Background: Theory of mind (ToM) allows the understanding and prediction of other people's behaviours based on their mental states (e.g. beliefs). It is important for healthy social relationships and thus may contribute towards children's involvement in bullying. The present study investigated whether children involved in bullying during early…

Background: "With Significant Callous-Unemotional Traits" has been proposed as a specifier for conduct disorder (CD) in the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). The impact of this specifier on children diagnosed with CD should be considered. Methods: A multi-site cross-sectional design with…

Objective: To compare social and behavioural outcomes between children formally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with those of children who displayed autistic traits at preschool age, but remained undiagnosed as teenagers. Method: A secondary analysis of data from a birth cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and…

Background: Irritable mood has recently become a matter of intense scientific interest. Here, we present data from two samples, one from the United States and the other from the United Kingdom, demonstrating the clinical and research utility of the parent- and self-report forms of the Affective Reactivity Index (ARI), a concise dimensional measure…

Background: There is increasing theoretical, clinical and research evidence for the role of trauma memory in the aetiology of acute pathological stress responses in adults. However, research into the phenomenology of trauma memories in young people is currently scarce. Methods: This study compared the nature of trauma narratives to narratives of…

Background: Siblings of children with disabilities are at risk for internalizing psychological disorders; however, little is known about how culture influences this effect. This study examined the psychological and school functioning of Latino siblings of children with intellectual disability (ID). Methods: Participants were 100 Latino (L) and…

Background: Accumulating studies have demonstrated that the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), a modern youth anxiety questionnaire with scales explicitly designed to map onto specific DSM-IV-TR anxiety disorders, has good psychometric properties for children and adolescents from various countries. However, no study has…

Background: While research indicates elevated behavioural and emotional problems in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and decreased well-being in their parents, studies do not typically separate out the contribution of ASD from that of associated intellectual disabilities (ID). We investigated child behavioural and emotional problems,…

Background: Experience in institutional/orphanage care has been linked to increased mental health problems. Research suggests that children adopted from institutions experience specific difficulties related to inattention/overactivity. Evidence of internalizing and conduct problems relative to non-adopted peers has been found in early childhood…

Background: For adult physical and mental health, the population mean predicts the proportion of individuals with "high" scores. This has not previously been investigated for child mental health. It is also unclear how far symptom scores on brief questionnaires provide an unbiased method of comparing children with different individual, family or…

Background: Two developmental reading disorders, dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment, are identified by different behavioural characteristics and traced back to different underlying cognitive impairments. Thus, reading interventions designed to address each of these reading disorders differ in content. Method: This review summarises the…

Background: Despite the well-replicated relationship between the home literacy environment and expressive vocabulary, few studies have examined the extent to which the home literacy environment is associated with the development of early vocabulary ability in the context of genetic influences. This study examined the influence of the home literacy…

Background: Developmental reading problems show strong persistence across the school years; less is known about poor readers' later progress in literacy skills. Method: Poor (n = 42) and normally developing readers (n = 86) tested in adolescence (ages 14/15 years) in the Isle of Wight epidemiological studies were re-contacted at mid-life (ages…

Background: On October 29, 1998, around 400 young people were gathered in an old warehouse in Goteborg, Sweden, for a discotheque party. A fire erupted and spread explosively. Adolescents were exposed to dreadful scenes inside and outside the building. In all, 63 young people were killed and 213 physically injured. An 18-month follow-up with 275…

Background: Child survivors of a catastrophic earthquake in Turkey were evaluated three and a half years after the event, and three years after a sub-group participated in a teacher-mediated intervention developed by the authors. The goal of this follow-up study was to determine the long-term effectiveness of the original intervention. Methods:…