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A growing body of research has documented factors that predict happiness in adults; however, studies on children's happiness have just begun. The aim of this study was to explore Argentine children's reasons for happiness. The sample included 120 children between the ages of 7 and 9 years (M= 8.03; SD= 0.72) who attended Argentine public schools. The Face Scale was used to evaluate how children assess happiness and a focused interview was conducted to obtain their spontaneous verbal descriptions of what made them happy. A content analysis was then conducted was after the interviews. Most of the children reckoned that family and friendships were the main sources of happiness. They also mentioned different kinds of activities as sources of happiness, like school, recreation and leisure activities, and owning and playing with pets. These findings may be useful for designing mental health programs aimed at promoting positive socio-emotional development during childhood.

A growing body of research has documented factors that predict happiness in adults; however, studies on children's happiness have just begun. The aim of this study was to explore Argentine children's reasons for happiness. The sample included 120 children between the ages of 7 and 9 years (M= 8.03; SD= 0.72) who attended Argentine public schools. The Face Scale was used to evaluate how children assess happiness and a focused interview was conducted to obtain their spontaneous verbal descriptions of what made them happy. A content analysis was then conducted was after the interviews. Most of the children reckoned that family and friendships were the main sources of happiness. They also mentioned different kinds of activities as sources of happiness, like school, recreation and leisure activities, and owning and playing with pets. These findings may be useful for designing mental health programs aimed at promoting positive socio-emotional development during childhood.

The purposes of this study were to examine the type of response to different situations displayed by children with or without conduct disorders and to assess the efficacy of the social skills training program herein proposed for modifying styles of interpersonal relationship in children. The sample included 315 children, 8 to 12 years of age. Those exhibiting conduct problems were 164 boys, and those having no conduct problems were 151 boys. All participants shared a low socioeconomic and cultural status and attended schools located in poor districts of Mendoza City in Argentina. Analysis showed that the groups trained in social skills improved in social interaction by reducing disruptive behaviors, whereas the groups without social skills training showed no behavioral changes. These data were confirmed by the teachers' assessments. These results suggest social skills training seems an efficient therapeutic approach to the attenuation of behavior disorders of boys.