This paper examines the arbitrary distinctions between intentional and unintentional child injuries, noting that a careful review of the literature of both child abuse and unintentional child injury revealed similarities among the risk factors associated with the two outcomes. A single, multifactor model of injury etiology, the ecologic model, is…

This study examined the underlying common origins of pediatric social illnesses (i.e., child abuse and neglect, failure to thrive, accidents, and poisonings) in children under age 4. Subjects were 560 children admitted to the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. Children admitted with pediatric social diagnoses were matched on the basis…

A new psychometric instrument for measuring the impact of divorce on elementary school age children was developed: the Child's Report of the Impact of Separation by Parents (CRISP). This structured projective test was specifically designed to assess children's postdivorce stress/adjustment. An initial version of the CRISP was administered to 99…

This study was designed to examine two contrasting types of parent groups in terms of their differential effects on parents and their disabled infants. The first type of parent support group was focused upon the psychological adaptation of mothers to their disabled child. It was hypothesized that the parent-centered group would directly affect the…

These three papers report preliminary findings of an early intervention collaboration study on developmentally vulnerable infants and their families in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Subjects, 190 infants with Down syndrome, motor impairment, or developmental delays of unknown etiology, were recruited from 29 community-based early intervention…

Workshops on child development explored the cognitive development of children, mass media and its effects on children, parenting, the emotional and personality development of children, and educating the exceptional child, including the gifted. The discussion of cognitive development focused on the need to collect information about cognitive…

This longitudinal study identified hard-to-manage older toddlers and younger preschoolers, assessed the developmental course and prognostic significance of their difficult behavior, and delineated family factors possibly associated with early and persistent problems. Obtained from parents, teachers, and observers, cross-situational and…

The aesthetic quality and psychological subtlety of contemporary picture books give genuine expression to a child's conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions. Increasingly, themes of existential and developmental stress are appearing in picture books. Typical reactions aroused by such stress factors--and also by themes treated in picture…

In order to study signs of stress in speech directed to children at risk for abuse, sentences matched on content were collected from audio recordings of adult-child interactions. The children were audiotaped during an unstructured interaction with both their own mother and an unrelated mother. A total of 40 sibling pairs, each including one…

Poorly planned implementation of microcomputers has been shown to increase stress symptoms. Concerns have also been raised about the impact of new technology on the quality of the work environment. Programming expertise alone is not sufficient to prevent these problems. This paper therefore describes the role that psychologists can play in…

With mandatory reporting of child abuse, children are becoming involved more frequently in the judicial system, a system that is often unresponsive to the needs and limitations of young children. This investigation explored the effect of courtroom environment on the quality of evidence children offer and the level of system-induced stress that…

An autosegmental account of the child's acquisition of grammatical tone in Sesotho, a southern Bantu language, is presented. The following theoretical questions are addressed: (1) When and how does the child figure out that Sesotho is a tonal rather than intonational, stress, or accentual language?; (2) How does the child acquire tonal rules?; and…

Issues are presented which concern today's children, even those growing up under the best of environmental, social, and economic conditions. All will face an increased probability of emotional stress accompanying problems of living, undoubtedly resulting in increased demands upon child mental health services. The history of child mental health…

The study investigated the ranking of stress associated with various life events by parents of handicapped children. Forty-seven parents of children with handicapping conditions were administered the Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire. Mean values and ranks for life event items were compared with previously reported data. Overall ranking by…

Effects of children's diagnosis, setting of intervention, and involvement in parent education groups on families of 85 parents of handicapped children were investigated. Significant results were found regarding reported parent-child interaction, early intervention program suggestions, family stress, and both formal and informal family support…