Millions of people leave their home societies to seek opportunities in other societies. Many immigrants to the United States come from Mexico. To reduce risks for substance use, internalizing, externalizing, and school problems among Mexican American youths, Gonzales et al. (2012) tested a family-focused intervention for Mexican American middle school students. The “Bridges to High… Read more »
Despite increasing tolerance for nontraditional gender roles in many countries, it is important to identify problems for which gender-dysphoric children and adolescents may need help. Building on previous research that employed the CBCL to identify such problems in parents’ reports, Steensma et al. (2014) compared TRF scores obtained by 728 children (ages <12 years) and… Read more »
Previous research has revealed elevated risks for aggression among children who carry short alleles of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and are exposed to stress. However, it has not been known whether the associations between stress, genotype, and aggression continue over the transition into adulthood, whether chronic and acute stress have different effects, or whether… Read more »
Many studies have reported both genetic and environmental effects on attention problems. However, such studies have not tested the longitudinal stability of genetic and environmental effects over multiple developmental periods. The Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) is a unique resource that has been obtaining assessment data for thousands of Dutch twins since 1987. The NTR’s use… Read more »
Previous Research Updates have reported multicultural findings for ASEBA ratings of 1½ -5- year-olds by their parents, 6-18-year-olds by their parents and teachers, and 11-18-year-olds by the youths themselves. New articles by Masha Ivanova, Leslie Rescorla, and international colleagues from 14 societies have compared syndromes and scale scores for ratings of 1½-5-year-olds by their daycare… Read more »
An international team tested prediction of changes in scores on the CBCL and YSR Anxious/Depressed and Aggressive Behavior syndrome scales over 3 years for 1,196 children from eight countries (Lansford et al., 2014). The countries included China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, and the U.S. At Time 1, mothers were interviewed about their… Read more »
Based mostly on findings in Western societies, it has been theorized that deficiencies in children’s inhibitory control, plus harsh parenting, lead to elevated levels of externalizing problems. To compare associations between these variables for children in Western and Asian societies, Olson et al. (2011) administered tests of inhibitory control to 155 4-year-olds attending preschools in… Read more »
Multiple studies have identified a CBCL/6-18 profile characterized by high scores on the Anxious/Depressed, Attention Problems, and Aggressive Behavior syndrome. Designated as the “Dysregulation Profile,” it has been found to be associated with genetic factors and poor outcomes. To investigate psychosocial aspects of the environments of children manifesting the Dysregulation Profile and also to assess… Read more »
It is often assumed that children’s behavior is worse than it used to be. To test this assumption, it is necessary to use the same procedures to assess representative population samples of children at two or more widely separated points in time. This has been done with the CBCL, TRF, and YSR in the U.S…. Read more »
Meta-analyses have revealed important discrepancies between problems reported for children by their parents, teachers, and the children themselves (Achenbach et al., 1987; De Los Reyes et al., 2015). In light of the cross-informant discrepancies, mental health professionals understand that no single informant’s reports are sufficient for comprehensive assessment of child and youth problems. Instead, parent,… Read more »
Walton et al. (2011) applied dimensional, categorical, and hybrid models to analyses of CBCL and YSR scores obtained by an epidemiological sample of 2,027 Dutch youths at ages 11.1 and 13.6 years. For dimensional analyses, a latent trait model described the probability that each particular problem item would be endorsed on the basis of the… Read more »
Some theorists view adolescent sexual offenses as manifestations of general juvenile delinquency that can be explained by antisocial personality traits. Other theorists focus on factors specific to sexual offending, such as prior sexual abuse. Skilling, Doiron, and Seto (2011) assessed 12- to 20-year-old males (78 sexual and 295 nonsexual offenders) referred by Canadian courts for… Read more »