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Symptoms resulting from childhood trauma can negatively impact socioemotional well-being and school performance during early adolescence unless positive changes in attachment security and mental representations of significant relationships occur. A sample of 109 eighth grade urban students were randomly assigned to one of two weekly, one-hour, school-based group interventions—Storytelling/Story-Acting for Adolescents (STSA-A) or Mentalization-Based Treatment Group Intervention (MBT-G). The Object Relations Inventory (ORI), Adolescent Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ) and Child PSTD Stress Scale (CPSS) were administered to students and their primary group leaders at the beginning (October) and end (May) of the intervention protocol as outcome variables. Participants in both the STSA-A and MBT-G intervention conditions experienced significant increases in attachment security and decreases in trauma symptoms. Over the course of eight months of group intervention, affective valence of paternal mental representations significantly decreased for boys and for participants in the STSA-A condition, while affective valence of primary group leader mental representations significantly decreased for participants in the MBT-G condition. STSA-A and MBT-G were found to be efficacious at improving attachment security and reducing trauma symptoms in young adolescents. The strengths of each group intervention for addressing interpersonal issues unique to specific types of adolescents are discussed.

To investigate (1) whether expert clinicians within psychodynamic therapy (PDT), mentalization-based treatment (MBT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) agree on the essential adolescent psychotherapy processes using the Adolescent Psychotherapy Q-Set (APQ); (2) whether these four session prototypes can be empirically distinguished; and (3) whether mentalization is a shared component in expert clinicians' conceptualizations of these four treatment models. Thirty-nine raters with expertize in PDT, MBT, CBT, and IPT provided ratings of the 100 APQ items to characterize a prototypical session that adheres to the principles of their treatment model. A Q-factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted. Expert clinicians reached a high level of agreement on their respective session prototypes, which loaded onto five independent factors. The PDT session prototype straddled two different factors, suggesting more variability in PDT expert clinicians' understanding of PDT process for adolescents than in the views of the expert clinicians representing the other treatment models. Mentalization process was shared among all four session prototypes; however, the correlation between the CBT and IPT session prototypes remained significant after controlling for the MBT session prototype. Researchers can now assess adherence to four adolescent treatments and identify change processes beyond these labels.

Children’s mentalizing capacity may influence the therapeutic process in psychodynamic therapy. The literature points to the need to tailor the therapeutic intervention to the particular configurat...

This article represents our attempt to establish a blueprint for a comprehensive refugee intervention program to be disseminated across the globe. Specifically, we describe a proposal to co...

Children in the developing world are at far greater risk for emotional, psychological, and health challenges; at the same time, they have little access to clinical interventions or other support se...

While the adult psychotherapy literature has made great strides to understand the relations between psychotherapy process and treatment outcome, the child psychotherapy literature lags far behind. The first aim of this study was to determine whether mentalization-informed psychodynamic play therapy (PDT) sessions adhered to therapeutic principles comprising this treatment model. The second aim was to assess whether session adherences to prototypical PDT and Reflective Function (RF) process using the Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) were correlated with both problem behavior reduction and adaptive functioning after controlling for pretreatment scores. The third aim was to assess whether these correlations depended on problem behavior type (externalizing-only, internalizing-only, externalizing and internalizing), age, or gender. The sample included 95 children (56% male; M age = 6.80) categorized into these 3 types. Three-hundred seventy-nine sessions from different treatment phases were rated using the CPQ. Outcomes were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Rating Form, Emotion Regulation Checklist, and Children's Global Assessment Scale. Sessions adhered to prototypical RF and PDT process. Session adherences to prototypical RF and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) process were positively correlated with adaptive functioning. Among internalizers, session adherence to prototypical PDT process was negatively correlated with internalizing behavior, while among externalizers, session adherences to prototypical RF and CBT process were negatively correlated with externalizing behavior and emotion negativity. Session adherences to prototypical RF and CBT process were significantly higher for girls than for boys. Two different "trajectories of success" are proposed for children with externalizing problems. PDT is proposed for children with internalizing problems.

