Children who are behaviorally "inhibited"--a condition at the extreme of the behavioral inhibition dimension--experience distress in uncertain social situations. Although parents and teachers are in the best position to detect this condition, they rarely agree. This study aims to analyze the agreement between parents and teachers and to examine…

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) are associated with a number of specific topographies of problem behavior. Very few studies have examined the function served by problem behavior in these groups. Using the Questions About Behavioral Function scale Matson and Vollmer (User's guide: questions about behavioral function…

Background: Children are motivated to engage in stereotypic and repetitive behaviours for a number of reasons. Their motivation seems to change according to context, but little empirical evidence supports that observation. Interventions designed to reduce the behaviours may be improved by an increased understanding of the interaction between…

In this study, we examined the hypothesis that preschoolers' performance on emotion and cognitive tasks is organized into discrete processes of control and understanding within the domains of emotion and cognition. Additionally, we examined the relations among component processes using mother report, behavioral observation, and physiological…

Students with disabilities are bullied at rates disproportionate to their typically developing peers, yet we know little about effective interventions to reduce the rates of victimization among students with disabilities across all disability categories. This study examined the effectiveness of the inclusive Bullying/Victimization Intervention…

Joint attention intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders was focused on improving joint engagement and joint attention skills. The purpose of this study was to develop a caregiver-mediated joint engagement intervention program combined with body movement play to investigate the effects of joint engagement/joint attention skills in…

The transition from primary to secondary education (hereafter "school transition") is a major ecological shift that poses considerable social, emotional, academic and organisational challenges. It is commonly assumed that this school transition is especially difficult for children with autism spectrum disorder, but that idea is mainly…

Two studies tested hypotheses about the distinctive psychological consequences of children's patterns of responding to interparental conflict. In Study 1, 174 preschool children (M = 4.0 years) and their mothers participated in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 243 preschool children (M = 4.6 years) and their parents participated in 2 annual…

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs aim to improve students' social-emotional competencies in order to enhance their achievement. Although SEL programs typically implement classroom curricula, some programs also include a component for parents. Yet, little is known about the types of parents likely to participate in services, and whether…

Strength-based assessment of behaviors in preschool children provides evidence of emotional and behavioral skills in children, rather than focusing primarily on weaknesses identified by deficit-based assessments. The Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scales (PreBERS) is a normative assessment of emotional and behavioral strengths in…

Purpose: A longitudinal cohort of adolescents who initiated drinking before age 15 were studied to determine which factors distinguished between early initiators who continued to drink (persisters) from those who stopped drinking (desisters). There were 308 early initiators in the total sample (n = 917); 247 were persisters, and 61 were desisters.…

The present study examined the unique and joint effects of peer victimization and conflicts with teachers on student behavioral and affective engagement across the school year among a sample of 333 fifth- and sixth-grade students. Results first showed that peer victimization was not a significant predictor of students' affective engagement,…

The authors investigated whether participation in school-based extracurricular activities would predict social and behavioral outcomes (school membership, peer prosocial orientation, and prosocial behavior) associated with school social capital in a group of Hispanic middle school students from the United States of America. Results of hierarchical…

Decision making, a complex mental activity underlying the act of choosing from among the alternatives in attaining a goal constitutes the core component of planning, a higher order cognitive process as per the PASS theory of intelligence. An attempt, therefore, has been made in the present study to examine the development of planning behaviour in…

Neuroscientists have long believed that there are sensitive periods in development during which the effects of experience play a critical role. And developmental psychologists have argued for the importance of early experience in the first years of life as being critical for brain and behavioral development. Most of the neuroscience research…