This paper reports the results of a high-risk study of children under age 18 of parents who served as probands in a family study of comorbidity of substance abuse and anxiety disorders. There was a strong degree of specificity of familial aggregation of both the anxiety disorders and substance disorders. Rates of conduct disorder and depression were elevated among offspring of all affected parents. Inclusion of co-parent disorders in the evaluation of familial transmission in the present study strengthened the findings regarding the specificity of transmission of the anxiety disorders and the links between both parental substance abuse and antisocial personality with child conduct disorder.

Contemporary findings suggest that the imagination of autistic children is not as limited as was once thought. In contrast, Scott and Baron-Cohen (1996) claim that children with autism are unable to draw pictures of impossible entities. An experiment showed that children with autism, children with moderate learning disabilities, and normal 4-year-olds were equally successful at identifying real and impossible pictures and at completing pictures to make them look either real or impossible. The previously reported inability to draw “impossible” pictures is unlikely to reflect an imaginative deficit and may instead result from a misunderstanding of the task or limitations in the executive abilities required to plan and draw an unusual picture for the first time.

Deaf children aged 4 to 16 years were given a false-belief test of theory of mind. Although the children experienced difficulty with the test, relative to hearing children, confirming a report by Peterson and Siegal (1995), performance was age-related, with a significantly higher proportion of 13- to 16-year-olds passing the test. It was concluded that deaf children raised in a spoken language environment show a developmental delay in theory of mind acquisition. This delay is consistent with the assumption that their early opportunities for learning about mental states are relatively restricted and that the normal development of theory of mind is dependent upon such opportunities.

Forty-one children reared in group care were compared with 41 age- and sex-matched family care children according to interview, questionnaire, and observation measures of behavioural and scholastic functioning. Individual differences in outcome within the group care sample were examined in relation to a range of possible risk/protective indicators. The strongest predictor of outcome proved to be the reason for admission into residential care, with the implication that the outcome was best for children who had experienced stable, harmonious family relationships in their early years. The risk and protective effects applied to both the children's behaviour and scholastic attainments but, although the two were intercorrelated, neither accounted for the other. All subgroups of children in institutional care failed to show a lack of confiding peer relationships, with the pattern of findings suggesting that this stemmed from some aspect of experiences (possibly involving peer relationships) during residential care, as well as from discontinuity in caregiving during the early years.

This study was designed to examine the classification performance of diagnostic rules for pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and multiple complex developmental disorder (McDD), with clinical diagnosis as the gold standard. McDD is an heuristic concept of a developmental disorder characterised by social impairments, affective dysregulation, and thought disturbance. Detailed information on the symptoms, reliably extracted from the charts of 103 children with PDD-NOS and McDD, 32 with autistic disorder, and 96 with non-PDD disorders, was used to determine the presence of the DSM-IV criteria of autistic disorder and the criteria of McDD. A scoring rule for PDD-NOS based on a short set of seven DSM-IV criteria with a cut-off point of three items and one social interaction item set as mandatory had the best balance between high sensitivity and high specificity. The most effective and simple rule based on McDD criteria had a cut-off of three items, out of six items of anxieties and thought disturbance.

In this study we examined relations between adolescents' perception of parental care and intrusiveness and the abilities–achievement gap. Cognitive abilities and academic achievement were assessed for 200 Israeli 10th graders. Representations of maternal and paternal care and intrusiveness and externalizing and internalizing symptoms were self-reported. Gender differences were found for the abilities–achievement gap. Boys' achievement in mathematics and language was significantly lower than could be expected from abilities in these domains. Representations of maternal care predicted achievement while aptitude and socioemotional symptoms were controlled and moderated the relations of abilities and achievement. Paternal representations were unrelated to abilities or achievement. Among boys, maternal intrusiveness had a unique contribution to the prediction of achievement, above and beyond abilities, socioemotional symptoms, and maternal care. The relevance of the findings to cognitive and attachment perspectives on adolescent achievement is discussed.

