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Abstract: Research increasingly demonstrates the detrimental effects of psychologically controlling parenting on children's adjustment. An important and practically relevant question is whether some children are more vulnerable for the effects of psychologically controlling parenting. In the current diary study, we investigated whether daily psychologically controlling parenting relates to children's daily externalizing and internalizing problems and whether these associations depend on child personality. A total of 206 children (M age = 9.93 years; 46.6% female) along with their mothers and fathers (M age = 40.30 and 42.40 years) participated in this multi‐informant diary study. All three family members filled out a diary each day for seven days. Multilevel analyses indicated that daily maternal and paternal psychological control were positively related to daily externalizing and internalizing problems, a pattern that was fairly consistent across informants. Out of the 35 interactions tested, only three turned out to be significant. Overall, the limited number of interactions suggests that psychologically controlling parenting is generally detrimental to children's daily functioning. Still, children differ somewhat in their susceptibility to the effect of psychologically controlling parenting. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Based on the premise that father-child play is an important context for children's development and that fathers 'specialize' in play, similarities and differences in the role of playfulness in the father-child and mother-child relationship were examined. Participants in this study included 111 families (children's age: 1-3 years). Father-child and mother-child play interactions were videotaped and coded for parental playfulness, sensitivity, structuring, and nonintrusiveness as well as child negativity. Results indicated that mothers and fathers did not differ in playfulness and that mothers and fathers who were higher in playfulness had children with lower levels of negativity. However, playfulness differently moderated the links between parents' and children's behaviors for mothers and fathers. A double-risk pattern was found for mothers, such that the links between child negativity and maternal sensitivity, structuring, and nonintrusiveness were significant only for the subgroup of mothers with low levels of playfulness. When mothers had high levels of playfulness, these effects were negligible. For fathers, a double-buffer pattern was revealed, indicating that the links between child negativity and paternal sensitivity and structuring were significant only for fathers with high levels of playfulness. When fathers had low levels of playfulness, these effects were negligible. These findings demonstrate the important role that parental playfulness has on parent-child interaction as well as the need to examine moderation patterns separately for fathers and mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Play observations with a total of 400 toddlers and preschoolers were videotaped and rated for Intensity and Quality of play with their parents. Parents were asked about perceived stress and personality characteristics (Big 5). Child's motor, cognitive skills, temperament, and internalizing behaviors were assessed. Study 1 investigated the robustness of play across child age and gender, and examined differences between fathers and mothers. Study 2 explored the vulnerability of play with fathers of children born preterm (PT-fathers) and fathers who had experienced adverse childhoods (AC-fathers). Study 3 investigated child internalizing behaviors. Intensity of play was maintained almost independently of child age and gender. It was similar for AC- and PT-fathers, and similar to maternal Intensity. In contrast, paternal Quality of play was higher with boys and independent of fathers' personality and perceived parenting stress whereas maternal Quality of play was higher with girls and linked to mothers' perceived parenting competence, acceptability of the child, and neuroticism. AC-fathers scored significantly low on Quality, as did PT-fathers, but the Quality of their play became better with growing child age, birth weight, and cognitive (but not motor and temperament) scores. Finally, child internalizing behaviors were negatively related to paternal Quality of play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locus of control is one of the most widely studied concepts in the history of personality psychology. In spite of its popularity and its associations with numerous relevant outcomes, the ability of locus of control to predict future behaviors involving parenting effectiveness has been under researched. The few parent locus of control children's outcome studies are characterized by cross-sectional methodologies that focus on mothers. The present study uses a prospective methodology to compare data on mothers' and fathers' locus of control with their child's behavior outcomes from a large scale research project, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Based on Rotter's Social Learning Theory published in 1954 and past empirical research, it was predicted and found that parent internality was associated with more positive child outcomes than parent externality. More specifically, when both parents were internal, their children had more positive outcomes in sleeping, eating, and tantrum behavior as compared to any other parent locus of control combination. However external parents had a less restrictive attitude which appeared to have a more beneficial effect on picky eating. Results confirmed how important parent locus of control is in the lives of children. Based on the findings, researchers