Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are associated with adaptive function impairments. This study measured adaptive functioning in a sample of 92 children with ASD, including 80 children with co-occurring ADHD. Regression models examined whether ASD and ADHD symptom severity were associated with…

Cumulative lifetime adversity and social support were investigated as determinants of psychosocial adjustment (esteem, distress, hopefulness, positive outlook/future aspirations, and sense of purpose) over 12 months in 6-10-years-old HIV-infected, HIV-exposed uninfected and HIV-unexposed uninfected children from Uganda. Each determinant and…

The proposal that friendships provide a context for the development of social skills is widely accepted. Yet little research exists to support this claim. In the present study, children and adolescents (N = 912) were presented with vignettes in which a friend encountered a social stressor and they could help the friend and vignettes in which they…

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 longitudinal investigation examined the effects of maternal depression and concomitant negative parenting behaviors on children's emotion regulation patterns and socioemotional functioning. One hundred fifty-one mothers and their children were assessed when children were approximately 1 1/2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-years of age. Ninety-three of the…

Background: Children's physiological reactivity was examined as a moderator of relations between parental dysphoria and child adjustment problems, addressing gaps in the study of child characteristics as risk processes. Method: One hundred fifty-seven children (86 boys, 71 girls) were assessed twice over a two-year interval. Skin conductance level…

Associations between parental and teacher reports of conduct problems at age eight and psychosocial outcomes at 18 were longitudinally examined with 1,265 New Zealand children. Overall, conduct problems at age eight predicted elevated rates of educational underachievement, juvenile offending, substance abuse/dependence, and mental health problems…

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,…