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This study builds on earlier research locating individual differences in religious affect within the three dimensional space proposed by Eysenck. The 18-item Junior Personality Scales in Three Dimensions (JPS3D) were designed to refine Eysenck's conceptualisation of the three dimensions of personality and to improve measurement of these dimensions among children by employing a five-point rating scale. Data provided by 1048 students in fourth class, by 1044 students in fifth class, and by 1079 students in sixth class within Church of Ireland (Anglican) primary schools in the Republic of Ireland confirmed the clear factor structure of the 18 items on a varimax rotated solution, demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency reliability for the three indices in terms of Cronbach's alpha, and supported construct validity. Positive religious affect was associated with lower toughmindedness scores and higher extraversion scores, but independent of anxiety scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Left-behind children (LBC) account for more than one in five Chinese children and more frequently exhibit some personality deviations as a result of being separated from their parents. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to systematically review the personality traits of LBC using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Relevant studies were identified by searching various electronic databases, and 39 articles that contained 12,494 LBC and 10,381 non-LBC were ultimately included in this meta-analysis. Subgroup analyses by grades and sex were conducted to study the personality deviation rate and personality factor scores in LBC. The results indicated that the personality deviation rates of LBC were higher than those of non-LBC. LBC in middle school had higher personality deviation rates than LBC in elementary school. LBC in elementary school had higher neuroticism scores and psychoticism scores than non-LBC. In addition, the analysis of LBC in elementary school showed that boys had higher neuroticism scores but lower psychoticism scores than girls. In conclusion, this meta-analysis indicates that LBC, particularly those in middle school, exhibit higher rates of personality deviation. Meanwhile, regarding to LBC in elementary school, boys are more likely to exhibit emotional instability whereas girls are more likely to show a tendency toward psychoticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: The aim of the present study was to examine the moderating role of inhibitory control (IC) in the associations between shyness and young children’s social and school adjustment. Participants were 112 Italian children (M = 56.85 months, SD = 10.14) enrolled in preschool. Parents and teachers assessed child shyness and IC as well as indices of social and school adjustment. Children were interviewed to assess vocabulary. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed several significant interaction effects between shyness and IC in the prediction of outcome variables. Follow-up simple slope analyses indicated that among children with higher levels of IC, shyness was negatively related to prosocial behavior and popularity. In contrast, among children with lower levels of IC, shyness was positively associated with regulated school behaviors. Practice or Policy: The findings provide evidence to suggest that the combination of shyness and IC may contribute to children’s behavioral rigidity, which in turn may promote social and school adjustment difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research was to attempt to understand how the experience of having been a Jewish child hidden in France during the Occupation was transmitted to offspring. This analysis is based on research carried out among former hidden Jewish children, and the therapeutic follow-up provided in the setting of our clinical activities. The psychopathology of the first generation plays a role in the transmission process. The transmission of their history is also a source of ambivalence. This study shows how important it is to consider the complexity of personal histories and the distortions attendant on the transmission of these histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Amelioration of cross-cultural and cross-language impacts on scale validity should be of concern to the researcher. The Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children, ( HiPIC), a 144-item Five-Factor Model Flemish personality scale, is both a cross-cultural and language scale in Australia. The present study is a mixed method validation study of the translated version of the HiPIC for use within the Australian context. Method Cognitive interviewing of 10 end-users of the HiPIC identified potentially confusing items. Alternate items were generated by a team of developmental psychologists. A further sample of parents/carers of children aged 5-14 years ( N = 399) completed the HiPIC items. Iterative single-factor principal component analyses of the internal structure of facets were used to select psychometrically defensible items for an adapted HiPIC or HiPIC-A. The hierarchical model of the HiPIC-A was then confirmed against a Flemish HiPIC sample using Procrustes rotation, with external validity considered by comparison to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results The resulting HiPIC-A, reduced to 124 items including 13 adapted items, achieved sound internal consistency and high total congruence (0.98) with the Flemish sample. Regression against the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire demonstrated further support for external validity of the HiPIC-A. Conclusion The mixed method design was an effective approach to a cross-language cultural adaptation and validation of the HiPIC, confirming the robust nature of the HiPIC model. The potential for the adapted HiPIC-A to identify adaptive and maladaptive developmental trajectories in Australian children has important implications for practice and further research. On-going validation is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, a child psychotherapist, describes sessions with a ten-year-old girl who was adopted by a single mother after possibly sustaining abuse as a child at age four. The girl's personality, attachment to her adoptive mother, and communication abilities are discussed, as well as her play behavior, polarized emotions, and changes between manic and infantile behavior while in therapy sessions.