Researchers returned to the home of Mary Ainsworth's original attachment study to explore the contributions of Ugandan children's representations of attachment interactions with their caregivers to their perceptions about gender. Researchers administered the Attachment Story-Completion Task (ASCT) and applied three attachment narrative coding systems and a gender stereotypes typology to the ASCT stories of 51 Ugandan children ages 5-7. Nine attachment narrative variables were applied to the children's responses to a series of five attachment story stems told using a family of dolls. The narratives emerging from the children's responses to these story stems were also coded independently for 14 masculine and 14 feminine gender stereotypes. Empathic relations among the dolls and narrative coherence were positively correlated with counterstereotypical gender representations only in girls. Attachment representations of a rejecting father were positively correlated with stereotypical gender representations only in boys. Representations of attachment avoidance were negatively correlated with counterstereotypical gender representations in both boys and girls. The findings suggested two different trajectories for the development of gender representation flexibility in boys and girls. This study contextualizes these findings against the backdrop of a country with rigid sex roles and a fast-growing child population.

According to psychotherapy outcome literature, treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) yield impressive results. Study after study demonstrates the efficacy of brief, evidence-based interventions for depressed individuals. Nevertheless, MDD continues to exact a devastating toll on modern society. The World Health Organization has identified it as the leading cause of disability worldwide. This reality is surprising given the implications from the academic literature. A historical analysis of MDD treatment suggests that most people with MDD experienced complete remission and enhanced outcomes when long-term, psychodynamically influenced treatments prevailed. An analysis of the system that perpetuates the brief intervention model for MDD, managed care, is discussed. This analysis is followed by a case study that illustrates the harm managed care can do to patients with MDD who are not permitted treatment of longer duration. Implications and recommendations for psychologists to intervene at the micro and macro levels are discussed.

This article presents the results of a descriptive survey of sex addiction therapists in their own recovery from sex addiction. The survey was distributed online. A group of 101 self-identified sex addiction therapists in their own recovery participated in the survey. In the survey, four areas of their experience were explored: sharing with others their specialty in sex addiction and their personal recovery, their use of treatment programs, their belief regarding the benefit of their professional work to their personal recovery, and their boundaries regarding sharing their personal recovery with their clients. Implications of the survey findings for sex addiction therapists are discussed.

Objective: The first aim of this study was to identify interaction structures (IS), which refer to clusters of items characterizing the course of psychotherapy in terms of reciprocal interaction patterns between the therapist and the child, secondly to assess their trends over the course of treatment, and finally investigate which IS predict outcome in long-term psychodynamic child psychotherapy.Method: The sample included 52 children with externalizing and internalizing problems. 192 sessions were rated with the use of the Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ). Outcome was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Total Problems, and Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS).Results: A principal components analysis resulted in four IS, theoretically named Therapeutic Alliance, Children's Emotion Expression, Child -Centered Technique and Psychodynamic Technique. Multilevel Modeling (MLM) analyses indicated significant linear growth on Psychodynamic Technique. Multiple regression analyses indicated that Psychodynamic Technique positively predicted changes on CBCL Total Problems and CGAS. In contrast, Child-Centered technique negatively predicted change on CBCL Total Problems, however follow up interaction analyses showed that externalizing children who received more Child-Centered technique showed more improvement on this scale.Discussion: Findings point to empirically derived components of psychodynamic child psychotherapy and provide preliminary answers about which aspects may facilitate change.

Child psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a specific approach to the treatment of emotional, social and behavioural problems in children. There are hundreds of modalities of psychotherapy, and this continues to increase. The vast majority has not been investigated using controlled (or other types of) studies and not all of these methods are based on explicit etiological or therapeutic theories of change. A gap exists that should be filled between psychotherapeutic research and clinical practice. Based on these assumptions, the present study sought to analyse the first year of the psychotherapeutic process of a boy aged seven who was referred for psychotherapy. A descriptive study was performed, based on a single case study design. The participants were the child and his therapist and the main measure was the Child Psychotherapy Q-Set–CPQ, a procedure used to analyse the psychotherapeutic process in 3–13-year olds. The results show the main elements of the psychotherapy process, describing characteristics of t...

