Many cardiovascular psychophysiological studies have found evidence of lower arousal states in aggressive individuals and hyper-arousal states in individuals exposed to chronic stress. However, most of these studies have relied on clinical diagnoses or self-reports to identify aggressive and victimized individuals. The present study used peer nominations to identify aggressive, victimized, and non-aggressive or victimized adolescents (mean age = 12.09 yrs.) to examine if any psychophysiological differences exist during resting and startle conditions. ANOVAs revealed that high aggressive/low victimized adolescents had a lower resting heart period/rate compared to high victimized/low aggressive adolescents. Further analyses revealed a statistical trend of lower resting heart period variability in high victimized/low aggressive individuals compared to non-aggressive non-victimized controls. Due to evidence suggesting that individuals with high self-reported empathy display less aggression, empathy as a moderator for aggression was investigated. Although gender differences w3ere found across measures, empathy ws not found to moderate aggression. / by Christopher Aults. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

A pedido do Ministério da Saúde foi desenvolvido e validado um protocolo de Indicadores Clínicos de Risco para o Desenvolvimento Infantil (IRDI) capaz de detectar sinais de risco para problemas de desenvolvimento e psíquicos em bebês de 0 a 18 meses. Os estudos do grupo do qual esta pesquisadora fez parte focam a avaliação de bebês irmãos de autistas, que, segundo a literatura, por serem irmãos de crianças diagnosticadas, podem apresentar risco de problemas psíquicos e de desenvolvimento. No decorrer do trabalho, o campo foi ampliado e passou a compreender Centros de Atenção Psicossocial de São Paulo, o Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, o Centro de Referência da Infância e Adolescência da Universidade Federal de São Paulo e o Centro Lumi. A partir do contato com as famílias em avaliação, mudamos o foco da presente pesquisa. Os aspectos concernentes à função paterna mobilizaram intensamente o interesse da pesquisadora e as questões comparativas entre bebês irmãos de autistas e bebês que não são irmãos de autistas deixaram de fazer parte desta dissertação, sendo abordadas em outros trabalhos de demais orientandos do grupo de pesquisa. Emergiram interessantes e originais questões com a utilização do instrumento, como a contradição no próprio instrumento quanto à função paterna, vídeos utilizados para formação dos profissionais e a não convocação do pai real, nem mesmo simbolicamente durante os atendimentos / Upon a request by Ministério da Saúde, a Clinical Indicators for Child Development protocol (IRDI) capable of detecting risk signals for developmental and psychogenic problems in 0 to 18 months old babies has been accomplished and validated. The studies by the group in which the present author participated focused on the evaluation of brother babies of autists, which, according to the literature, for being brothers of diagnosed babies, may present risk of developmental and psychogenic problems. In the course of the study, the scope was extended to include Centros de Atenção Psicossocial de São Paulo, o Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, o Centro de Referência da Infância e Adolescência da Universidade Federal de São Paulo e o Centro Lumi. From the scrutiny of families under evaluation, the focus of present research was changed. The aspects concerning paternal roll called present authors special atention and the comparative essues between brother babies of autists and non-autists babies were transferred to other works by the study group. Other interesting and unique questions arose about the use of instruments such as contradiction in the instrument itself regarding paternal roll, videos for education of professionals and the non-summoning of real father, not even symbolically during interviews

by Sonya Y.W. Law. / Includes Chinese and English questionnaires. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89). / ABSTRACT --- p.II / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.III / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.IV / LIST OF TABLES --- p.V / LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.VII / Chapter CHAPTER I - --- INTRODUCTION / The phenomenon of informant discrepancy on child and adolescent psychopathology --- p.8 / Variables affecting the agreement of informants in rating child and adolescent psychopathology --- p.11 / Who is the reliable and valid informant? --- p.25 / Focuses of the present study --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER II - --- METHOD / Subjects --- p.33 / Instruments --- p.34 / Procedure --- p.38 / Statistical analyses --- p.38 / Chapter CHAPTER III - --- RESULTS / "Internal Consistency of the CBCL, YSR, TRF syndrome scales and interrelation among syndromes scales" --- p.40 / Informant concordance - on the severity of reported symptoms --- p.46 / "correlation between parent's, teacher's, and child's rating" --- p.53 / "Association between parent-, teacher-, child-rated internalizing and externalizing problems and the external correlates of psychopathology" --- p.61 / Predictive ability of ratings from different informants on the external correlates of psychopathology --- p.64 / Chapter CHAPTER IV - --- DISCUSSION / Informant agreement on the severity of symptoms --- p.68 / "Correlation between ratings of different informants in relation to adolescent's sex, age, clinical status, and type of psychopathology" --- p.72 / Association between ratings from different informants and the external correlates of psychopathology --- p.75 / "Predictive ability of parent's, teacher's and adolescent's rating on the external correlates of psychopathology" --- p.77 / REFERENCES / APPENDICES

