that emotional competence variables were meaningfully related to the peer variables and that, for non-constructive anger reactions, maternal reports of…

Examines the historical and conceptual foundations of friendship research. Areas addressed include functions of friendship, study of peer relations and peer systems, associated methodological and measurement challenges, and the study of friendship today. The discussion is framed around the "Harry Potter" (by J. K. Rowling) phenomena. (SD)

Notes that mental health is important to children as well as early childhood educators. Suggests the use of child psychoanalysts as demonstrated by the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute. Describes the implementation of such programs to assist directors and teachers. Provides a list of American Psychoanalytic Association affiliate…

A therapeutic relationship was established with a resistant child whose experiential background, together with the ongoing uncertainty of her life situation, created interpersonal issues that threatened the continuance of counseling. The case-study focuses on the aims of counseling and how these were handled within the oscillating relationship…

Investigated whether risk factors identified in international studies differentiate among at-risk Norwegian school children (fourth graders) receiving social services. Found few socio-demographic differences but that social service clients scored higher on risk and lower on competence variables than cohort group. Compared to parent and teacher…

Three studies focused on prediction of teen motherhood, complications during childbirth, multiparity, and close spacing of births; dropping out of school and teen parenthood; and prediction of child behavior from mothers' childhood characteristics. Found that mothers' childhood aggression predicted negative outcomes in each area of risk,…

Examined the relations among single mothers' awareness of their adolescents' stressors, mother-adolescent communication, maternal monitoring, and adolescent adjustment. Findings suggest that when adolescent stress increases and family communication and monitoring change, monitoring by single mothers may increase awareness of adolescent stress and…

Assessed links between free-time activities in middle childhood and school grades, conduct, and depression symptoms concurrently and 2 years later; also explored 2 mechanisms that might underlie activity-adjustment links. Found links between the nature of children's free-time activities and their adjustment. Social contexts of free-time activities…

Rather than being nurtured into healthy beings, the children who experience rejection and blame can become discouraged and angry. They respond with escalating, acting-out behavior to the perceived hostile environment. Success with these children requires adults who can live with them in their world without becoming entangled in counteraggression.…

Videotaped the free play of 3-year-old day-care-center children who were already showing clear signs of gender-segregated behaviors. Analysis revealed that boys tended to use powerful strategies when conflicting with girls; girls used similar strategies when conflicting with other girls but, when conflicting with boys, changed their mode of…