ADHD is a familial disorder with high rates of comorbidity with conduct disorder in childhood and antisocial personality and substance use disorders in adulthood. A growing literature suggests that ADHD with antisocial comorbidity may be nosologically distinct from other forms of ADHD. Previously, we proposed a family-based stratification that defined Antisocial families as those with either conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder in the probands or relatives. To provide predictive validity for that stratification, we assessed psychopathology in these families 4 years after their initial assessment. Results show that the probands and siblings from Antisocial families had higher rates of psychopathology during the 4-year follow-up period compared with siblings from Non-antisocial and control families. They also had more deviant ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist (especially for anxious/depressed, delinquent, and aggressive behavior). We found fewer group differences in the academic, psychosocial, and intellectual correlates of ADHD. These results confirm and extend previous work indicating that Antisocial ADHD may be a nosologically and clinically meaningful subform of ADHD.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether impaired response inhibition is uniquely related to AD/HD or whether deficits in response inhibition are also evident in other psychopathological disorders. Furthermore, the suggestion was examined that anxiety disorders are associated with abnormally high levels of response inhibition. This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis of eight studies in which response inhibition was assessed with the so-called stop task in five groups of children: children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), children with conduct disorder (CD), children with AD/HD+CD, children with anxiety disorders, and control children. A total of 456 children participated in the 8 studies. All children were in the age range 6–12 years. Consistent and robust evidence was found for a response inhibition deficit in AD/HD. However, response inhibition deficits did not distinguish children with AD/HD from children with CD, nor from children with comorbid AD/HD+CD. Contrary to predictions, anxious children did not demonstrate enhanced levels of response inhibition.

In a test of Patterson's Coercion Theory with young children, 156 children (82 boys and 74 girls) were studied to assess the extent to which parenting and child variables, assessed at 18 months, would predict teacher ratings of externalizing child behaviors at age 5. Child playgroup behavior, parent coercion during home observations, and marital status each emerged as predictors, whereas child temperament, attachment classification, and gender did not. At age 5, the correlates of externalizing behaviors differed for boys and girls. Boys rated higher on externalizing behaviors by the teachers presented many problems in the home and school, whereas externalizing girls did not. In fact, girls rated higher on externalizing behaviors performed better on an intelligence test, yet the girls perceived themselves as less competent.

The relationship between age of asthma onset and behavioral adjustment was analyzed using data from a longitudinal prospective investigation of 150 children identified prenatally as at genetic risk for developing asthma (the W. T. Grant Asthma Risk Study). The children's development and asthma status were monitored regularly for 6 years. Mothers were interviewed yearly using the Behavioral Screening Questionnaire (BSQ). Children who had an early onset of asthma (by 3 years of age) had significantly more behavior problems at age 4 than children who developed asthma later (between 3 and 6 years of age). Furthermore, the early-onset group had significantly more problems at age 6 than both children who developed asthma later and children who never developed asthma. Children with early asthma onset were compared to children who were asthma free on individual problem items of the BSQ, revealing a profile of behavior problems that included waking at night, depressed mood, and some indication of increased fearfulness. This profile is consistent with an earlier report of behavior problems among severely asthmatic preschool children (Mrazek, Anderson, & Strunk, 1984), who displayed the same internalizing behavior problems on the BSQ. These results suggest that early asthma onset may have predictable negative influences on behavioral adjustment over a wider range of asthma severity than has previously been reported.

Abbreviations: BSQ: Behavioral Screening Questionnaire.

The current study examined the relationships of anxiety, depression, and self-esteem with Perceived Body Image Dissatisfaction (PBID) in a nonclinical population of 516 adolescents, aged 12 to 18. The prevalence of PBID was comparative with previous findings. Interestingly, actual body mass and psychological well-being variables were found to be significantly related with PBID, whilst being independent of each other. Findings support proposals that PBID arises from a complex interplay of factors, including gender, self-esteem, and actual body mass. In particular, our findings highlight the need for future research of a prospective nature incorporating psychological, sociocultural, and maturational factors.

