[Behavior therapy with aggressive children]. / Verhaltenstherapie mit aggressiven Kindern.

Modern behavior therapy strategies which reduce aggressive behavior are based on developmental psychopathological assessments. These help to confirm intervention steps adapted to each specific age group. The extensive spectrum of methods in child behavior therapy offers different cognitive and social elements which are used to help the child effectively. The training for aggressive children by PeTERMANN and PeTERMANN (1994) which generally includes behavior-oriented family counselling shall be considered.

[Suicidality in thinking and experience of children and adolescents]. / Suizidalität im Denken und Erleben von Kindern und Jugendlichen.

In researching the tendency to suicide among children and adolescents it is important to know what they think about the attitude towards suicide. The present article covers a survey taken of 465 male and female pupils on this subject. On the one hand it reveals some interesting differences in the results according to age groups and sex, but on the other hand thoughts of suicide expressed by the younger pupils questioned are not significantly lower than those expressed by older pupils. This result seems noteworthy because the rate of suicide in youths increases with age.

[Developmental psychopathology and pediatric behavior therapy]. / Entwicklungspsychopathologie und Kinderverhaltenstherapie.

This article exemplifies by the development of aggressive behaviour that there is a group of children (about 5%) who as "early starters" show stable aggressive behaviour with a poor prognosis. On examining the development of these children biopsychosocial risk factors can be found such as minimal neurological disturbances, which again correlate with the so-called difficult temperament of a child and later with impulsivity and oppositional defiance behaviour. Since these disturbances commence at an early age, preventive methods and early intervention are necessary. Criteria are listed that help to recognise risk children as "early starters". Questions lead to the planning of intervention, for instance, whether individual, group or combined therapy is indicated. Five demands to be made on child-specific behaviour therapy are named, e.g. specificity of age group, material and resource orientation. The principles of methods and materials are explained by means of numerous examples, such as the training of perception in respect of social occurrences, relaxation methods, model-learning techniques with the aid of video material, various behavioural exercises and self-control techniques. Parent and family consultation is also dealt with. Results of combined methods lead to complex training programmes, like in a unit construction system. Such combinations are the most effective treatment methods.

[Evaluation of the single-case analytic effect of training and promoting work and social behavior in adolescents]. / Einzelfallanalytische Effektprüfung eines Trainings zur Förderung von Arbeits- und Sozialverhalten bei Jugendlichen.

Reports on prognostic factors of anorexia nervosa differentiate positive, negative and irrelevant data. However, these fields stand in parallel without quantification and thus without aspiring a hierarchical order. Establishing such an order by relative importance is the aim of this study in which we report on n = 113 patients. Among these prognostic factors from the time before, during and after hospitalization are investigated empirically. The patients' present state acts as a criterion (follow-up after 6.4 years). The relevant factors are set up hierarchically and investigated by multivariate analysis with special respect to relative importance of somatic, psychological or social variables. Finally we give therapeutic recommendations.

[Depression in children and adolescents]. / Depression bei Kindern und Jugendlichen.

The prevalence of major depression in preschool is less than 1 procent, in school-age children about 2 percent, and in adolescents about 4.7 percent. While as no significant sex differences have been reported among preadolescents, studies of adolescents have reported 2 to 3 times higher rates of depression. The most frequent course of depression is chronic and persistent, the mean length of depressive episode being 30 weeks. Depressed children and adolescents have impaired psychosocial functioning and school problems. Relapse occurs at a high frequency for depressed patients. The high recurrence of depression in children and adolescents calls for a long-term management in these age-groups.

[Training of aggressive children in residential treatment ages of five to seven years]. / Training mit aggressiven Heimkindern im Alter von fünf bis sieben Jahren.

The paper reports about strategies in behavior modification with aggressive children (sensu Petermann and Petermann, 1991) in special education ("Heimerziehung"). New results of treatment with nursery students are discussed. The modified conception (single and group sessions with child/children) are illustrated. Single-Case hypotheses were tested with the help of reversal designs (based on 105 observations). The differences of means between the phases of the observation (incl. the t-tests) are evaluated. The single-case analyses showed positive effects. Only the support by parents guarantees positive long-term effects.

[Thyroid hormone levels after surgical stress reaction (author's transl)]. / Schilddrüsenhormonspiegel nach operativer stressbreaktion.

In a larger collective of surgical patients the behaviour of the individual thyroid parameters (T4, T3, rT3, TBG and thyroxine-binding capacity) were studied before, during and after operation and set in relation to each other. There are significant shifts in T4 metabolism towards the formation of rT3. In spite of its greatly reduced metabolic activity compared with T3, an important regulatory effect is attributed to rT3, in thyroid metabolism in stress situations.

[Bronchial asthma in childhood and adolescence. Burden of illness and coping with the disease]. / Asthma bronchiale im Kindes- und Jugendalter. Krankheitsbelastung und Krankheitsbewältigung.

We report an empirical study in which the subjective complaints and stress experiences of children with bronchial asthma (outpatient, short- and long-term rehabilitation) are analyzed. The data were taken from a specifically developed questionnaire. The results should contribute to the conceptualization of programs for patient education and asthma training in order to meet the exact requirements and needs of the children to be instructed. The role of emotional asthma triggers is specified. Hierarchical cluster analysis is applied in order to analyze, first, the perception patterns of attack precursors and, second, the array of stressors that a child has to face as a consequence of suffering chronic asthma. Based on the social learning theory approach, the child's various expectations about the controllability of an asthma attack are differentiated. A factor analysis reveals that the coping process can be described by two basic coping dimensions.