Notes that longitudinal data can play an important role in child psychopathology and treatment. Introduces review of some of the research questions that longitudinal designs can answer and how longitudinal studies have been used in evaluating traditional syndromes in child clinical psychology. (Author/NB)

Asserts that cross-cultural comparison serves a crucial function as a final test of paradigms emerging from intracultural studies of child and adolescent adjustment and maladjustment. Argues that cross-cultural research's doorkeeper function is best performed when a wide range of cultures is sampled, for which core beliefs are measured directly…

Discusses contemporary theories of adolescence, stressing developmental systems models that integrate individual and contextual levels of analysis. Maintains that adolescence should be studied with multivariate-longitudinal designs, change-sensitive measures, and data analytic strategies capitalizing on triangulation across quantitative and…

The paper examined the relationship between epidemiological and intervention research with learning disabled adolescents. Several historical trends and contemporary issues (e.g., the importance of prevention as opposed to treatment efforts, applied versus basic research, continuing questions related to definition and identification, and…

Addresses strategies needed in using longitudinal data on psychopathology to test cause-and-effect relationships, including natural experiments, testing of competing hypotheses on mechanisms, study of reversal effects, multiple replications in different circumstances, use of designs to dissociate possible mechanisms, testing for dose-response…

Discusses challenges to conducting research on effectiveness of community service systems that are family-based and school-centered: underidentification of children with emotional or behavioral disorders, lack of concordance between diagnostic criteria used in school versus mental health systems, problems of comorbidity, analysis of data from…

Considers assumptions underlying design of Bussell et al.'s Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development study. Suggests that a source of the common environment specific to this study is the effect of an individual in mutual ratings of relationship with siblings, leading to a larger common-environment effect across variables than within…

Addresses concerns raised in Neale's commentary regarding the Bussell et al. (1999) Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development study. Discussion of assumptions focuses on those most relevant to study sample. Because Neale's proposed alternative models did not provide a better fit, the appropriateness of Bussell's model and importance of…

Five symposium papers evaluate the usefulness of ideas associated with the life-span view for enriching, highlighting, or expanding issues, theory, and research pertinent to change processes during infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and for intervention programs during these periods. (Author/MP)

Responds to commentaries by Bereiter and Gersten concerning findings of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation's 15-year Preschool Curriculum Comparison Study. Addresses issues of design of study, experimenter bias, sample size, self-report validity, interpretation of findings, and related topics. (NH)

Examines methodological issues in conducting research with at-risk youth across cultures. A case study is used to illustrate key methodological issues and explore where conventional methodology may not be applicable to cross-cultural research with at-risk youth. Recommendations are made to address some of the methodological challenges. (Author)

Introduces workshop papers proposing research agendas based on the assumption that street children's public image hinders both research and program development. Argues that research emphasis should shift to analysis of children's relationship to the street environment; this approach, derived from social science research, entails innovative and…

The process of focus-finding in qualitative research is ongoing and dynamic, involves researcher choices and decisions (rather than pure discovery), and is a process of social construction in which the researcher interacts with the research setting. Focus-finding is discussed in the context of a qualitative research study of the integration of…

Noting the fascination of both researchers and the general public with possible gender differences in human cognition and whether these differences originate in biology, childhood influences, or cultural stereotypes, this book summarizes research studies on gender differences in cognition. The book examines social and cultural implications of this…

The Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (YEDPA) authorized a range of research, evaluation, and demonstration activities to increase understanding of the employment problems of youth and to help determine the most effective policies and programs to address these problems. A major knowledge development objective under YEDPA was…