are urged to develop interventions to change advice to parents and promote more internal locus of control among parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis that parental narcissism is related to depression and anxiety of the young adult children and that this relationship is mediated by the parental rearing style as reported by the offspring was investigated. Subjects were 409 young adults (264 females), aged 22.85 (SD= 2.00) and their parents. Parental narcissism was measured with the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI); the rearing style, as remembered by the offspring, was measured with the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) that includes Parkers's scales of care and overprotection and Gilbert's scales of put-down/shaming and favouritism; depression and anxiety were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) respectively. Two total mediation models (one for fathers and one for mothers), including parental NPI as a predictor, PBI scales as mediators and children's scores on BDI and STAI as criteria, showed adequate goodness of fit indices. The sums of indirect effects of both paternal and maternal narcissism on children's depression and anxiety, via all rearing style dimensions, were significant. These results suggest that parental narcissism is related to children's depression and anxiety and that this relationships is mediated by the rearing style as recalled by the offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between childhood trauma and personality traits has been poorly characterized and reported. Our aim was to evaluate whether distinct types of childhood abuse and neglect are associated with various personality dimensions using data from a large web-based survey. A total of 12,225 volunteers responded anonymously to the Internet versions of the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) via our research website, but only 8,114 subjects (75.7% women, mean age 34.8 ± 11.3 yrs) who met the criteria for validity were included in the analysis. Childhood trauma was positively associated with harm avoidance and was negatively associated with self-directedness and, to a lesser extent, with cooperativeness. The associations were robust with emotional abuse and neglect but were non-significant or mild with physical trauma. Emotional neglect was associated with reduced reward dependence and persistence. All types of abuse, but not neglect, were associated with increased novelty seeking scores. Reporting of childhood trauma, especially of an emotional nature, was associated with maladaptive personality traits. Further investigation of the effects of different types of childhood trauma on psychological and neurobiological parameters is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to find evidences of validity through the analysis of correlation among anxiety indicators of Human Figure Drawing Test -- HFD -- of Karen Machover and the Scale of Personality Trait for Children. 240 children took part in this research, being them both male and female, with age ranging from 8 to 10 years old, all of them attending elementary public school. Through the analysis of Pearson correlation, it was found that when HFD indicators are grouped there are meaningful correlations with personality traits and, it was possible to infer that there are features that convey to them once anxiety is just part of the construct of personality traits as neuroticism and extroversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how memories that are acquired by learning a foreign/second language during early childhood are latently retrieved in adult age and influence the further cognitive development. It describes a study of adult learners who had spoken a foreign/second language besides their native language before the age of five, at basic level only, and who resumed learning that language after the age of eighteen or even later. The findings of this research show that these persons outperformed in a short period of time those who started the study of another language in adulthood both in terms of grammar and vocabulary. The conclusions point out the fact that early language acquisition can be accessed in adulthood upon a re-learning phenomenon and also influences other cognitive skill acquisitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moderate, yet relatively consistent, associations between cognitive performance and shyness have been reported throughout the child and adult literatures. The current study assessed longitudinal associations between cognition (i.e., executive functioning) and parent-report temperamental shyness from infancy to early childhood and used temporal order to explore directionality of the relations. Two hundred and eleven children contributed data at multiple ages (5 months, 10 months, 2 years, 3 years, and 4 years). The results indicated a complex pattern of association between cognition and shyness in early development and provided tentative support for both cognitive ability and temperament as causal agents at different developmental time points. