Relationships between retrospective parent reports of developmental milestones and school adjustment at ages 10 to 12 years.

OBJECTIVE: The study's main purpose was to assess the extent to which retrospective parent reports of the child's achievement of early developmental milestones predicted later (fourth to sixth grade) adaptation to stress, and school adjustment and achievement, in a highly stressed urban sample. METHOD: Information about when children achieved key developmental milestones was obtained in individual parent interviews. Information about the child's current school adjustment and achievement was obtained from classroom teachers and school records. RESULTS: Factor analysis of a 12-item developmental milestone measure yielded an interpretable two-factor solution, i.e., motor and verbal milestones. Parents of stress-resilient, compared with stress-affected, children reported significantly earlier developmental milestone mastery by their offspring on both factor and total scores. Developmental factor milestone and total scores also related modestly to indicators of good school adjustment and academic achievement at ages 10 to 12 years. CONCLUSION: Delayed mastery of early developmental milestones may be a risk factor toward which preventive interventions can be gainfully targeted.

Interviews with children who experienced major life stress: family and child attributes that predict resilient outcomes.

Demographically comparable groups of children exposed to major life-stress, with stress resilient (SR) and stress affected (SA) outcomes at ages 10 to 12, were interviewed to assess perceptions of their caregiving environments, peer relationships, and themselves. SR children compared with SA children reported more: (1) positive relationships with primary caregivers, (2) stable family environments, (3) inductive and consistent family discipline practices, and (4) positive expectations for their futures. SR girls viewed their mothers as more nurturing than did SA girls. Perceptions of fathers, quality of peer relationships, and global self-concept did not differentiate the groups. A discriminant function analysis identified four variables that correctly classified 74% of the subjects as SR or SA. Findings support the view that caregiver-child relationships play a key role in moderating children's developmental outcomes under conditions of high stress.

Judged school problems and competencies of referred children with varying family background characteristics.

The school adjustment problems and competencies of referred children with varying family background histories were compared. Children from homes characterized by low parent interest in education had more severe learning problems and fewer competencies than either matched referred controls without such a history or matched referred children under family pressure to succeed. The relationship of these findings to other studies of school adjustment and family background was considered.

Differentiating attributes of children referred to a school mental health program.

A group of 275 first- and fourth-graders referred to a school mental health project were compared to a demographically matched sample of 509 non-referred classmates on the frequency of occurrence of 39 background descriptive variables reflecting four clusters: (a) physical and health characteristics, (b) recent critical life-events, (c) concurrent school activities and special services, and (d) current family status. Referred children had more serious problems of coordination and health and were judged to be less attractive physically. They experienced many more recent critical life-events, were involved in more problem-related special services and fewer extracurricular activities, and evidenced more signs of familial disruption.

Help-agents' views about clinical interactions with acting-out children.

A scale to measure nonprofessional child-aides' views about, and practices in, working primarily with acting-out children is described. The scale was used as part of an overall evaluation of a program to teach the aides Ginottian limit-setting approaches for work with such children. A prior study had shown that the training was followed by significantly more favorable treatment outcomes. Compared to 44 nontrained child-aides, the 19 trained aides had significantly higher postprogram scale scores on opinions and beliefs about acting-out children, changes in feeling about working with them, and actual observed changes in their playroom behaviors. Item analysis indicated that, following training, aides felt more comfortable with and had a richer repertoire of techniques for dealing with acting-out children. Specifically, they found it easier to set limits and to deal with overtly aggressive behaviors. Those changes may be key factors in explaining the significantly greater effectiveness of the trained aides working with acting-out children.

The evaluation of an intervention program for young schoolchildren with acting-out problems.

The rationale and nature of a program to train nonprofessional child-aides for helping interactions with young acting-out school children are described. Pre/post teacher measures of children's problems and competencies, aide measures of problem behavior, and school mental health professionals' change in behavior estimates were used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. Children seen by trained aides showed significantly greater reductions both in acting-out problems and in overall maladjustment than did similar children seen by comparable aides who did not have additional training, or by themselves before training. Implications were considered for optimizing outcomes both in the specific school intervention project in question and in other, broader types of clinical interventions.

The search for effective prevention programs: what we learned along the way.

Efforts by an American Psychological Association task force to identify model prevention programs for high-risk groups throughout the life span are summarized. Criteria for selection and program content are described, and implications for the construction, implementation, and evaluation of effective programs are discussed.