It is my thesis that the Child Theology Movement is a new and significant aspect of cultural change within the Christian church that will have resonance with the wider community, affecting parenting behaviour as well as spiritual and religious education. This paper examines some of the aspects of children's spirituality that link to and have value…

This review integrates theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence of a sense of school belonging (SOSB) to highlight its importance in understanding the inclusion efficacy research for pupils with special educational needs (SEN). Specifically, it examines the role of a SOSB on pupils' cognitive, affective, behavioural and social developmental…

Extensive research documents powerful relationships between humans and companion animals, and 62 percent of U. S. households report having a companion animal. Social workers are likely to work with individuals and families with companion animals; thus, the inclusion of such animals in both practice and research as a natural extension of social…

The present study examines the relative contributions of various theoretical constructs to violent victimization by operationalizing multiple measures of exposure to motivated offenders, guardianship, and target characteristics. Using a nationally representative sample of American adolescents, we conducted principal components factor analysis and…

Policy debates about undocumented immigration in the United States focus most often on adults and adolescents. Yet 5.5 million U.S. children currently reside with at least one undocumented immigrant parent, with 4.5 million of these children U.S.-born citizens. Given that children with undocumented parents constitute nearly one-third of all…

Developmental theory describes the central importance of peer relationships in the lives of young adults (e.g., Erikson, 1963). In this study we tested the importance of peer relationships to academic outcomes. First-year undergraduates completed a self-report survey to indicate the number and closeness of their friendships. We compared these…

We examined the relations between depression, emotional autonomy quality-related constructs of separation and detachment, and suicidal ideation, focusing on the unique and common contribution that depression, separation and detachment made to suicidal ideation. We also examined gender differences. 403 adolescents, 196 boys and 207 girls, completed…

People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have been defined as "socially excluded" and policies of "social inclusion" invoked to counter this through a focus on paid work and independent living. For many people with IDs this is either not desired or not possible, and as a result many have sought out alternative spaces and activities of…

The issue of informant discrepancies about child and adolescent functioning is an important concern for clinicians, developmental psychologists, and others who must consider ways of handling discrepant reports of information, but reasons for discrepancies in reports have been poorly understood. Adolescent attachment and informant depressive…

This research examines the relationship between behavioural inhibition (BI), family environment (overinvolved and negative parenting, parental anxiety and parent-child attachment) and anxiety in a sample of 202 preschool children. Participants were aged between 3 years 2 months and 4 years 5 months, 101 were male. A thorough methodology was used…

This study explores the effects of parental divorce on a child's faith. Drawing from attachment theory, Granqvist and Kirkpatrick proposed two probable developmental pathways to religion. For those with secure attachment, whose cumulative experiences of sensitive, religious caregivers enhance the development of a God image as loving; belief…

This study investigated aspects of construct validity for the scores of a new long-distance romantic relationship measure. A single-factor structure of the long-distance romantic relationship index emerged, with convergent and discriminant evidence of external validity, high internal consistency reliability, and applied utility of the scores.…

This paper provides a brief history of attachment research on fathers as a backdrop against which the other contributions to this volume can be viewed. Empirical research on child-father attachment progressed in four phases and began before Bowlby in 1969 published the first volume of his attachment trilogy. During each phase a different set of…

The suicide rate among American adolescents between the ages of 14-25 has dramatically increased during the last 50 years, and this fact has been the focus of extensive social-scientific investigation. To date, however, research focusing on the joint effects of mental health, family, and contextual-level predictors on adolescents' suicidal…

Continuity and intergenerational transmission of representations of attachment were examined in a longitudinal sample of 88 Mexican immigrant mothers and their children who participated in the local intervention group of the Early Head Start Evaluation Study. The authors interviewed mothers with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and Parent…