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present case report refers to a child who has been living in an oneiric-fantastic subculture, populated by believes in magic, witches, spells, and the power of curses. Stubbornness, as a distinctive personality trait, has turned into a structure of defence against maternal beliefs, stubbornness which, over the years, became extremely rigid, inflexible and maladaptive. As key elements of psychopathlogy, the patient presents symptoms from the negative area, such as poor hygiene, apathy, avolition in terms of social and occupational functioning, with a hyperbulia selectively targeted within the force she uses to oppose her parents. We suggest psychodynamic discussions over the existence of a disharmonic structuring of personality from the schizotypal register, but fingerprinted with a regional, cultural, histrionic halo, with decompensations from an atypical register, which involves impairment of social and occupational functioning, by emphasizing trends such as infantile stubbornness, which may take the form of self-destruction. We are raising suspicions over meta-simulation elements, such as Münchausen syndrome by proxy, regardless of the psychiatric diagnosis given in longitudinal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying moderators of intervention effects is essential to elucidate what works for whom. The present study investigated whether child personality moderates short-term and follow-up effects of an individualised preventive school-based intervention for children with externalising behaviour. The sample consisted of 48 schools, with 264 fourth-grade children displaying externalising behaviour (Mage = 10.2 years), randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 191) or no intervention control (n = 73) condition. Teachers and children reported at pretest, posttest and follow-up test about reactive and proactive aggression. Child personality was assessed by teachers at pretest. Child conscientiousness moderated short-term intervention effects, indicating that more organised and planful children benefited more from the intervention. Child extraversion moderated both short-term and follow-up intervention effects, with low extraverted children showing larger effects. These results affirm the importance of including personality as moderator of intervention effects in future studies, as interventions adapted to specific child traits might yield larger effects. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ciencias Psicológicas is the property of Universidad Catolica del Uruguay Damaso Antonio Larranaga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Orientación Educacional is the property of Universidad de Playa Ancha de Ciencias de la Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Two kinds of parental behaviors-psychological control and emotional warmth- have been linked with children's shy behaviors. The questions we addressed are whether this applies to adolescent shyness, and whether shyness in itself might also affect perceptions of parental behaviors. The participants were 916 seventh to ninth graders in a longitudinal project. We used a cross-lagged panel model with three time points in MPlus with adolescents' self-reports of shyness and perceptions of parents' psychological control (intrusive control and rejection) and warmth. Shyness predicted an increase in perceptions of intrusive control by parents at Time 2, which then predicted an increase in shyness at Time 3. Shyness also predicted an increase in perceived rejection by parents at Time 2. Finally, shyness predicted decreases in parental warmth at both time points. The effects did not differ for boys and girls. These results show that adolescent shyness predicts parental behaviors, though perhaps less strongly than in childhood. They also suggest some bidirectional effects in which perceived parental responses to shy youths might serve to strengthen the shyness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study examines how and why children change in aggression and delinquency from age 6 to 15 years. Besides assessing the shape of the developmental trajectories of aggression and delinquency, we investigated whether child personality characteristics, parenting, and interactions between these two predict the development of aggression/delinquency. Methods: Employing a cohort-sequential design, data from the Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality, and Development were used. The sample consisted of 586 children aged 6–9 years at the first assessment, and their parents. Mothers, fathers, and teachers rated child personality at Time 1 using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children, and mothers and fathers rated externalizing behaviors at the first, second, and third assessment using the Child Behavior Checklist. Parents rated their own overreactive parenting at Time 1 with the Parenting Scale. Results: Aggression and delinquency showed differential, though interrelated development. Less extraverted, benevolent and conscientious children, and more imaginative children were more susceptible to overreactivity. The model replicated across fathers’ overreactivity. Conclusions: Parents of children who are less extraverted, benevolent and conscientious, or more imaginative, are in particular need of being supported in developing and maintaining effective disciplinary techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present study was to explore the moderating role of teacher-child relationships in the relation between shyness and socioemotional adjustment in early elementary school. Participants were n = 169 grade 1 children (Mage = 76.93 mos, SD = 3.86). Shortly after the start of the school year (September), parents completed an assessment of their child's shyness. In January/February teachers completed the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001). At the end of the school year (May/June), child adjustment was assessed by both child and teacher reports. Among the results, shyness and negative teacher-child relationships (i.e., dependent, conflictual) were related to socio-emotional difficulties, whereas close teacher-child relationships were associated with indices of positive adjustment. However, several interaction effects were also observed, with teacher-child relationships moderating the relations between shyness and adjustment. The pattern of results suggested a