This study used Q methodology to explore clinicians' perspectives regarding optimal psychotherapy process in the treatment of pathological narcissism, a syndrome of impaired self-regulation. Participants were 34 psychotherapists of various disciplines and theoretical orientations who reviewed 3 clinical vignettes portraying hypothetical cases of grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism, and panic disorder without pathological narcissism. Participants then used the Psychotherapy Process Q set, a 100-item Q-sort instrument, to indicate their views regarding optimal therapy process for each hypothetical case. By-person principal components analysis with varimax rotation was conducted on all 102 Q-sorts, revealing 4 components representing clinicians' perspectives on ideal therapy processes for narcissistic and non-narcissistic patients. These perspectives were then analyzed regarding their relationship to established therapy models. The first component represented an introspective, relationally oriented therapy process and was strongly correlated with established psychodynamic treatments. The second component, most frequently endorsed for the panic disorder vignette, consisted of a cognitive and alliance-building approach that correlated strongly with expert-rated cognitive-behavioral therapy. The third and fourth components involved therapy processes focused on the challenging interpersonal behaviors associated with narcissistic vulnerability and grandiosity, respectively. The perspectives on therapy processes that emerged in this study reflect different points of emphasis in the treatment of pathological narcissism, and may serve as prototypes of therapist-generated approaches to patients suffering from this issue. The findings suggest several areas for further empirical inquiry regarding psychotherapy with this population. (PsycINFO Database Record

The aim of this study was to explore how different measurements can contribute to understanding processes of change in psychodynamic child psychotherapy. The Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) was compared with the child psychotherapist’s description of the psychotherapy process, systematically collected every third month during therapy, and after each session the Feeling Word Checklist-24 (FWC-24). The aim was also to examine how these three different measurements together could describe change over time and how they are mirrored in the relation between child and psychotherapist. The following questions were formulated: 1. What interaction structures can be identified with the CPQ? 2. How does the therapist describe the process in psychotherapy and how do therapists’ feelings appear using the FWC-24? 3. How do the different measurements enrich one another and contribute to the understanding of the psychotherapeutic process? 4. How can the therapy be described compared to a hypothetical psychodynamic child psychotherapy prototype session? A videotaped child psychotherapy was analysed in its entirety. The CPQ gave an image of the psychotherapist’s and the child’s actions and interactions, which complemented the subjective image of the psychotherapist when filling out questionnaires and the FWC-24. Analyses of the interaction between the child and psychotherapist indicated the importance of creating a supportive and secure environment to achieve a feeling of psychological closeness, before working with the child’s problems. The analysis of the therapy highlights the importance of the psychotherapist’s meta-competence, i.e., overarching competencies that psychotherapists need to use to guide any intervention, what interventions to use, and when they are suitable.

This study explored the impact of two rural village libraries in Uganda on preschool children's school readiness skills. Using two rural village libraries in Mpigi and Kabubbu as a backdrop, this study explored the effectiveness of a six-month play-based intervention known as the Storytelling/Story-Acting (STSA) activity. Children ages 3 to 5 at each library were randomly assigned to participate in either the STSA play intervention (n = 63) or a story-reading activity (n = 60) for one hour twice per week for six months. All children were administered school readiness skills measures before and after the six-month intervention. Caregivers were also administered an interview that assessed their educational level, quality of life, reading aloud to target child, social support, and total possessions. Children who participated in the STSA intervention had higher scores on the colors subtest of the emergent literacy measure than children who did not participate in this activity. Preschool children benefit from a story-reading activity with or without the STSA play intervention.

To investigate (a) whether expert clinicians within psychodynamic therapy (PDT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) agree on key features of child psychotherapy process using the Child Psychotherapy Process Q-Set (CPQ); (b) whether these two prototypes can be empirically distinguished; and (c) whether promoting mentalization (operationalized as reflective functioning [RF]) is a shared component of the way expert clinicians conceptualize these two treatment models.Thirty-one raters with expertise in PDT, CBT, and RF provided ratings of the 100 CPQ items to describe an ideal prototype session that adheres to the principles of their treatment model. Two Q-factor analyses with varimax rotation were conducted.Expert clinicians reached a high level of agreement on their respective PDT and CBT prototypes. These prototypes loaded onto two independent factors. The RF process prototype loaded onto both factors.From the theoretical perspective of expert clinicians representing PDT and CBT, a focus on RF appears to be a common process factor in the way both treatment models are conceptualized. The CPQ can also be a useful instrument in teaching psychotherapy process from different theoretical perspectives and training future clinicians in their application. Future researchers can use these prototypes to explore process in actual sessions.