All children and young people need to play. The impulse to play is innate. Yet, the pure essence of play is playfulness a notion not new, yet limitedly researched. Playfulness refers to the individual style each child has to play, which is linked to personality descriptors and attributes. The present study had a twofold aim. On the one hand, it aimed at assessing Greek preschool children's playfulness employing Children's Playfulness Scale. On the other hand, it aimed at examining whether personal and family variables affect children's playfulness. Results suggest that the sample exhibits rather medium levels of playfulness and that during play they enact more cognitive spontaneity, compared with other components of playfulness. Thus, correlation analysis showed that playfulness components predict one another and that several personal and family characteristics correlate with playfulness' aspects. Implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A term increasingly used in psychoanalysis when referring to the analyst's role isdevelopmental object. However, it is often used descriptively and the meaning remains unclear. The history of the concept and an understanding of its current meaning are traced. Analytic material is presented as an illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the aspects of child analysis, based on the theoretical model on psychoanalytic development by psychoanalyst Anna Freud. She cites a clinical case of a preschool child, named Aiden, having various developmental conditions including separation anxiety, aggression, and feels unlovable and sad. She says that Aiden's personality can be considered as negative transference towards his analyst.

Ideas about child education are inevitably underpinned by particular views of children, including their nature and development. The purpose of this paper is to discuss C. G. Jung's account of child education in relation to his psychological theory and view of children. However, as Jung's theory predominantly concerns the psychological development of adults and not children, the current paper makes selective use of Jung's texts that focus on children, and examines what Jung calls 'the other half' of education that works through the teacher's personality indirectly affecting the student's development of personality. From a close study of Jung's texts, the paper discusses the nature and the extent of children's involvement in 'the other half' of education and considers some problems with Jung's account of unconscious education. The paper identifies the active and autonomous roles played by children in unconscious education and suggests that Jung's account of 'the other half of education' could provide fresh insights about the meaning and quality of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-standing issue in child clinical research is the integration of various informants, but this topic has not been comprehensively applied to the domain of child personality. Mothers and fathers rated their children (N = 346) on personality traits and behavioral problems. Mother–father agreement was highest for Conscientiousness and lowest for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. Each parent's ratings added incremental variance in predicting behavioral problems, and mother–father discrepancy predicted internalizing problems. These results suggest that both parents should be used as informants in child personality assessment and discrepancies might reflect meaningful variance with clinical utility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present work addresses the associations between self-reported maternal parenting behaviours and aggression, personality and peer regard of children (n = 119) in early childhood (ages three-six years). A k-means cluster analysis derived types of mothers based on their relative use of autonomy support and restrictive control. Outcomes included mother and teacher reports of physical and relational aggression, personality and peer acceptance as well as a peer nominations procedure for social reception. As hypothesised, children of mothers who report demonstrating little autonomy support and high restrictive control were more aggressive, less agreeable, conscientious, extraverted, and less well accepted by their peers. Findings are discussed in terms of maternal attributions of maternal behaviour, child behaviour in multiple contexts, and differential perceptions of mothers and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between components of emotional intelligence (EI) (interpersonal ability, intrapersonal ability, adaptability and stress management) and academic performance in English, maths and science was examined in a sample of 86 children (49 males and 37 females) aged 11-12 years during the primary-secondary school transition period. Results indicated that for both males and females, intrapersonal ability had little relationship with academic achievement, while adaptability had the strongest relationship with achievement in all subjects. Gender differences were particularly pronounced for science, for which stronger relationships were observed with all EI components for males. In addition, apparent only for males was a negative relationship between stress management and science. These findings offer support for the current inclusion of a personal and emotional element in the primary school curriculum, and indicate that such training is likely to help males more than females to make a successful transition from primary to secondary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are generally biophilic. Still, for unknown reasons, interest in animals vales substantially among individuals. Our goal was to investigate how differential interest of children towards animals might be related to social competence