potential protective role for teacher-child relationships in shy children's adjustment. Results are discussed in terms of the contributions of teachers to young shy children's school adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigated the role of children's implicit theories of peer relationships in their psychological, emotional, and behavioral adjustment. Participants included 206 children (110 girls; 96 boys; M age = 10.13 years, SD = 1.16) who reported on their implicit theories of peer relationships, social goal orientation, need for approval, depressive and aggressive symptoms, and exposure to peer victimization. Parents also provided reports on aggressive symptoms. Results confirmed that holding an entity theory of peer relationships was associated with a greater tendency to endorse performance-oriented social goals and to evaluate oneself negatively in the face of peer disapproval. Moreover, entity theorists were more likely than incremental theorists to demonstrate depressive and aggressive symptoms when victimized. These findings contribute to social–cognitive theories of motivation and personality, and have practical implications for children exposed to peer victimization and associated difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of peer group rejection and a new group's norms on 7- and 9-year old children's intergroup attitudes. Children (N = 82) were rejected or accepted by an initial group, then accepted by a new group that had a norm of inclusion versus exclusion towards others. Results showed that rejected compared with accepted children had a more negative attitude towards the initial group, that they were equally positive towards their new group, but that the rejected children were more negative towards an outgroup. Results also revealed an age x target group x group norm effect that indicated that the younger children's attitudes towards the three groups were more negative in the exclusion versus acceptance norm condition. The older children were also more negative towards the initial and new groups in the exclusion condition, but their more positive attitudes towards the outgroup were unaffected by the group norms. The bases of the effects of peer group rejection and group norms are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined children's use of behavioural outcome information to make personality attributions in social and non-social contexts. One hundred and twenty-eight 3- to 6-year-olds were told about a story actor who engaged in primarily successful or primarily unsuccessful interactions with several different people (social context) or several different computers (non-social context). Subsequently, children made behavioural predictions and trait attributions about the actor. Findings indicated that participants were more likely to use past information to make behavioural predictions and trait attributions when hearing about primarily successful than primarily unsuccessful interactions, although there were age-related differences in trait attribution as a function of success and trait type. There was no support for differential use of information across contexts, as participants' predictions and attributions were similar regardless of hearing about interactions with computers or humans. Factors involved in the development of impression formation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: What is the significance of this? Is it related to the view that justice and society presently have of children and adolescents? When a judge in a children''s court has to be able to understand the personality of a parent and the subsequent repercussion on a child in danger, the pluridisciplinary investigation order, which is inherent to the educational assistance procedure, competes with the valuation. Conversely, the rare use of the valuation takes on a completely different meaning when a delinquent adolescent has to be judged; in a context of increased repression, it shows the interest that society and justice pay to the delinquent act itself, to the detriment of the personality of the adolescent. Furthermore, magistrates rarely order valuations to determine whether the adolescent acted with “discernment” and whether he/she should be penalised for his/her acts; thus reflecting the little attention that society pays on the status of the delinquent youth. Paradoxically, the systematic recourse of penal justice in the valuation of the credibility of a child, victim of sexual abuse, stems from the same procedure: judges prefer to ignore the extreme difficulty of judging a child''s word, as though a valuation would be able to dispense them from arbitrating in the domain of what is “unthinkable” that constitutes the sexuality and traumatism experienced within the family sphere. Nevertheless, valuations allow one to understand what has built up between the child and his/her parents, not from the angle of the actual penal offence that is rape or physical violence but by striving to understand how the child''s physical, sexual and mental integrity was denied. Such valuations would certainly contribute to the fact that process of judging, itself, would be able to give a new sense to life and teach the respect of others. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on a study which examines the phenotypic and etiologic relations between internalizing symptoms and autistic-like traits in a population-based sample of twin born children of 8-9 years old. The study uses the access among twin born children to represent the phenotypic overlap between such traits in the general population and the first quantitative genetic investigation of their etiologic overlap. Results show that there were substantially heritable and independent with regard to their genetic influences.