This study examined the constellation of interaction structures – repetitive patterns of interactions between patient and therapist over the course of treatment – that emerged in the psychodynamic therapy (PDT) of a child diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and treated by two doctoral student therapists. Identification of these interaction structures can inform therapists of what might be expected from patients with particular symptom or behaviour patterns and how interactions change over time. This study also examined each session’s adherence to three session prototypes: PDT, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and reflective functioning (RF) process. The Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) is a 100-item instrument that assesses the processes within a single psychotherapy session. Items reflect a wide range of therapist attitudes and behaviours, patient attitudes and behaviours and interactions between therapist and patient. Experts used the CPQ to define PDT, CBT and RF process session prototypes...

This study explores reading and library factors related to secondary school student academic outcomes in rural areas in Uganda. This mixed methods study utilized quantitative data collected as part of a more extensive project to explore six student factors in relation to students’ school, library, and home environments. The Kitengesa Community Library in Uganda ( www.kitengesalibrary.org ) served as the site for this study. The factors explored for this study include reading frequency, library use frequency, library access, overall grade average, and presence and type of reading materials in the home. Results indicated that both reading frequency and certain types of reading materials read for recreational purposes are correlated with higher overall grade average. Reading frequency was positively correlated with student overall grade average for all students.

This chapter provides a very brief overview of the history, development, and characteristics of rural library services in several African countries from both a historical and modern-day perspective. Against the backdrop of public library development during colonialism, the chapter highlights the fact that libraries existed in Africa well before Colonial rule, but later library service development did not adequately meet the needs of the majority of the continent's population. As a result, an alternative way of meeting the information needs of the people began to take shape. This chapter introduces the concept of and rationale for the development of the rural village or community library in Africa and details some particular instances of these establishments.

The British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT) provides a definition of play therapy (PT) that emphasizes humanistic ideals such as using nondirective play techniques to enable the child’s inner resources to bring about growth and change. These therapeutic change processes have never been submitted to empirical testing, partly because of the paucity of valid, reliable instruments to assess child psychotherapy process. Identifying empirically supported change processes is crucial to discovering which change processes work for which child. For example, children with Asperger’s disorder have deficits in mentalization—the ability to interpret behaviors of self and others as motivated by underlying mental states. Would a mentalization-informed PT approach or a traditional PT approach be more effective in treating such patients? The Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) is a 100-item instrument that assesses the processes within a psychotherapy session. Items reflect a wide range of therapist attitudes and behaviors, patient attitudes and behaviors, and interactions between therapist and patient. To characterize PT process, 24 BAPT play therapists were asked to use the CPQ to rate the prototypical PT session based on their knowledge of PT operationalized by the BAPT definition. Findings indicated that according to these 24 raters, a therapist who is sensitive to the child’s feelings and level of development characterizes British PT. Two therapists treating a child with Asperger’s disorder over 2 years decreased their session adherence to PT

This study used a transactional model of development (Sameroff, 1975) to test whether meth- adone exposure, mother's expectation of her future infant's degree of bother during pregnancy, infant attachment behaviors assessed at 12 months, and mother and child communication assessed at 24 months reciprocally influence each other in a sample of 30 full-term, African American toddlers exposed in utero to methadone and 42 comparison toddlers. Toddlers were videotaped at 24 months communicating with their mothers in eight scripted situations and at 12 months participating in a separation-reunion procedure to assess attachment behaviors. Mothers in both groups were comparable on race, education, age, SES, parity, IQ, and marital status. The relation between methadone exposure and the quality of mother com- munication was found to be moderated by mother's expectation of her future infant's degree of bother and mediated by avoidant attachment behavior. Infants' disorganized attachment behavior predicted their own lower quality communication at 24 months regardless of methadone exposure. The organization of affect regulation in both members of the dyad can differentially affect the ways in which methadone exposure impacts on the quality of mother communication by 24 months. Results suggest that preventive intervention is most likely to succeed when both mothers and children participate.