and personality. We proposed two alternatives: 1) Children may compensate for potential deficits in social competence by resorting to animals, and 2) Socially well-connected children may show a particular interest in animals. We focused on relationships between age, gender, family background, play behavior, personality components, and contact with rabbits in 50 children (22 boys/28 girls; 3 to 7 years of age) at a preschool in Krems/Austria. Data were analyzed using GLM. We found that each one of these variables had significant impact on intensity of engagement with the rabbits. In general, girls, children with siblings, and children without pets were more oriented towards the rabbits than were boys, children without siblings, or pet-owning children. The older the children, the less frequently they occupied themselves with the rabbits but the longer they remained when they did engage them. Furthermore, we found that the more "Confident/Respected" (PCA factor 1) and less "Patient/Calm," "Cheerful/Sociable," and "Solitary' (RCA factors 2-4) the children, the more time they spent in direct occupation with rabbits. Most effects of the investigated variables varied between boys and girls. By and large, our findings support the hypothesis that the "socially competent" children were particularly interested in the animals. Also, children's social styles, as evinced in interactions with peers, were generally reflected in how they interacted with the rabbits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues concerning culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with autism. It explains that children with autism tend to experience problems with their ability and personality, social competence, and learning achievement. It is noted that special educators must understand how CLD families view disability based on their cultural values and that the need for early interventions be identified. Child professionals are encouraged to expose autistic students in social development activities.

This study presents a validation of a scale that assesses parents' childrearing behavior toward young children. The scale was validated on 565 parents of 2- to 7-year-old children. The current results replicated the factor solution of the original scale designed for parents of school-aged children. The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties: moderate to high internal consistency, the expected relations with criterion variables (parental self-efficacy beliefs, child's behavior and personality), and discriminative properties according to the parents' gender and educational level, the child's age and gender, and the difference between referred and nonreferred children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shy children are wary in the face of new social situations and perceived social evaluation. In this regard, the transition to kindergarten may represent a particularly challenging task for shy children. In this review, we explore the kindergarten classroom as a particularly stressful context for shy children. We examine the adjustment difficulties that shy children may face when starting school, including problems with peers, teachers, and academics. We also consider what teachers can do to help ease the school adjustment problems of shy children. It is our hope to continue to raise awareness in parents, educators, and mental health care professionals with regards to the challenges that shy children face at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (Northern Ireland) was established in October 2002 to examine all aspects of the law, policy and provisions that affect people with mental health needs or a learning disability in Northern Ireland. Its report A Comprehensive Legislative Framework, which deals with the reform of law in this area, proposes significant change to mental health law, which is largely welcome. This article outlines some of those key changes and preliminary thoughts regarding the impact of some of the specific proposals on children and young people with mental health problems in Northern Ireland, highlighting those areas that warrant particular attention. Particular comment is made on current legislation and concerns regarding the funding and provision of child and adolescent services in Northern Ireland. Proposals in the Framework for the introduction of capacity legislation and the impact of such on children and young people with mental health problems are examined in light of recent legislative changes in Great Britain. Comment is also made on the need for significant changes in the law and policy regarding the provision of services and support to those children and young people with a personality disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During one of the several unsuccessful admission interviews I had before finally being admitted to a graduate program, an interviewer asked me what kind of research I would like to do as a psychologist. "I plan to validate the Rorschach" was my reply. "And what will you do if you find the Rorschach isn't valid?" was the interviewer's next question. I don't recall my answer but it was obviously inadequate because such an unlikely possibility hadn't occurred to me, and I wasn't admitted to that program. Looking back, it is very clear how one thing led to another so that instead of validating the Rorschach, I ended up exploring the contribution of genetic factors to stress ulcers in rats and children's personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study analyses free descriptions that mothers made of their child's personality. 