The theoretical and practical implications of viewing difficult temperament as a characteristic of the individual rather than as a social perception are discussed, with an emphasis on an interactionist view of developmental process. (Author/MP)

Developed and administered the Elderly Persons' Attitudes toward Children to a random sample of older adults. Results indicated an overall positive attitude toward children with negative attitudes to some personality characteristics. Discusses implications for intergenerational program planning in school and nonschool settings. (RC)

Examined the relationships among academic, sociometric, and personality variables of 242 children who were selected by their teachers as having behavior problems, learning problems, learning and behavior problems, or no problems. Results were generally supportive of teachers' ability to distinguish between children with problems and children…

Abused and nonabused boys were interviewed to determine their perceptions of parental characteristics, discipline techniques, and emotional acceptance/rejection as well as attributions for parental treatment. Wide variations between abused and nonabused children's perceptions were found. (Author)

Children differing in locus of control orientation (internals, mediums, and externals) were administered an extended coding task following either a fictional rationale for the study (purpose incentive statement) or no purpose. Implications of these findings for education and child-rearing are discussed. (Editor/RK)

This article illustrates the use of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to explicate constructs underlying performance assessment tasks based on Gardner's (1993) theory of multiple intelligences. Data from Plucker, Callahan, and Tomchin (1996) were reanalyzed using CFA. A model with three factors that combined linguistic and interpersonal…

Coping style and effects of counseling intervention on pain tolerance was studied for 61 elementary school students through immersion of hands in cold water. Bayesian predictive inference tools are able to distinguish between subject characteristics and manipulable treatments. Sensitivity analysis strengthens the certainty of conclusions about…

This paper examines the characteristics and behaviors which may exacerbate the vulnerability of children with an intellectual disability toward sexually abusive relationships. It focuses on incidence, characteristics of offenders, characteristics of children, consequences of sexual abuse, and challenges for intervention and prevention. (JDD)

A study compared characteristics of individuals with mild retardation and clinically classified as autistic disorder (n=205), Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS) (n=80), and other non-PDD disorders (n=174). Only a few items from the ICD-10 and DSM-IV discriminated the PDDNOS group from other disorders. Suggested…

Problem behaviors of 38 individuals with Cri-du-Chat syndrome, 55 individuals with Prader Willi syndrome, and 21 individuals with Smith-Magenis syndrome were investigated. All three disorders were Associated with greater ratings of problem behaviors (besides eating abnormalities and sleep abnormalities) than comparison groups. (Author/CR)

This article presents an analysis of patterns of giftedness based on the triarchic theory of intelligence. The analysis distinguishes among seven different patterns of giftedness and includes: the Analyzer, the Creator, the Practitioner, the Analytical Creator, the Analytical Practitioners, the Creative Practitioner, and the Consummate Balancer.…

A study of the motor skills of 60 children (aged 8-13), 30 with moderate low vision, found that the children with low vision had poorer motor skills than did sighted children. Furthermore, the children with low vision had weaker gross motor skills, especially balance, than fine motor skills. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Research in temperament attempts to explain the normal range of individual differences in adjusting to stimuli, activities, and persons in the environment. Mini-series reviews temperament constructs and relates them to development of children's interpersonal and academic difficulties. They show how understanding temperamental roots of…

This article discusses research that examined the effectiveness of cochlear implants. Findings indicate children implanted at younger ages do better, children who have been deaf a shorter time do better, and higher-level central processes such as perception, attention, learning, and memory may play important roles in explaining effectiveness…

A study involving 26 Taiwanese children (ages 6-12) with autism and 52 controls found scores on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test were significantly higher for controls for categories completed and percent conceptual level. Scores on perseverative responses, perseverative errors, and non-perseverative errors were higher for those with autism.…