Responses to five doll-story stems thematically related to attachment experiences with the mother were videotaped in the home and used to evaluate child, maternal, and environmental predictors of representational aggression in 93 preschool children of African American women receiving public assistance who had become pregnant as teenagers. Significant correlations were found between representational aggression and child's gender (male), birth weight, maternal depressive affect, maternal educational attainment, recent employment, mother's historical residence with her own mother, and felt social support, accounting for 40% of the variance in representational aggression. A significant Felt Social Support × Gender interaction effect suggested that girls of mothers who perceive higher levels of felt social support are more likely to represent less aggression in their stories; felt social support was not associated with boys' representational aggression. A significant Felt Social Support × Employment interaction effect suggested that representational aggression is associated with lower levels of felt social support only among employed mothers. Findings suggest that different pathways exist for representational aggression in children of low-income adolescent mothers, which nevertheless share predictors associated with poverty.

Five inpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) participated in 6 months of three times per week psychodynamic therapy (PDT). Patients completed a measure of psychological distress every week. A total of 127 sessions were audiotaped and coded using the psychotherapy process Q-set (PQS) and correlated with PQS prototypes of five treatment models—PDT, cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT), interpersonal therapy, transference focused psychotherapy and dialectical behaviour therapy. Prototypical CBT process was most prevalent in three of the five PDT-labelled treatments. Prototypical PDT process significantly decreased over time in three of the five treatments. Prototypical process correlations with time were inversely proportional to prototypical process correlations with distress levels. In a multiple regression model that included all five prototypical process correlations across these three treatments, CBT and transference focused psychotherapy predicted distress reduction, whereas PDT predicted increases in distress. PQS items most negatively correlated with distress included the therapist's emphasis on feelings, empathic attunement and control over the interaction. Discussion of dreams or fantasies and therapist aloofness were most positively correlated with distress. An effective PDT treatment model for severely disturbed BPD inpatients requires technical flexibility to supplement CBT processes such as control over the interaction that can structure intense interpersonal dysregulation and stabilize distress. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message Practitioners and their patients sense which prototypical processes to increase or decrease over time to reduce patients' distress. An effective PDT treatment model for severely disturbed BPD patients needs to integrate and encourage the emergence of empathically attuned interactions in the context of a highly structured therapy experience. Practitioners need to be flexible enough to change intervention strategies when they seem to be increasing distress in severely disturbed BPD patients.

This study examined the sequential relations among three pertinent variables in child psychotherapy: therapeutic alliance (TA) (including ruptures and repairs), autism symptoms, and adherence to child-centered play therapy (CCPT) process. A 2-year CCPT of a 6-year-old Caucasian boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder was conducted weekly with two doctoral-student therapists, working consecutively for 1 year each, in a university-based community mental-health clinic. Sessions were video-recorded and coded using the Child Psychotherapy Process Q-Set (CPQ), a measure of the TA, and an autism symptom measure. Sequential relations among these variables were examined using simulation modeling analysis (SMA). In Therapist 1’s treatment, unexpectedly, autism symptoms decreased three sessions after a rupture occurred in the therapeutic dyad. In Therapist 2’s treatment, adherence to CCPT process increased 2 weeks after a repair occurred in the therapeutic dyad. The TA decreased 1 week after autism symptoms increased. Finally, adherence to CCPT process decreased 1 week after autism symptoms increased. The authors concluded that (1) sequential relations differ by therapist even though the child remains constant, (2) therapeutic ruptures can have an unexpected effect on autism symptoms, and (3) changes in autism symptoms can precede as well as follow changes in process variables.

Thirty-six prepubertal inpatients were videotaped completing five stories thematically related to attachment experiences and classified by their attachment representations. Children also completed the Children's Depression Inventory and Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-Revised. Mothers completed demographic questionnaires. Percentage of secure (B) attachment was only about one tenth of the normative percentage, anxious-ambivalent (C) attachment was between two and three times the normative percentage, and disorganized (D) attachment was almost twice the normative percentage. Both D attachment and the total number of disorganized story responses were associated with negative self-esteem and clinical-range depression. Anxious-avoidant (A) attachment decreased the likelihood, while C and D attachment increased the likelihood, of separation anxiety disorder. Clinical intervention needs to focus on the meaning of parental relationships represented in the child's mind, specifically the negative self-esteem and separation anxiety associated with the lack of felt security provided by the parents.

