The aim of this randomized controlled study is to explore the long-term efficacy of the widely used Triple P parent group training as a universal prevention intervention. 280 families with children between 3 and 6 years participated (N=186 Triple P, N=94 control group}. A multi-method assessment was conducted pre, post and one to four years after…

The validity of the Five Factor Model of personality traits has been mainly assessed with adults and late adolescents. Research has shown that adolescents are able to give reliable self-reports regarding their personality dispositions, but only a few studies have explored self-ratings in children younger than 12 years. Consistent patterns of…

Play is widely acknowledged to be an integral part of human development and children with autism often experience substantial delays in the development of play behaviors. This review updates older reviews by covering the last 10 years of research targeting functional and symbolic play in children with autism. The review differs from other reviews…

Cummings and Carr (2009) compared two methods of data collection in a behavioral intervention program for children with pervasive developmental disorders: collecting data on all trials versus only the first trial in a session. Results showed that basing a child's progress on first-trial data resulted in identifying mastery-level responding…

The authors studied the influences of valence information on preschool children's (n = 47) moral (good or bad), liking (liked or disliked by a friend), and consequence-of-behavior (reward or punishment) judgments. The authors presented 8 scenarios describing the behavior valence, positive valence (help, share), negative valence (verbal insult,…

This study examined the influence of parental expectations on the functioning of sexually abused children. Participants included 67 sexually abused youth and 63 of their nonoffending primary caregivers. Parental expectations about how sexual abuse will impact children were predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior at pretreatment,…

This study investigates whether preschool-aged children show consistent patterns of behaviour in conflicts with their siblings. Consistency was assessed at the nomothetic (i.e., group), idiographic (i.e., individual), and idiosyncratic (i.e., consistent patterns that differed from the norm) levels. We examined conflicts between 19 2-year-old and…

Means-end behavior occurs when the child can carry out a sequence of steps, including the removal of a physical obstacle, to achieve a goal. The development of means-end knowledge occurs in three stages: transitional, intentional, and comprehensive. Comprehensive means-end is achieved when the child can generate solutions without demonstration of…

Objective: To explore attachment narratives in children diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Method: We compared attachment narratives, as measured by the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task, in a group of 33 children with a diagnosis of RAD and 37 comparison children. Results: The relative risk (RR) for children with RAD having…

Community violence is recognized as a major public health problem (WHO, "World Report on Violence and Health," 2002) that Americans increasingly understand has adverse implications beyond inner-cities. However, the majority of research on chronic community violence exposure focuses on ethnic minority, impoverished, and/or crime-ridden communities…

The development of functional analysis technology has been an important tool in the assessment and treatment of aberrant behaviors among individuals with developmental disabilities. In some cases, the function of problem behavior may be idiosyncratic in nature, making modifications to functional analyses necessary. In the current study, a…

Evidence to support stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) in speech acquisition is less than robust, calling into question the ability of SSP to reliably establish automatically reinforcing properties of speech and limiting the procedure's clinical utility for increasing vocalizations. We evaluated the effects of a modified SSP procedure on…

Ratings scales are a common component of many multisource, multimethod frameworks for socioemotional and behavior assessment of children. There is a modest literature base to support the use of attitudinal, behavioral, and personality rating scales. Much of that historic literature focuses on the characteristics and interpretations of specific…

How did Mimi get two shy toddlers to relinquish their security blankets and pacifiers? In her inimitably enthusiastic and upbeat style, this lively dancing, movement, musical, playful teacher offers wisdom about communicating with young children who have trouble adapting to their early care setting.

This article is based on an ethnographic study of children's everyday life in Swedish preschools. The ethnography is used to explore children's strategies for influencing, defending and constructing the social order of a preschool institution. The focus of our concern is on how the children, in their interactions with each other and with the…