210 descriptions of 3- and 9-year-old children were collected and analysed with respect to the five-factor model of personality. According to a first content analysis frame, personality descriptors, mainly trait adjectives and behavioural descriptors, have been coded with respect to the five factors of personality. Although mothers were only asked to describe their children's personality, their descriptions included different types of non-descriptive information. Mothers use social comparisons; they refer to stability or change as their child grows older and to consistency or inconsistency across contexts and moments; they give explanations of their child's personality. Finally, they refer to various forms of their childrearing behaviour. These qualifiers of the children's personality have been coded according to a second frame for content analysis and analysed with respect to the children's age, gender and mothers' educational level. They have also been correlated with the positive and negative polarity of the descriptors of personality. Finally, a microanalysis has been carried out for stability vs. change across time and consistency vs. inconsistency across situations and moments. Results indicate that mothers of 3-year-olds refer more often to stimulating childrearing behaviour than mothers of 9-year-olds. Explanations provided by mothers vary according to their educational level. Mothers referred more to intraindividual variations according to time and situations for girls than for boys. It also appeared that mothers qualified behaviour or traits that they thought were not “normal”. Furthermore they considered change in a positive direction and described their child's behaviour and traits as inconsistent across situations and moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational adoption has become a major means for involuntarily childless people to become a family, and for people who do not want to go through the ‘normal’ procedures to obtain a child. In this paper we present a comparative analysis of some pertinent features pertaining to the understanding of kinship that arise out of the practice of transnational adoption in Norway and Spain. For a variety of reasons, these two countries have achieved a leading role in the world of transnational adoption in so far as they adopt more children per capita than any other country. This is particularly interesting in light of the very different social and political situation of these two countries. Our focus will be on the concepts employed in the kinning process by adoptive parents and on how they symbolize bodies and personalities in attempts to create meaningful resemblances between themselves and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the hypothesis that negative self-schemas and a range of internalizing problems may be associated with social withdrawal in late childhood and early adolescence. The author used an in-school peer nominations from the Revised Class Play wherein 132 eleven-to-thirteen-year-old children were classified as withdrawn, aggressive or normative control. The self-referent rating task and Youth Self-Report completed the participating children revealed that socially withdrawn children or adolescents have higher levels of internalizing problems including shy or withdrawn behaviors, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and somatic problems.

The Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire for Children (NPQC) is a brief self‐report scale for measuring narcissism in children. In Study 1, a factor analysis on 370 children’s NPQC scores revealed four factors that were labeled superiority, exploitativeness, self‐absorption, and leadership. Study 2 established convergent and discriminant validities of the NPQC. NPQC scores were positively correlated with need for power/dominance, self‐esteem, aggression, and need for achievement, and unrelated to life satisfaction, as expected. Further support for the validity of the NPQC was obtained when findings were consistent with attachment theory’s interpretation of narcissistic children’s self‐perceptions. Study 3 investigated the temporal stability of scores. Results from Studies 1 and 3 show the NPQC to be an internally consistent measure (Cronbach alpha = .81) and to have adequate test–retest reliability ( r = .81). Implications for the education of aggressive and narcissistic children are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examined aspects of reliability and validity of the Goode-nough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test (DAP; D. B. Harris, 1963). The participants were 115 seven- to nine-year-old students attending regular or special education schools. Three judges, with a modest degree of training similar to that found among practicing clinicians, rated the students' human figure drawings on developmental and personality variables. The authors found that counting details and determining developmental level in the DAP test could be carried out reliably by judges with limited experience. However, the reliability of judgments of children's social and emotional development and personality was insufficient. Older students and students attending regular schools received significantly higher scores than did younger students or students attending special education schools. The authors found that the success of the DAP test as an indicator of cognitive level, socioemotional development, and personality is limited when global judgments are used. The authors concluded that more specific, reliable, valid, and useful scoring systems are needed for the DAP test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looked at how six infants in a group child care setting produced and appreciated humor. With the use of multiple qualitative methods, participant and non-participant observations, journal writing, videotaping, interviewing, and document review this study looked at children’s humor as indicated through their smiles and laughter. Findings of this study suggest that