Leading the charge to link intervention research with clinical practice is the development of process research, which involves a detailed analysis of specific therapeutic processes over the course of treatment. The delineation of interaction structures – repetitive patterns of interactions between patient and therapist over the course of treatment – can inform therapists of what may be expected from patients with particular patterns of symptoms or behaviours in their clinical practice and how interactions change over time. Using the Child Psychotherapy Q-Set, this study aims to compare the different interaction structures that emerged in the two-year psychotherapy of a six-year-old child conducted, for one year each, by two doctoral-student therapists in a university-based community mental health clinic. The study allows for exploration of the independent role of the therapist in the psychodynamic therapy of a child diagnosed with Asperger's disorder. The results suggest that four distinct interaction str...

Although attachment-based interventions with mothers and infants are beginning to flourish, guidelines for developing attachment-based intervention with prepubertal children are lacking. This article remedies this lack by discussing the potential intervention points of entry with prepubertal children based on attachment theory. In contrast to attachment-based early intervention, in which parental characteristics are targeted, attachment-based intervention with prepubertal children must include the child as well as the parents. Therapists attempting such an intervention must take into account the quality of the child’s mental representation as well as their own quality of mental representation to provide an effective clinical experience.

We present aspects of a psychoanalytically-oriented, exploratory spirituality group for nine female psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Through drawings and group process, the patients uncovered and elaborated on their representations of God. Two patterns of representations were identified: (1) representations of a punitive, judgmental, rigid God that seemed directly to reflect and correspond with parental representations and (2) representations of a depersonified, inanimate, abstract God entailing aspects of idealization that seemed to compensate for parental representations. Interestingly, the second pattern was associated with comorbid narcissistic features in the patients. Those patients who presented punitive God representations were able to begin the process of re–creating these representations toward more benign or benevolent images in the context of this group, while those participants who presented depersonified God representations seemed unable to do so.

It is important to investigate the outcomes of psychotherapy and, especially, its process. Regarding child psychodynamic psychotherapy, available studies are in smaller numbers. Therefore, we still do not fully know the mechanisms of change in treatments with this age group. The Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) was designed to analyze the therapeutic process with children. It permits one to identify interaction structures (i.e., repetitive patterns of interaction) and how they change in the course of a treatment. Based on these assumptions, the aim of this study was to identify and to analyze the interaction structures in the psychodynamic therapy of a boy diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder and possible changes in his psychic organization. A mixed longitudinal study, based on the Systematic Case Study procedure, was performed. Approximately 30 months of the boy’s psychotherapy were analyzed using the CPQ. The Rorschach method was used as the outcome measure. Four interaction structures were identified, using the CPQ: Active, confident and lively child, competing with connected, mentalizing and accepting therapist; Withdrawn and defensive child with uncertain, unresponsive and didactic therapist; Accepting therapist with demanding, provocative and hostile child; and Reassuring, supportive, nondirective therapist with a compliant and not spontaneous child. Two interaction structures varied over time. Some changes in Rorschach variables were detected after two years of treatment.

We administered the Measure of Aggression, Violence, and Rage in Children (MAVRIC; Bass, Geenens, & Popper, 1993a, 1993b), a questionnaire assessing the severity of reactive, impulsive aggression, to 28 prepubertal psychiatrically hospitalized children and 54 prepubertal lowrisk nonpatients and their mothers. Cross-informant reliability was supported between the MAVRIC-Child Version (MAVRIC-C; Bass et al., 1993a) and MAVRIC-Parent Version (MAVRIC-P; Bass et al., 1993b), r = .62, p < .001. Convergent validity was supported with the Aggressive Behavior factor of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991a) for the MAVRIC-C, r = .62, p < .001, and MAVRIC-P, r = .74, p < .001. Both versions were also associated with disruptive behavior disorders, inpatient status, and assaultive behavior. We discuss the differences in the perception of aggression as a function of informant.