Abbreviations: BMI: Body Mass Index; EAT-26: Eating Attitudes Test; EDI-2: Eating Disorder Inventory; FRS: Figure Rating Scale; PBID: Perceived Body Image Dissatisfaction; RADS: Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale; RCMAS: Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale; RSES: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

The categorical consequences and psychometric properties of different sociometric classification methods were evaluated. Children aged 9 to 12 years (N=254) completed three sociometric questionnaires and a peer assessment measure on two occasions 5 weeks apart. The sociometric data were analysed using 13 different methods. Analysis of kappa values indicated relatively poor agreement across methods on subject classification. Temporal stability of the classifications was also poor. Assessment of construct validity involved analysis of the peer assessment items, using MANOVA to test hypotheses based on ideas from social exchange theory. Cross-sex rating biases and difficulties with the neglected and controversial classifications are discussed as indicating a need for the application of theoretically based approaches which consider features of the peer group social system and a need for caution in selecting methods for clinical use.

In previous papers (Sims, Henderson, Hulme, & Morton, 1996a; Sims, Henderson, Morton, & Hulme, 1996b) we have found that the motor skills of clumsy children are capable of significant improvement following relatively brief interventions. Most remarkably, this included a 10-minute intervention while testing the kinaesthetic acuity of the children using a staircase method (Pest). In this paper, we show that Pest testing improves the kinaesthetic acuity of normal children as well. We analyse the available data on the development and improvement of motor skills and kinaesthetic acuity and derive a causal model for the underlying skills. We show that at least three independent cognitive/biological components are required to account for the data. These three components are affected differently by the various interventions that have been tried. We deduce that improvement on a general test of motor impairment can be found as a result of training in kinaesthetic acuity or through other, independent factors.

There are mixed research results in the literature regarding a possible association between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and atopic disorders. If such an association were supported, the implications for underlying pathophysiology would be significant. We evaluated level of atopic responsiveness (based on IgE-mediated response to skin prick tests) in 312 referrals to a pediatric allergist. Based on the atopy code, children were categorized as non-atopic, or moderately or severely atopic. Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Univariate analyses on the eight CBCL subscales revealed no differences between the atopic groups. Our results do not support an association between IgE-mediated atopic responsiveness and ADHD, but they do not rule out an association between allergic symptoms and ADHD based on some other mechanism.

Variations in children's problem behaviors associated with ethnicity and other demographic variables were examined in 6–18-year-old children (N=804) residing in a multicultural environment. The Child Behavior Checklist–Teacher's Report Form was used to compare the frequency of behavior problems among clinic-referred and nonreferred children of Hawaiian, Asian, and Caucasian ethnicities. Children who were male, clinic-referred, or of Caucasian or Hawaiian ancestry experienced greater levels of behavioral problems. Explanations concerning ethnic variations in children's problem behaviors include: teacher's perceptual bias, differences in teacher threshold to report problem behaviors, and/or true variations in children's behavior.

In order to find out whether parents and teachers report depressive symptoms in children with self-reported depression and which features are connected with sought psychiatric care, a sample of 5682 prepubertal children was assessed with the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), the Rutter A2 scale (RA) and Rutter B2 scale (RB). In stepwise regression analysis of parent report, depressed mood, unpopularity, social withdrawal, disobedience, inattentiveness, and stealing were associated with high CDI scores. The items of the teacher report associated with high CDI scores included poor school performance, restlessness, somatic complaints, unresponsiveness, being bullied, and absenteeism from school. Although the parents and teachers readily saw and reported depressive symptoms in children, only for a small minority of children with multiple depressive symptoms had psychiatric care been sought or even considered. The symptoms associated with sought psychiatric care for depressed children were somatic (soiling, asthma) and behavioural (disobedient, restless). The results indicate that a large number of children with multiple depressive symptoms are left without necessary psychiatric assessment and help.