there are two theories that best describe young children’s humorous behavior, namely the Theory of the Absurd and Empowerment Theory. The Theory of the Absurd includes events that are out of the ordinary and violate children’s existing schemata. It emphasizes the incongruity of an event through funny gestures or positions, the incongruous use of materials and actions. Empowerment Theory describes young children’s ability to violate the expectations of their caregivers and use humor to empower themselves. It highlights a different form of incongruity which has to do with the violation of expectations, intentionally or otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven-year-olds completed a Posner cued attention task, under both neutral and affectively charged conditions. Compared to the traditional (affect-neutral) Posner task, performance in the affective Posner task was marked by dramatic decreases in reaction times (RTs), an increase in errors, an increased validity effect (difference in RTs to the cued vs. uncued trials), and increased electrocortical activity. Temperamentally shy children in the study differed from their non-shy peers within the affective Posner task only, exhibiting larger event-related potentials amplitudes and right electroencephalogram asymmetry. In addition, shy children preferentially attended to the negative cues presented during the task. These data reinforce the notion that the functional balance between cognition and affect is sensitive to both contextual and individual characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provision of a coherent "parenting," "teaching," and "developmental" program is a complex undertaking. It has all the makings of an organizational, managerial, and therapeutic nightmare when different types of workers, with marked differences in personality and values, become responsible for different children with a variety of problems in a living-learning environment. Without an action plan to help engender a shared language for practice, the needs of both children and staff are at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antisocial behaviour in children and youth was examined in relation to the biosocial personality theory of Hans Eysenck. Eysenck's theory is based on three independent personality traits that reflect hypothesised temperament source traits affecting behavioural predisposition. The theory holds that the interaction of the three temperament traits Psychoticism (P), Extroversion (E), and Neuroticism (N) with socialisation experiences produce personality. Eysenck's measurement instruments also contain a Lie (L) scale that has been shown to function as an index of socialisation or social conformity. Eysenck's antisocial behaviour (ASB) hypothesis predicts that individuals at risk for developing ASB have above average P scale scores. Further, individuals who are also high on the E and N scales and below average on the L scale are at the greatest risk. The current article provides an overview of the theory and an evaluation of the research support for the ASB hypothesis in children and youth. The evaluation supported the role of P and L in ASB. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examined the tripartite model of personality, which emphasizes negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity ( PA ) as central organizing dimensions of personality that are useful for discriminating psychopathologies. Conceptualizations of youth temperament also include second-order, organizing factors of negative emotionality/ neuroticism and positive emotionality/extroversion that may differentially predict psychopathologies. A community sample of 290 10- to 17-year-old youth completed the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS), Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule, and measures of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Factor analysis replicated the 5-factor structure of the EAS and revealed 2 independent second-order factors, negative temperament (NT) and positive temperament (PT). NT and PT demonstrated convergent and discriminant relations with NA and PA. Consistent with the tripartite model NT was associated with both anxiety and depression scores, but PT was related to depression scores only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports observations made during a study investigating the role of a therapy dog in reducing anxiety in urban children visiting the dentist. The design and execution of the study were affected by methodological issues such as the reaction of urban children to the dog in the clinic, the tools used to measure anxiety in the children, the age and pet-ownership status of the children, and the personality of the therapy dog. Suggestions made for researchers designing similar studies include allowing children to become comfortable with the therapy dog before beginning formal data collection, working with younger children who have made fewer visits to the dentist, and using or developing more accurate tools for measuring behavioral and physiological anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that gifted students enjoy relatively good social and emotional adjustment, vibrant mental health, and overall well being. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and a significant number of gifted students experience painful, troubling and often debilitating psychological problems. Gifted children and youth possess a set of personality characteristics that make them uniquely vulnerable. School personnel and parents need to be cognizant of these risk factors so that they can provide coordinated and comprehensive educational and social opportunities to foster resilience and, when needed, provide preventive and therapeutic mental health interventions for those gifted students with actual psychological problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Violence is a part of children's day to day reality. Up to 18% of school-age children are being bullied at any one time (Olweus, 1989) and in many families and cultures corporal punishment is seen as not only acceptable but necessary (Straus & Donelly, 1993). Yet it is still regarded as surprising when children become the perpetrators of violence. This article will survey the individual and environmental factors suggested to be causative in the genesis of violence, considering for each what evidence supports the association with violence and by what mechanisms they may cause violence to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The influence of the achievement motives, the future time orientation (FTO), the level of ability, sex of S, and perceived intrinsic instrumentality of school activity (PiI) were considered in relation to manifested test anxiety (i.e., state anxiety) at school. The analyses of results, based on data from 507 pupils in the sixth grade in elementary school showed that the achievement motives and the individual's FTO played the major roles, with success-oriented pupils having lower test anxiety than failure-oriented pupils, and high FTO pupils lower test anxiety than low FTO pupils. Ability was negatively related to test anxiety, and girls had higher test anxiety than boys. The PiI revealed no main effect on test anxiety. However, its significant interaction with the other variables indicated that the influence of the personality factors on test anxiety was most pronounced under high PiI condition. A number of interactions between the variables indicated that they had a complex relation to manifested test anxiety at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The effect of child spacing and family size on intelligence, personality, and social competence were studied in 533 suburban, middle class children in large (five or more) and small (two-child) families. Spacing was measured as to the next oldest sibling (Space-Old) and to the next youngest (Space-Young). Spacing measures were trichotomized into three categories: close (18 months or less), medium (19 to 30 months), and distant (more than 30 months). Standardized intelligence scores, the Test of Effective Academic Motivation, the Cattell High School Personality Questionnaire, questions about their participation in clubs, level of occupational aspiration, job orientation, and other personality scales were used. In corroboration with the Zajonc and Marcus model, the more closely spaced younger child was found to be less intelligent. However, these closely spaced children were also found to belong to more athletic teams, to be more interested in getting a job, and to be more ambitious occupationally. These closely spaced children tended to be more self-sufficient, more sober and serious, and more relaxed about protocol than were those children with a greater distance from their next oldest sibling. Most of these findings were significant only for large family children, spacing having less effect in children from two-child families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY A construct validation study of dimensions of children's behavior problems was carried out with use of multiple linear regression. The Ss were 76 latency-aged boys in residential treatment. The dimensions involved were Conduct Disorder and Inadequacy-Immaturity. The predictor variables were activity level, impulsivity, and soft signs of neurological damage. Results indicated that Conduct Disorder was significantly predicted by activity level, in combination with impulsivity. Inadequacy-Immaturity was significantly predicted by activity level and soft signs. A third dimension, Personality Disorder, was found to be uncorrelated with the three predictor variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares two groups of Israeli boys and girls in Grades 4-8, one intellectually gifted and one nongifted, on several indices of personal-social adjustment. Results showing more positive self-concept, more internal locus of control, a lower level of general anxiety, and a still lower level of test anxiety for the gifted group; Comparison of results between boys and girls.

Presents a study which charted the increase with age in trait inference and examined the accompanying organizational processes. Subjects, which included males and females at each grade level from kindergarten through sixth; Method; Findings; Observation that trait inference appeared as early as kindergarten and increased in frequency up to sixth grade; Capacity for hierarchical organization.

Three hundred thirty seven mothers and 307 fathers completed the Child Rearing Practices Questionnaire (CRPQ). Children of these parents were given the High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ) and factor scores derived from the CRPQ were used in regression equations to predict each of the HSPQ variables in turn. It was found that the majority of the personality variables could be significantly predicted from the child-rearing practices measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study conducted to determine whether creative experiences in workshops of children's art are effective in helping children with learning difficulties improve their reading skills by eliminating the ill effects of deprivation on their personal development. It is reported that the staff of the Education Department of the Pasadena Art Museum in California conducted research regarding this between October 1963 and May 1964. The hypothesis, procedure and outcome of this investigation are reported. It states that the results justify further exploration of the use of creative art in modifying the personality of deprived children.

