Anxiety disorders are common in children and may signal risk of depression, social, or academic difficulties. This study evaluated the effects of a universal mental health promotion intervention delivered in primary schools. Three hundred and seventeen 9- to 10-year-olds were randomly allocated by class group to intervention conditions…

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…

Many uses of new media entail processing language content, yet little is known about the relationship between language ability and media use in young people. This study compares educational versus interpersonal uses of home computers in adolescents with and without a history of specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 55 17-year-olds…

This article tests the hypothesis that individuals with autism poorly encode verbal information to the semantic level of processing, instead paying greater attention to phonological attributes. Participants undertook a novel explicit verbal recall task. Twenty children with autism were compared with 20 matched typically developing children. On…

Background: Three experiments investigated the role of inner speech deficit in cognitive performances of children with autism. Methods: Experiment 1 compared children with autism with ability-matched controls on a verbal recall task presenting pictures and words. Experiment 2 used pictures for which the typical names were either single syllable or…

Compared preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders with a matched control group to investigate whether weak central coherence could account for deficits in two behaviors purported to tap capabilities fundamental to a theory of mind: joint attention and pretend play. Found that pretend play did not differentiate the two groups. Weak central…

An Importance of Goals Scale was developed from item responses of 230 Australian high school students and validated through administration to 80 delinquent, 90 at-risk, and 90 non-at-risk adolescents. Findings identified differences among the three groups, which are discussed in terms of implications for academic achievement, peer relations, and…

Objective: Current understanding of executive function deficits in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is derived almost exclusively from neuropsychological testing conducted in laboratory settings. This study compared children's performance on both neuropsychological and real-life measures of executive function and processing speed.…