Primary-secondary school transition encompasses multiple social, academic and environmental changes which can negatively impact children's emotional well-being. Children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMH) are believed to be especially vulnerable during this time. However, the voices of children with SEMH are heavily…

This study examined how parents' and children's beliefs about peer victimization are related to children's adjustment. A mediational model was proposed that addressed how adjustment is predicted by degree of victimization, as well as causal attributions of and coping responses to victimization. The participants were 100 fifth- or sixth-grade…

This study examined social problems at school and relationships with peers, siblings, mothers, and fathers among children with ADHD only (n = 41), ODD only (n = 14), ADHD + ODD (n = 47), and normal controls (n = 204) from a school-based sample of 2,463 first to ninth graders in Taiwan. ADHD and ODD symptoms were determined by teacher and mother…

This study examined the extent to which sixth grade peer status could predict anxiety and/or depression in 5,242 women and 5,004 men who were born in 1953 and whose hospital records were followed up from 1973-2003. The data used was the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study. While no association could be established for men, results indicated that women…

This paper reports on three studies of shy behavior in Mainland Chinese children. In Study 1 (N = 107, M age = 10.05), a Chinese Shyness Scale (CSS) was developed based on Chinese teachers' open-ended descriptions of children's shy behavior. In Study 2 (N = 388, M age = 10.80) and Study 3 (N = 198, M age = 10.20), the construct validity of the two…

Background: Optimism and pessimism are positive and negative expectations linked with well-being in adults. Research on the importance of optimism and pessimism in children is limited by the lack of a developmentally appropriate measure of children's expectations. Method: Based upon the Life Orientation Test-Revised (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges,…