Children’s social behaviours have significant implications to their adjustments. Aggressive children display emotional, behavioural, and social problems. On the other hand, prosocial children are better adjusted (for review, see Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little, 2008). Adopting the social cognitive approach, the present study aimed to investigate the relationships between several social-cognitive capacities related to empathy (i.e., perspective-taking, affect sharing, and emotion regulation) and social behaviours (physical aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behaviours) in children. The results showed that perspective-taking was the most predictive factor of both prosocial and aggressive behaviours, whereas the capacity to share emotions and to modulate emotion was found to have little predictive value to both positive and negative social behaviours. In addition, the present study also investigated the sex-related and age differences of aggressive behaviours in children. Consistent with the findings of previous studies, this study found that boys enacted more physical aggression than girls. However, sex-related difference in relational aggression was not found. Besides, older children were found to use more relational aggression but the trend of decreasing physical aggression across development was not evident. Clinical implications of the present findings were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Interpersonal negotiation strategies and ego development of 32 preadolescents attending a day treatment program and 33 non-referred, demographically matched preadolescents was compared. The Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies Interview was used to assess perspective taking across contexts of familiar vs. unfamiliar, peer vs. adult interpersonal dilemmas. Referred preadolescents generated developmentally lower strategies than non-referred preadolescents, specifically in contexts involving unfamiliar adults and familiar children. Level of perspective taking predicted parent's rating of maladapted behaviour on the Child Behaviour Checklist-Revised. Ego development was not supported as a moderator but was positively related to perspective taking, suggesting that similar pathways of development underlie each measure.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-116).

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-50). Also available via the World Wide Web.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83-105) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Communication Disorders, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-56).

Thesis (M.S.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Anne Fletcher; submitted to the Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 28, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-62).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-101). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ59197.

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences