The diagnostic value of children's play was investigated. The question explored was "Can maladjusted children be discriminated from adjusted children through observation of their play therapy behavior?" The play of 15 maladjusted and 15 adjusted children 5 to 10 years of age was compared during an initial 36-minute play therapy session. Three scales of the Play Therapy Observational Instrument (PTOI)—emotional discomfort, social inadequacy, and use of fantasy-- were used to rate the children's play. The children in the maladjusted group were referred by their parents for counseling and their teachers reported the children had exhibited one or more problem behaviors indicative of emotional disturbance. The children in the adjusted group were recommended by their teachers as exhibiting none of the problem behaviors and their parents did not believe their children needed counseling. Discriminant function equations predicted correct group membership for 23 of the 30 children during the second 12-minute time segment and for the entire play session. The analysis showed the play behaviors on the emotional discomfort scale of the PTOI items discriminated maladjusted and adjusted children. During the second and third 12-minute time segments and when all three time segments were combined, maladjusted children's play expressed significantly more dysphoric feelings, conflictual themes, play disruptions, and negative self-disclosing statements than were expressed by the adjusted children (p < .01, .03, .01, respectively). There were no significant differences between the two groups on play behaviors measured by the social inadequacy play and use of fantasy play scales of the PTOI. Positive correlations were found between the children's age and social inadequacy play behaviors and between the social status of the parents' occupations and social inadequacy play behaviors. The results also suggested a negative correlation between the social status of parents' occupations and the use of fantasy play scores. A negative correlation was present between the use of fantasy and the social inadequacy play scores.

Recent research in juvenile justice has focussed on identifying precursors of delinquency, which are referred to as "risk factors." These are biological or psychosocial conditions that increase the probability of an individual developing problem behaviors. Delinquency prevention and intervention programs are adopting a risk-focussed approach which attempts to reduce targeted youth's exposure to risk factors. Limited attention has been paid to investigating whether commonly accepted risk factors are equally relevant across various subtypes of juvenile offenders. Two subgroups of offenders deserving of special attention by virtue of their extremely high prevalence rates in the juvenile justice system are those with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) and those with learning disabilities (LD). The purpose of this study was to determine the relevance of specific individually-, family-, and school-based risk factors for delinquency across three specific groups of juvenile offenders: (a) those with EBD, (b) those with LD, and (c) those who did not qualify as disabled under the definition of disability used in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Individual risk factors that were measured included aggressive/acting-out behaviors, irresponsible/inattentive behaviors, fearful/anxious behaviors, social withdrawn behaviors, age at first arrest and history of substance use. School-based risk factors examined were students' reading and math scores and attitude towards and involvement in school. Attachment to family, parental discipline style, and level of supervision provided by parents were the family-based risk factors examined. Discriminant analysis procedures indicated that juvenile offenders with EBD, juvenile offenders with LD, and nondisabled offenders differed significantly in their demonstration of aggressive/acting-out behaviors, irresponsible/inattentive behaviors and fearful/anxious behaviors. In contrast, no significant differences were found across family-, and school-based risk factors. This implies that until research demonstrates the existence of unique risk factors or a difference in the magnitude of risk factors experienced by juvenile offenders with EBD and LD, it would be premature to develop and implement differential delinquency prevention and intervention programming for these subgroups of offenders.

This study examined the attitudes of regular education teachers at the elementary school level, toward mainstreaming students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) and identified variables which were correlated with those attitudes.

A functional analysis (FA) is the most commonly used assessment methodology for identifying maintaining variables influencing problem behavior. However, if an FA does not produce clear differentiation, researchers and practitioners often then modify procedures to include additional individualized variables. The interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) provides a marked departure from FA methodology and aims to include individualized factors at the initiation of the assessment in order to more rapidly produce differentiation and clear results. We sought to further evaluate and compare the outcomes of two different functional analysis methods: the single-contingency functional analysis (FA) and the interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) to determine the function of problem behavior and evaluate the subsequent function-based treatment determined from the functional analysis results with two children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both participants engaged in problem behavior maintained by single-contingencies of reinforcement identified within the single-contingency FA and emphasized by the effectiveness of each single-contingency function-based treatment.

