Developmentally and culturally appropriate screening in primary care: development of the behavioral health checklist.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the construct validity of the Behavioral Health Checklist (BHCL) for children aged from 4 to 12 years from diverse backgrounds. METHOD: The parents of 4-12-year-old children completed the BHCL in urban and suburban primary care practices affiliated with a tertiary-care children's hospital. Across practices, 1,702 were eligible and 1,406 (82.6%) provided consent. Children of participating parents were primarily non-Hispanic black/African American and white/Caucasian from low- to middle-income groups. Confirmatory factor analyses examined model fit for the total sample and subsamples defined by demographic characteristics. RESULTS: The findings supported the hypothesized 3-factor structure: Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, and Inattention/Hyperactivity. The model demonstrated adequate to good fit across age-groups, gender, races, income groups, and suburban versus urban practices. CONCLUSION: The findings provide strong evidence of the construct validity, developmental appropriateness, and cultural sensitivity of the BHCL when used for screening in primary care.

School-based interventions for students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder typically manifest impairments in multiple settings. Perhaps the most common reason for referral relates to the school impairments experienced by these children. A wide range of intervention strategies have been developed for these children to improve attention and behavior, enhance academic competence, and promote social competence. A strong majority of the research on nonpharmacologic interventions has focused on strategies to improve attention and behavior. More recently, strategies specifically designed to promote the academic and social competence of these children are being developed. Also, most of the research has focused on elementary school-age children, but evidence-based strategies for intervening with preschoolers and adolescents are beginning to emerge.

Parental socialization of sadness regulation in middle childhood: the role of expectations and gender.

The authors of this study investigated mothers' and fathers' socialization of their children's sadness. The particular focus was an examination of how socialization practices changed when parents' expectancies concerning their child's sadness management abilities were violated. Methods included an experimental manipulation and direct observation of parent-child interactions in 62 families of White, middle-class children in 3rd and 4th grades. Families were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions. After parents were provided with a description of normative child behavior on a sadness-induction task, feedback was manipulated such that parents in the control condition were told their child had demonstrated typical regulation while parents in the violated-expectancy condition were informed their child did not manage sadness as well as peers. The hypothesis that violated expectancies influence socialization processes was supported, with greater evidence emerging for fathers than mothers. In certain circumstances within the violated-expectancy condition, there was more parental similarity in socialization practices than in the control condition. Further, mother-father comparisons indicated differences in socialization as a function of parent and child gender that were generally consistent with gender stereotypes.