The article discusses various aspects of children's art. It describes the major factors that determine children's art. It also refers to a study conducted to develop and employ a scale for examining the changing features of child art. Most of the studies conducted in this field present different outcomes. Some of them reflect the influence of personality dispositions on the drawings by children; one puts emphasis on the level of conceptual maturity, while another explanation holds that the changes found in children's drawings are influenced by the child's ability to perceive visual differences. Certain other outcomes suggest the environment of upbringing as responsible for such changes.

The article presents a list of books which have been recently published. Some of the titles include "Common Sense About Gifted Children," by W. Abraham, " Measuring Security in Personal Adjustment," by M.D. Ainsworth and L.H. Ainsworth, "Personality Assessment Procedures: Psychometric, Projective, and Other Approaches," by R.M. Allen, "Function Fluctuation," by C.C. Anderson, "Personality and Organization: The Conflict Between System and the Individual," by C. Argyis, "Personal, Impersonal, and Interpersonal Relations," by G. Burton, "The Cerebral Cortex and the Internal Organs," by K.M. Bykov, "The Psychiatric Hospital as a Small Society," by W. Caudill, "The Psychology of Religion," by W.H. Clark, "Anatomist at Large," by G.W. Corner, "The Psychology of Learning," by J. Deese, "Professional Ethics and Civic Morals," by E. Durkheim, "Statistical Analysis," by A. L. Edwards, "The Teaching and Learning of Psychotherapy," by R. Ekstein and R.S. Wallerstein, "A Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychological and Psychoanalytical Terms," by H.B. English and A.C. English.

The focus of this article is to report whatever personality and attitudinal differences result from a comparison of a group of Israeli 10-year olds, residing in rural areas, with a similar sample of children from the U.S. The ages of the children examined ranged from nine years, six months to 11 years, three months. The American sample consisted of 52 fourth-and fifth-grade children from rural Michigan. The Israeli sample, which was used as a control group in testing some psychodynamic hypotheses with Kibbutz children, consisted of 45 subjects drawn from several small villages. The samples were about evenly divided as to sex; there were 26 boys and 26 girls in the American sample, and 24 boys and 21 girls in the Israeli one. No significant differences in age and intelligence were obtained. The Sentence Completion Test was administered in groups as part of a larger battery of tests. The incomplete sentences appeared on a mimeographed sheet with ample blank space left over for completion. The youngsters with reading difficulties were particularly handicapped and were unable to complete the entire test within the allotted time of 50 minutes.

The article presents a note on Bernreuter Personality testing of mothers and some measures of child personality. The present paper reports the results of a study of the relationship between the Bernreuter scores of mothers and certain measures of child behavior and personality, specifically, with ratings on child personality and behavior in the nursery school by means of the Fels Child Behavior Scales, with the social maturity quotients of the children, and with the scores of a group of older children on the Brown Personality Inventory. The correlations are all low, and not statistically significant, and are moreover lower than those found between the Bernreuter scores and parent-child behavior, as might be expected. The Bernreuter scores of mothers were correlated with child behavior ratings at the nursery school level, with scores on the Brown Personality Inventory for a group of older children, and with Social Maturity Quotients for a larger group including a wider age range. The resulting correlations are all low and not statistically significant.

This article compared individual differences in personality with those in intelligence. It proposed differences of the first category which appear to be very similar to--yet uncorrelated with those of the second category--and suggested the following points for measuring them by means of inventories: (a) Select personality questions involving only content which has been at all times and in all respects most equally presented to all subjects; (b) select questions of such a nature that answers given by a subject at one age can be used to predict his answers to the same or other questions at other ages; (c) limit the inventories to individuals of similar social backgrounds; and (d) begin the search for valid inventories by first working with adults rather than children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article determines the general trends of the effects of the educational system on an unselected group of inferior as compared with an unselected group of superior school children. Two groups of children were selected for purposes of this study. The first group consisted of 51 children with intelligent quotient (IQ) of 110 or over and the second group consisted of 51 children below 90 in IQ. The object of the investigation was to compare the kind and degree of personality and behavior maladjustments of the above two groups. This was carried out by means of a rating scale of 102 personality and behavior maladjustments. An interesting light is thrown on the personality traits of inferior children by the tendency found in them to play with children younger than themselves. One element in this seems to be their urge to dominate which, not receiving any adequate outlet with children of their own age, seeks its outlet with smaller and younger children. This is probably accentuated by the feelings of inferiority of inferior children, which make them bolster up their ego by overcompensation in bossing these younger children.