A review of the literature regarding behavioral characteristics and underlying factors for behaviorally disordered (BD) students revealed that both elementary school aged and secondary school aged BD students may be able to be described by a similar factor structure. Utilizing ratings obtained on a national sample of BD students with the Behavioral Dimensions Rating Scale (BDRS). Research Edition, the pattern of item ratings for students in grades kindergarten through five (K-5) and grades six through eleven (6-11) was examined to confirm this literature-based theory. Multigroup simultaneous confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation procedures was utilized to compare the covariance structures of students in grades K-5 and grades 6-11. A goodness-of-fit index revealed that the covariance matrices of the two groups were invariant. Since the same factor structure could be used to describe BD students in grades K-5 and grades 6-11, the means for the two groups were compared using Hotelling's T^2 statistic for two independent samples. The analysis resulted in finding a significant difference between the two groups' means. A univariate F test was conducted for the behavioral dimensions to locate the source of the mean difference. A significant difference was found only for Factor I: Aggressive/Acting Out, indicating that teachers perceive these types of behavior to be more problematic for students in grades K-5. No significant differences were found between the two groups' means on Factor II: Socially Withdrawn, Factor III: Irresponsible/Inattentive, or Factor IV: Fearful/Anxious. This investigation has demonstrated that teachers can use the BDRS, Research Edition with confidence when assessing the behaviors of both elementary and secondary school aged students. Areas for further investigation include an examination for invariance across (a) more narrowly defined grade distributions, (b) gender, and (c) socioeconomic status.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is commonly conceptualized as a disorder of negative affect and low effortful control. Currently, it is unclear whether temperament and personality traits associated with negative affect and effortful control can be useful assessment tools for identifying ODD early during development. This study examined the relationship between temperament and personality traits and ODD in a clinical sample of preschoolers. Results suggest that, at this age, temperament and personality traits of negative affect and neuroticism and effortful control and conscientiousness/agreeableness are not associated with one another. High negative affect, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness were all specifically associated with the angry/irritable (vs. argumentative/defiant, vindictive) ODD symptom domain; however, the traits did not predict change in symptoms over time. Lastly, low conscientiousness predicted ODD-related impairment, while negative affect and agreeableness interacted to predict impairment such low agreeableness appears to be a primary pathway to impairment, and high negative affect appears to be a secondary pathway. Overall, this study suggests high negative affect, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness are associated with ODD. Early assessment of these traits may be clinically useful in identifying children at risk for ODD, given that they may be early markers for ODD symptoms and impairment.

The interdisciplinary field of developmental psychopathology has brought considerable organization and clarity to the study of resilience, and it was from this theoretical perspective that the present study was conducted. One-hundred and forty-three preschool children, ages four to six, were recruited to answer two primary questions. First, do resilient (high threats, high competence) children differ from their maladapted (high threats, low competence) and competent (low threats, high competence) peers on measures of potential protective resources (i.e., intellectual ability and parent-child relationship)? Second, what are the mechanisms that underlie the effects of threats to development and protective resources on children's emotional and behavioral competence? To test the first question, differences across groups were examined using categorical, person-based analytic procedures (i.e., ANOVA, MANOVA). It was found that the quality of the parent-child relationship among resilient children was indeed more favorable than among maladaptive children, but resilient and competent children did not differ on this dimension. Resilient children produced significantly higher results on nonverbal intellectual reasoning tasks, but were no better than their maladapted counterparts on verbal intellectual abilities. To explore the second question, variable-based analyses (structural equation modeling) were used to test for hypothesized processes underlying the impact that threats and resources have on competence. The results supported the notion of an adversity process in which threats to development directly and unfavorably impacted children's functioning. Mixed support was found for the compensatory process in which resources directly influenced competence in a manner that compensated for the effects of threats. An indirect, compensatory-enhancing processwas supported whereby intellectual resources contributed to improved parent-child relationship which in turn had a positive influence on competence. The most important finding was the adversity-mediating process. This mechanism indicated that threats to development not only directly diminish competence, but also deleteriously impact resource variables. Likewise, this finding suggested that protective resources are essential in buffering children from the consequences of exposure to threats. Specifically, while the quality of the parent-child relationship did not have strong direct influences on competence, it mediated the effects of threats. Implications from these findings for future research and clinical practice are outlined. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-271). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [53]-64).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-95) and index.

A pedido do Ministério da Saúde foi desenvolvido e validado um protocolo de Indicadores Clínicos de Risco para o Desenvolvimento Infantil (IRDI) capaz de detectar sinais de risco para problemas de desenvolvimento e psíquicos em bebês de 0 a 18 meses. Os estudos do grupo do qual esta pesquisadora fez parte focam a avaliação de bebês irmãos de autistas, que, segundo a literatura, por serem irmãos de crianças diagnosticadas, podem apresentar risco de problemas psíquicos e de desenvolvimento. No decorrer do trabalho, o campo foi ampliado e passou a compreender Centros de Atenção Psicossocial de São Paulo, o Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, o Centro de Referência da Infância e Adolescência da Universidade Federal de São Paulo e o Centro Lumi. A partir do contato com as famílias em avaliação, mudamos o foco da presente pesquisa. Os aspectos concernentes à função paterna mobilizaram intensamente o interesse da pesquisadora e as questões comparativas entre bebês irmãos de autistas e bebês que não são irmãos de autistas deixaram de fazer parte desta dissertação, sendo abordadas em outros trabalhos de demais orientandos do grupo de pesquisa. Emergiram interessantes e originais questões com a utilização do instrumento, como a contradição no próprio instrumento quanto à função paterna, vídeos utilizados para formação dos profissionais e a não convocação do pai real, nem mesmo simbolicamente durante os atendimentos / Upon a request by Ministério da Saúde, a Clinical Indicators for Child Development protocol (IRDI) capable of detecting risk signals for developmental and psychogenic problems in 0 to 18 months old babies has been accomplished and validated. The studies by the group in which the present author participated focused on the evaluation of brother babies of autists, which, according to the literature, for being brothers of diagnosed babies, may present risk of developmental and psychogenic problems. In the course of the study, the scope was extended to include Centros de Atenção Psicossocial de São Paulo, o Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, o Centro de Referência da Infância e Adolescência da Universidade Federal de São Paulo e o Centro Lumi. From the scrutiny of families under evaluation, the focus of present research was changed. The aspects concerning paternal roll called present authors special atention and the comparative essues between brother babies of autists and non-autists babies were transferred to other works by the study group. Other interesting and unique questions arose about the use of instruments such as contradiction in the instrument itself regarding paternal roll, videos for education of professionals and the non-summoning of real father, not even symbolically during interviews