Explores developmental patterns in children from kindergarten through grade six. Highlights physical development, including height, activity level, motor skills, and health; mental development, including abstract thought, academic focus, learning difficulties, subject preferences, and creativity; psychosocial development, including interpersonal…

Argues that female students remain disproportionately quiet in geography classes because of male bias forms of instruction. Maintains that girls' interest and responses increased when examples and issues involving women were introduced. Includes tabulation and classification of responses by gender, and comments from female students. (MJP)

Maintains that adaptive help seeking exemplifies how elementary- and middle-school students regulate their own learning and intellectual development. Discusses how parents, teachers, and peers contribute to the development of children's skills and attitudes associated with adaptive help seeking. Traces early help-seeking behaviors in the home and…

Examined the situations in which a random sample of African-American middle school students are violent, the students' interpretations of these situations, the goals of their violent behavior, and how they justify the use of threats or force against others. Created recommendations for violence prevention implied by these research findings. (TJQ)

This study assessed school climate for both interpersonal and intrapersonal character traits and examined the links between school climate and students' perceptions of safety at school. Sixty-four elementary and 159 secondary students completed questionnaires in the spring. Findings revealed that character traits were reliably assessed for both…

The need for an environment conducive to achievement for diverse learners is especially challenging at the middle and high school levels, where more students with learning challenges are included in the general education program, but teachers tend to be less tolerant of disruptive and distractible behaviors. Thus, students who do not conform to…

Sociocultural contexts influence social behaviors in ways that may not always be reflective of majority-culture norms. They also may vary the impact social skills training (SST) programs have on minority students with learning disabilities. To better understand culturally sensitive and effective SST for students with learning disabilities, it is…

In this article, the authors respond to Dr. Amada's comment on their paper. They feel that several of his points, though related to their topic, go beyond the scope of their paper, for example, reflecting on the potential for legal involvement when the intensity of the obsessive relationship warrants urgent intervention. In the latter case the…

The authors examined school discipline problems in relation to academic and interpersonal characteristics of students in a middle school of a rural low-income community. The sample comprised 259 students (83 boys, 176 girls)--all of whom were African American--and reflected the community's public school attendance. School records were examined,…

Standardized rating scales are the most often used part of the multidimensional assessment of children's behavior. However, low cross-informant correlations raise concerns about the reliability and validity of the resulting scores. This study examined whether the manner in which behavioral constructs are measured differs across informants, across…

This article describes a replication of the "First Step to Success" program (Walker, Stiller, Severson, & Golly, 1998) with at-risk students in the first and second grade to determine program effectiveness in decreasing inappropriate behaviors and increasing academic engagement time. This expands the "First Step to…

The "Commissioner of Education's Report on Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse in New Jersey Public Schools", submitted annually to the education committees of the Senate and Assembly, provides the Legislature with data in four broad incident categories: violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse. This year's report highlights…

Because there are few instruments designed to measure the specific behaviors and characteristics instructors expect of college students and how well the majority of their students meet those expectations, an original survey instrument has been created to address that need. Focus group interviews were held, and as a result of those interviews, an…

In this investigation, the authors examined the perceptions children had of their relationships with parents, peers, and teachers; their bonds with schools and neighborhoods; and their social, behavioral, and emotional adjustment. Participants were 96 students in the fifth and sixth grades who were receiving special education services for learning…

The Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP) is a multidimensional instrument for school-based practitioners that assesses the social environmental domains of neighborhood, school, friends, and family, as well as the well-being, behavior, and school performance of students in the third, fourth, and fifth grade. This article presents the…