The aim of this study is to explore strengths assessments and the participation of parents in assessment of strengths and functioning of their children challenged by serious emotional disorders. The children in this study have a high level of exposure to mental illness, domestic violence and substance abuse in their biological families. These children are living with family members or foster families in the community, with the majority at continuing risk of placement outside of their homes and communities due to serious emotional and behavioral problems. The research questions investigated are the concordance of families and professionals in assessment of strengths, differences in assessment of strengths, problems in specific domains of functioning, and relationships of characteristics of the child with recognition of strengths by the parent and professional. This study uses data collected from families of children with serious emotional disorders receiving services through community-based wraparound services supported by the mental health services program for children #5 HSS SM52297 funded by the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. The dissertation research presents a secondary analysis of a portion of the evaluation data collected for that demonstration. Eighty-five children were assessed by the parent and professional using the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS), the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Child and Adolescent Functioning Scale (CAFAS). It was found that families provided significant and unique information regarding their children. A repeated measures analysis of the strengths scores revealed significant differences in the assessment of strengths by the parent and professional raters in domains of intrapersonal strengths, affective strengths and family involvement. The findings support the use of the strengths measure by multiple informants to provide unique information regarding the child’s strengths and functioning.

In order to document the need for additional treatment centers for severely disturbed children, the Oregon Mental Health Division decided to submit a grant to the National Institute of Mental Health to request an extensive, retrospective follow-up study of an innovative diagnostic approach, the Child Diagnostic Center. When the grant was not funded, the State Office for Child Study and Treatment Centers recruited graduate students to conduct portions of the proposed follow-up study.

The aim of this study is to report selected perceptions and attitudes of adolescents placed in the “attention home” at Hood River, Oregon, as an early aid towards improved understanding and treatment, and program assessment.

The thesis provides a survey inquiring about recent life events in children to determine predictive behavior for first grade. It is based on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale.

Concerned by the increase in the average daily populations at Maclaren School for Boys and Hillcrest School for Girls, Children's Services Division has requested research related to children who have been released from child care centers and private institutions. Child care centers were originally developed as alternatives to the state institutions. As children were diverted to various child care centers, the populations of these two institutions decreased, and plans were made to merge the two schools, thus closing Hillcrest. With the increase in populations at both schools, this is no longer feasible. As much time and effort is spent in placing children outside of the state schools, C.S.D. would like to have some measure of how effectively its workers are diverting children from the correctional system. A speculation exists among many C.S.D. workers that youngsters are not staying in these child care centers long enough to benefit from the varied programs the centers offer. With these factors in mind, a research design was developed which would cover these variables: 1. The child's placement 2. His length of stay (including dates of placement and release) 3. His disposition upon release 4. His living situation one year following his release

This study began with the authors' interest in the Portland Public Schools' program for Emotionally Handicapped children. Originally, the researchers were interested in assessing behavioral characteristics and changes among children in that program and in relating these variables to the kind and extent of parental involvement. Such a study was particularly timely, it was felt, since some schools were considering eliminating the parent involvement component of the program and there was discussion of phasing out the entire program as it then existed in favor of "mainstreaming." The researchers soon discovered the paucity of research information relating to program effects on children after their termination and realized that program changes might well happen for political and subjective reasons in the absence of research data. Unfortunately, recent changes in Oregon Law relating to confidentiality, in addition to administrative arid funding difficulties in the schools forced an upper level decision to curtail outside research in the school system. In September of 1976 the authors were left with an interest and a partially formulated research design but no program within which to apply their design. At this point the researchers contacted the Childrens' Psychiatric Day Treatment Center in Portland (C.P.D.T.C.) and presented a preliminary plan for research to that agency's Administrative Committee. They received the agency's approval to pursue research relating to children who had been in that program and were able to begin the present study. in early October. The present study undertakes to measure behavior changes among the forty-one children who had left the Center during the previous two years and to relate the stability of these changes to subsequent events in the childrens' home lives and to the degree of their parents' involvement in their treatment.