Despite growing research results indicating that shyness is a risk factor for psychosocial maladjustment in childhood, less is known about the conceptual mechanisms that may underlie these associations. The purpose of the current study was to explore links between self-reported shyness, coping strategies and social functioning in middle childhood. As well, we sought to examine the reliance on internalizing coping strategies as a potential mediator of the link between shyness and social functioning. Participants were 355 children aged 9 to 11 years who completed measures of shyness, loneliness, positive and negative affect, social anxiety, self-concept, well-being, and coping strategies. Results indicated that shyness was associated with greater internalizing difficulties and lower wellbeing. Moreover, internalizing coping was found to partially mediate the relation between shyness and certain indices of internalizing problems. These results suggest a conceptual pathway, where an over-reliance on internalizing coping may partially explain why shy children experience internalizing difficulties in middle childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This cross-sectional study was designed to investigate personality in children aged 8–12 years. Children's self-perceptions were compared to parent's ratings. Parents of 506 children completed the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC) and children completed a selection of 38 questions from the HiPIC. Results showed that children aged 11–12 years present higher structural congruence, higher reliabilities and higher mean correlation with parents' description than children aged 8–9 years. Interestingly reliabilities of parents' ratings were also higher for older children. Mean levels were higher in younger children for Imagination in parents' ratings and for Benevolence, Conscientiousness and Imagination, in children's ratings. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 25 years ago, Allen-Meares and Lane appraised the status of adaptive behavior assessments in use at the time, citing their usefulness and relevance to the overall assessment of school children. This article revisits those instruments and examines select current instruments to gauge whether they include the multicultural sensitivity required to fairly assess the growing diverse populations of school children. Many of the popular adaptive behavior assessment instruments have not been normed with a wide array of racial groups or with cultural considerations in mind. This leads to suggestions of how social workers in particular may ensure that referred students are assessed fairly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few self-reports of impulsivity dealing with children, although this personality trait has been related to many behaviour problems in both children and adolescents. The appropriateness of the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory for Children (DII-c) and the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory (DII) to measure impulsivity in children and adolescents was assessed. The factorial Structure of the DII-c and the internal consistencies for both inventories suggest the measured dimensions are not consistent until adulthood. These self-report measures are not appropriate for children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's personality traits have enduring effects that shape adult well-being. In particular, childhood conscientiousness influences core aspects of adult well-being: health, friendships, and mastery. Research is now examining the mechanisms by which early personality traits initiate and sustain particular life paths. These include mediating and moderating mechanisms that may operate during critical developmental periods or may build cumulatively over time. Future research would benefit from testing theoretically derived mechanisms for different traits and examining variables as they change over time, using both short- and long-term longitudinal designs over different life stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 19-year longitudinal study, the 15% most inhibited and the 15% most aggressive children at ages 4-6 years were followed up until age 23 years and were compared with controls who were below average in preschool inhibition or aggressiveness. As adults, inhibited boys and girls were judged as inhibited by their parents and showed a delay in establishing a first stable partnership and finding a first full-time job. However, only the upper 8% in terms of inhibition tended to show internalizing problems, including self-rated inhibition. Aggressive boys showed an externalizing personality profile in the parental and self-judgments, were educational and occupational underachievers, and showed a higher adult delinquency rate than the controls, even after sex and socioeconomic status were controlled. The results suggest delayed social transitions without internalizing problems for most male and female inhibited children and a significant long-term risk of an externalizing profile for aggressive 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 present research examined five-year-old children's psychological self-concepts. Non-linear factor analysis was used to model the latent structure of the children's self-view questionnaire (CSVQ; Eder, 1990 ), a measure of children's self-concepts. The coherence and reliability of the emerging factor structure indicated that young children are capable of meaningfully reporting about their own emotions and personalities. Moreover, these self-reports from five-year-olds converged with maternal perceptions of child personality. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of emergent personality, continuity/discontinuity in personality assessment across the lifespan, and self-concept formation in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separate studies of rural and urban Head Start systems tested the hypothesis that an emotion-based prevention program (EBP) would accelerate the development of emotion and social competence and decrease agonistic behavior and potential precursors of psychopathology. In both studies, Head Start centers were randomly assigned to treatment and control/comparison group conditions. In Study 1 (rural community), results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that compared to the control condition (Head Start as usual), EBP produced greater increases in emotion knowledge and emotion regulation and greater decreases in children's negative emotion expressions, aggression, anxious/depressed behavior, and negative peer and adult interactions. In Study 2 (inner city), compared to the established prevention program I Can Problem Solve, EBP led to greater increases in emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, positive emotion expression, and social competence. In Study 2, emotion knowledge mediated the effects of EBP on emotion regulation, and emotion competence (an aggregate of emotion knowledge and emotion regulation) mediated the effects of EBP on social competence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study examined the effects of state and trait anxiety on 8–11 years old children's susceptibility to misleading post-event information. Participants' state and trait anxiety were measured, after which they watched an extract from a children's movie. They were then individually interviewed using either a supportive or a non-supportive style. During the interviews, the children were asked 14 questions about the movie, seven of which were control and seven contained misleading information. After the interview, their state anxiety was measured again. Results showed that participants interviewed in a non-supportive style were more likely to provide incorrect answers to misleading questions. Furthermore, participants who scored highly on both trait and post-interview state anxiety measures more often responded incorrectly to misleading questions. Also, pre-to post-interview changes in state anxiety were correlated with more incorrect responses to misleading questions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on three studies of shy behavior in Mainland Chinese children. In Study 1 (N= 107, Mage = 10.05), a Chinese Shyness Scale (CSS) was developed based on Chinese teachers' open-ended descriptions of children's shy behavior. In Study 2 (N= 388, Mage = 10.80) and Study 3 (N= 198, Mage = 10.20), the construct validity of the two forms of shyness that emerged in Study 1 (i.e., anxious shyness and regulated shyness) were examined in relation to children's social preference, temperament, and psychosocial adjustment. A distinct pattern of results was found for anxious shyness and regulated shyness. The findings highlight the role of culture in shaping expression of children's shy behavior. [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]

The article highlights a three-point screening tool to identify whether a shy patient is suffering from social anxiety disorder. This tool assesses whether the patient's fear of embarrassment causes him or her to avoid speaking to people, whether he or she avoid activities in which he or she is the center of attention or whether looking stupid is one of his or her worst fears. Social anxiety differs from shyness in children in its ability to debilitate the child's ability to grow and develop socially in an appropriate manner.

The article provides a discussion of the psychological outcomes in children ages six to twelve. The article cites the four stages of human development and mentions that at the end of the four periods, the individual personality is thought of as developed and complete in regard to the aspects that permit the individual to be part of a society, venture into a career, life's work, or mission. The contributions of a Montessori environment to children who are included in the second plane of development, are also discussed. The focus, as implied, should be placed on self-discipline and character. Social, cognitive, emotional, and moral developments in children in the second stage are also presented.

The goal of this study was to explore kindergarten teachers' attitudes and beliefs toward hypothetical children who frequently displayed certain types of behaviors with peers in the classroom. Participants were 202 kindergarten teachers from 4 provinces in Canada. Teachers responded to hypothetical vignettes describing children exhibiting shy, unsociable, aggressive, and prosocial behaviors. Beliefs assessed included teachers' tolerances of the behaviors, their behavioral attributions, the estimated academic and social costs to the child as a result of these behaviors, and teachers' responses to each hypothetical child. Teachers reported unique patterns of beliefs and responses toward each of the different types of children described. Not surprisingly, results indicated that teachers had the harshest beliefs toward the aggressive children. However, teachers also clearly distinguished between hypothetical children who were shy versus unsociable, whereas previous research has confounded these behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of the links between teacher beliefs/responses and child socioemotional adjustment at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spectrum hypothesis, postulating that differences between referred and non-referred samples are confined to mean level differences, is elaborated by exploring whether the covariation between child problem behaviour and its predictors—child personality and parenting, rated by mothers—is similar in referred (N = 205) and non-referred (N = 596) children and whether personality by parenting interactions can be generalized across samples. Results showed significant mean level differences for all the variables. Both personality and parenting explained problem behaviour, with some differences in strength of the effects across samples. Parenting by personality interactions mainly predicted externalizing behaviour, with benevolence and conscientiousness as the most prominent moderators. Results confirmed that moderators of problem behaviour operate similarly in the two samples, thus corroborating the spectrum hypothesis. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between measured intelligence and caregiver-provided ratings of personality were examined in a sample of 4- to 6-year-old twin children (N =680 individuals). Personality ratings were factor analyzed. Five factors were extracted and labelled: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and psychoticism. Univariate genetic analyses conducted on the same-sex pairs (101 MZ pairs and 132 same-sex DZ pairs) demonstrated that all of the personality factors had heritable components (range=31–86%). Performance and full-scale intelligence were also found to have heritable components, but verbal intelligence was better explained by environmental factors. At the phenotypic level, agreeableness and conscientiousness correlated positively with intelligence and neuroticism and psychoticism correlated negatively with intelligence. Multivariate genetic analyses revealed that some of the observed phenotypic correlations could be explained by common genetic factors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examines 5 types of personality continuity-structural, mean-level, individual-level, differential, and ipsative in a representative population (N = 498) and a twin and sibling sample (TV = 548) of children and adolescents. Parents described their children on 2 successive occasions with a 36-month interval using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (I. Mervielde & F. De Fruyt, 1999). There was evidence for structural continuity in the 2 samples, and personality was shown to be largely differentially stable. A large percentage had a stable trait profile indicative of ipsative stability, and mean-level personality changes were generally small in magnitude. Continuity findings were explained mainly by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. [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]

Using a new non-anonymous questionnaire and a nomination method by which victims were asked to name their aggressors, Chan (2002) collated the responses from individual victims to produce name-clusters that were studied for systemic patterns of bullying and victimization within the whole-school community. Three such patterns emerged: serial bullying, multiple victimization and the familial pattern in bullying. Serial bullying is the situation where one perpetrator preys on two or more victims, often traversing a broad range of classes and grades to target his/her victims. Although relatively fewer in number, this group of serial bullies was found to be responsible for a sizeable percentage of the bullying problems in the schools sampled. The data obtained support the notion that concentrating intervention efforts on this group will reap tremendous payoffs, by effectively eliminating the origin of much of the school's various forms of violence. The converse of serial bullying is multiple victimization, that is, more than one perpetrator can converge on one victim. The reasons why some children are chronically victimized and attract attack from multiple sources was discussed in the context of personality dispositions, peer-relational and family-relational factors, as well as its developmental links with workplace victim status in adulthood. The third pattern studied by Chan (2002) involved cases where children in the same family (i.e. siblings) turned up being named as bullies by their peers. Family influences (e.g. rearing practices, parental modelling) on aggressive behaviour in children have long been known. But transmission of influences between siblings, through acting as ‘key pathogens’ and/or ‘partners in crime’ is also responsible for the aggregation of delinquent behaviour. The familial pattern in bullying found in Chan's (2002) study is consistent with such transmission pathways. The ability to reveal the hidden patterns of interaction and links amongst bullies and victims in the context of the whole-school community attests to the significance and practical use of the SLS peer nomination method of asking victims to name the perpetrators of bullying. It makes possible the tracking of bullies and victims beyond class boundaries, thereby providing information that goes beyond individual data and incidence rates. What is more important, intervention and treatment can be more effectively implemented in a systems-wide approach, when there is integrated information from various key sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the long-term predictive validity of person-centered personality types and variable-centered personality dimensions assessed between ages 4-6 years in a population sample of 154 children. Results indicated that the predictive power of both approaches was remarkably robust between age 17 and 22, and even increased in the case of aggressiveness. At age 22 the long-term predictive ability of both types and dimensions was about equal, both in terms of the multivariate percentage of explained variance and the number of significant Iongitudinal correlates. This pattern is consistent with the notion that personality types and variables represent core personality domains that predict a wide range of Iongitudinal outcomes. However, the predictive ability of both approaches was larger for personality traits and intelligence than for social relationships outcomes. Implications for the distinction between core and surface traits are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the relationships among attachment representation, social withdrawal, and depressive symptomatology in childhood. A total of 326 children aged 8 to 10 years participated in the study. Children completed a family drawing procedure to assess attachment representation, the Children's Depression Inventory and the Social Withdrawal subscale of the Personality Inventory for Youth. Social withdrawal and attachment representations indicative of attachment dysfunction were each found to be positively correlated with depressive symptomatology. Further, attachment representation was found to significantly moderate the relationship between withdrawal and depression such that the positive relationship between withdrawal and depression was attenuated in the absence of attachment representations indicative of attachment dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four studies examined whether Israeli 5-year-olds ( N=88) and adults ( N=48) drew inferences about psychological properties based on a character's social category, personality trait, or physical appearance trait. Study 1 revealed that while children drew inferences mostly by social category, adults did it by personality trait. Study 2 showed that the children's pattern was not due to how the categorical information was conveyed. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that for kindergarteners, labels, not appearances, are determinant of the inductive potential of social categories. Studies indicated that “Jew” and “Arab” were the most inductively powerful social categories for both children and adults. The results carry implications for the roles of language, appearances, and culture in the conceptualization of “human kinds.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]