Five studies examined the effect of dysphoric mood on perceivers' subjective unitization of an observed other's ongoing behavior into discrete meaningful actions. Dysphoria generally reduced unitization rate (i.e., number of actions discriminated). Additional evidence indicates this reduction results from failure to initiate a higher (more…

Analysis of parent and teacher Developmental Behavior Checklist (DBC) ratings on a combined sample of 1,536 Dutch and Australian children (ages 3-22) with mild to profound intellectual disabilities produced five subscales: Disruptive/Antisocial, Self-Absorbed, Communication Disturbance, Anxiety, and Social Relating. Internal consistency of the…

Parent-reported problems and competencies for national samples of 2,600 children and youth assessed at intake into mental health services were compared with 2,600 demographically matched nonreferred children assessed in a home interview study. Age, gender, regional, ethnic, and socioeconomic comparisons drawn from a new questionnaire are…

A case analysis, predictive study, and follow-up study of 17 abused and/or neglected children found that the prognosis for abusive and/or neglectful parents is poorer when they are scored high on immaturity than when they are scored high on emotional problems. (BRM)

This paper provides an overview of hyperlexia, a condition found in children who have precocious reading skills accompanied by significant problems in language, learning, and social skills. These children are described as having superior auditory and visual memory but seem to have better memory for isolated words than words recalled in context.…

Describes a two-year (1983-1985) systems study of the human services provided adolescents aged 10-17 and their families in one rural Pennsylvania community. Describes teacher/student survey, human services utilization survey, case reviews, and development of community-based advocacy plan. Discusses study's impact on local human services network…

Highlighting the link between the emotional well-being of children and adolescents and their parents' mental health, this policy brief reports key findings for Washington state from the National Survey of American Families, a national telephone survey of representative samples of American families in 13 states, including Washington. Analyses…

Reports one child-care teacher's experiences in helping troubled young children. Discusses the techniques she uses to reach the children and engage them in play, her attitudes and beliefs concerning children, and her stress on working with the children's parents. (BB)

Problem behaviors were examined for 404 American Indian and White secondary school students living on or near a rural reservation. Patterns of behavior and psychological problems differed between American Indians and Whites, between males and females, and between teacher versus parent and youth reports. Cultural considerations and potential…

The culturally relevant factors of ethnic identification, intergenerational support, and church support were investigated in relation to high-risk exposure on maladjustment in 147 urban African-American adolescents with mild mental retardation. The factors were associated with better adjustment and ethnic identification, which appeared to protect…

When parents are unavailable for their children, or simply do not know what to do when a youngster is experiencing an overwhelming stressor, the parent's response, or lack of, can compound the child's psychosocial difficulties. Even though some youngsters overcome the adversity of inadequate parenting, others cannot and consequently experience…

The Child Development Inventory (CDI), a restandardized version of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory, is completed by parents to measure the developmental progress of their children ages 15 months to 6 years or children judged to be functioning in that age range. It measures present development in eight areas: social, self-help, gross…

This study investigates whether students experiencing difficulty adapting to parental loss also feel they have little or no control over life events; whether an inability to adapt to the stress of parental loss surfaces as a school adjustment problem; and whether these relationships are stronger for students losing a parent through death than…

The identification and treatment of anxiety and depression among incoming freshmen from six colleges of the Chinese Culture University, Taiwan, were undertaken by the University Mental Health Center. A total of 2,121 students from 53 departments were assessed using the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) (Zung,…

Patterns of emotional and behavior problems among 360 educable mentally retarded (EMR) and 360 nonretarded elementary and secondary students were studied through factor analysis of teachers' rating scale evaluations. EMR groups could be discriminated from nonretarded groups on the aggression, attention disorder, and anxiety/inferiority factors.…