Meyer, Erdberg, and Shaffer (2007) pointed to significant variability across nonpatient samples of children and adolescents included in the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003) international project. Consequently, Meyer et al. stated that applying standard interpretive guidelines for children and adolescents would result in some inaccurate inferences about mental health and recommended inferring difficulties in a child's protocol in cases in which a score on a given variable deviates from the most extreme normative samples' mean. In this Comment, we explore this idea and provide the clinician with basic guidelines for interpreting young patients' protocols in which structural data are used jointly with developmental and contextual factors. We present these guidelines in relation to a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Emotionality, activity, sociability and impulsivity (EASI) and components of each trait were studied in a sample of 137 pairs of young twins (two to six years of age) and their parents (548 individuals). Parents rated themselves and their spouses on an adult version of the EASI Temperament Survey and rated both of their twins on a child version of the EASI. Patterns of both identical and fraternal twin correlations (twin study) and parent-child correlations (family study) were consistent with the hypothesis that the EASI traits are influenced by genetic factors, but the two studies disagreed in the magnitude of that influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While several school-based mental health promotion programs have attempted to enhance resilience, coping skills and optimistic thinking (e.g., MindMatters, Commonwealth of Australia, 2000; Bright Ideas, Cunningham, Brandon, & Frydenberg, 1999), there has been little promotion conducted outside the school context, and particularly with preadolescents. 'Reach Rookys' is an innovative, community-based program for children aged 10 to 12 years developed by The Reach Foundation, a nonprofit Victorian youth organisation. The goal of the program is to foster resilient qualities in children that will 'buffer' them against potential problems in the future. To achieve this, Rookys run interactive 2-day programs and follow-up programs during the school holidays. This study is following children who participate in the program and attempting to identify whether there has been an increase in psychosocial markers of resilience. The aims of this research project therefore are: to assess changes in pre-program levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy, mood, coping and psychosocial adjustment (using well validated and reliable quantitative measures) at 3-month and 6-month follow-up, and controlling for the possible influence of intelligence and temperament; to investigate whether some children benefit from the program more than others do; and to identify these individual psychosocial characteristics which predict successful outcomes. It is hypothesised that: participants will show improvement in their confidence, self-esteem, mood, and in their approach to handling everyday situations and problems. Pre-program levels of psychosocial adjustment, as well as intelligence and temperament, will predict the degree of psychosocial improvement in response to the program. To date, baseline data have been gathered for 94 children participating in programs during each term break across 2002. Sample characteristics and preliminary findings will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights a study which examined the effect of education on the relationship between social class and parental values in Taiwan. Data for this research were obtained in 984 and 1985 from household interviews that were conducted as pan of the Basic Survey of Social changes in Taiwan, The subjects were I,2 10 employed adults who were married (with spouse present) and had at least one child 3 years of age or older. Education was measured in terms of four levels: (a) less than a high school degree, (b) high school degree, (c) some college, and (d) 4-year college degree and postgraduate education. The higher the level of parental education, the greater the emphasis on obedience. Regarding the other five items, the higher the level of parental education, the less frequent were gender differences in the severity of punishment, physical punishment, the assignment of disciplinary activities to the mother, emphasis on the importance of filial duty, and emphasis on responsibility. Parental education was not significantly related to beliefs in using strict discipline in child rearing, allowing children complete freedom to promote the development of a wholesome personality, and teaching independence, responsibility, thrift, patience, and humility.

Summarizes a study on the determinants of children's locus of control (LOC) in personality functioning. Limitations to the external validity of LOC scales; Computation of Pearson correlations between maternal LOC orientation and child-rearing style and the children's LOC indices; Interpretation of results.