Social Competence

Attachment style differences in psychological symptomatology, self-concept, and risky or problem behaviors were examined in a community sample (N = 1,989) of Black and White adolescents, 13 to 19 years old. Overall, secure adolescents were the best-adjusted group, though not necessarily the least likely to engage in risky behaviors. Anxious adolescents were the worst-adjusted group, reporting the poorest self-concepts and the highest levels of symptomatology and risk behaviors. In contrast, avoidant adolescents reported generally high levels of symptomatology and poor self-concepts but similar levels of risk behaviors to those found among secures. Mediation analyses suggested that the observed differences in problem behaviors were at least partially accounted for by the differential experience of distress symptoms (primarily hostility and depression) and by social competence. Finally, patterns of attachment effects were similar across age, gender, and racial groups, with some important exceptions.

Background. Empathy plays a key role in social understanding, but its empirical measurement has proved difficult. The Empathy Quotient (EQ) is a self-report scale designed to do just that. This series of four studies examined the reliability and validity of the EQ and determined its factor structure.

Two studies investigated the hypothesis that the higher entrepreneurs' social competence (their ability to interact effectively with others as based on discrete social skills), the greater their financial success. Entrepreneurs working in two different industries (cosmetics and high-tech) completed a questionnaire designed to measure several aspects of their social competence (e.g., accuracy in perceiving others, skill at impression management, persuasiveness). Results indicated that one aspect of social competence (e.g., accuracy in perceiving others) was positively related to financial success for both groups of entrepreneurs. In addition, social adaptability was related to financial success for entrepreneurs in the cosmetics industry, and expressiveness was related to such success for the entrepreneurs in the high-tech industry. The questionnaire employed to assess social competence was cross-validated with a third group of entrepreneurs who completed this measure themselves, and whose social competence was also rated by persons who knew them well. The two sets of ratings agreed closely, thus providing evidence for the validity of this measure. Overall, findings are consistent with the view that a high level of social capital (e.g., a favorable reputation, extensive social network, etc.) assists entrepreneurs in gaining access to persons important for their success. Once such access is attained, however, entrepreneurs' social competence influences the outcomes they experience. D

This study explored links between emotional intelligence, measured as a set of abilities, and personality traits, as well as the contribution of both to the perceived quality of one's interpersonal relationships. In a sample of 103 college students, we found that both emotional intelligence and personality traits were associated with concurrent self-reports of satisfaction with social relationships. Individuals scoring highly on the managing emotions subscale of the Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), were more likely to report positive relations with others, as well as perceived parental support, and less likely to report negative interactions with close friends. These associations remained statistically significant even controlling for significant Big Five personality traits and verbal intelligence. Global satisfaction with one's relationships was associated with extraversion, neuroticism (negatively), and the ability to manage one's emotions, as assessed by the MSCEIT. #

Two studies found positive relationships between the ability to manage emotions and the quality of social interactions, supporting the predictive and incremental validity of an ability measure of emotional intelligence, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). In a sample of 118 American college students (Study 1), higher scores on the managing emotions subscale of the MSCEIT were positively related to the quality of interactions with friends, evaluated separately by participants and two friends. In a diary study of social interaction with 103 German college students (Study 2), managing emotions scores were positively related to the perceived quality of interactions with opposite sex individuals. Scores on this subscale were also positively related to perceived success in impression management in social interactions with individuals of the opposite sex. In both studies, the main findings remained statistically significant after controlling for Big Five personality traits.

In this longitudinal study, the authors tested a developmental hypothesis derived from attachment theory and recent empirical findings. Target participants were 78 individuals who have been studied intensively from infancy into their mid-20s. When targets were 20 -23 years old, the authors tested the way in which interpersonal experiences at 3 pivotal points in each target's earlier social development-infancy/early childhood, early elementary school, and adolescence-predicted the pattern of positive versus negative emotions experienced with his or her romantic partner. A double-mediation model revealed that targets classified as securely attached at 12 months old were rated as more socially competent during early elementary school by their teachers. Targets' social competence, in turn, forecasted their having more secure relationships with close friends at age 16, which in turn predicted more positive daily emotional experiences in their adult romantic relationships (both self-and partner-reported) and less negative affect in conflict resolution and collaborative tasks with their romantic partners (rated by observers). These results are discussed in terms of attachment theory and how antecedent life experiences may indirectly shape events in current relationships.

Apart from John Dewey, no American educational reformer has been as internationally successful and influential as Helen Parkhurst, the founder of Dalton education. In the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, Dalton education was spread throughout the world. There was Dalton education in America, England, Germany, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, India, China and Japan. Particularly in the Netherlands and Japan, Dalton education has remained in existence. In recent years there has been a revival of international interest. It crops up again, for instance, in England, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Poland and China.

The Netherlands is the country with the highest density of Dalton schools. At the moment there are four hundred, three hundred and seventy of which are elementary schools. Comprising five percent of all elementary schools, Dalton education is by far the largest educational reform movement in the Netherlands. And, contrary to Montessori, Jena Plan and Waldorf education, it is steadily on the increase: approximately one hundred schools have been founded in the past five years. The only Dalton school in America, is the school that Helen Parkhurst founded herself in 1919, and which she was subsequently to direct for more than twenty years: the Dalton School in New York. It is a renowned school. But its fame is not due to its origins as an experiment in progressive education. The Dalton School is the second most expensive private school in New York.

We begin with an account of the original practice and theory of the Dalton Plan. The first chapter is mostly historical: a concise reconstruction of the history of the development of the Dalton Plan. The second chapter characterizes the theory of the Dalton Plan based upon our interpretation of texts written by Parkhurst.

A theoretical model for affective social competence is described. Affective social com- petence (ASC) is comprised of three integrated and dynamic components: sending affective messages, receiving affective messages, and experiencing affect. Central and interconnected abilities within each component include awareness and identification of affect, working within a complex and constantly changing social context, and man- agement and regulation. The dynamic

The ability of young children to manage their emotions and behaviors and to make meaningful friendships is an important prerequisite for school readiness and academic success. Socially competent children are also more academically successful and poor social skills are a strong predictor of academic failure. This article describes The Incredible Years Dinosaur Social Skills and Problem-Solving Child Training Program, which teaches skills such as emotional literacy, empathy or perspective taking, friendship and communication skills, anger management, interpersonal problem solving, and how to be successful at school. The program was first evaluated as a small group treatment program for young children who were diagnosed with oppositional defiant and conduct disorders. More recently the program has been adapted for use by preschool and elementary teachers as a prevention curriculum designed to increase the social, emotional, and academic competence, and decrease problem behaviors of all children in the classroom. The content, methods, and teaching processes of this classroom curriculum are discussed.

The effectiveness of a social skills training group for adolescents with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) was evaluated. Parents of six groups of adolescents (n = 46, 61% male, mean age 14.6) completed questionnaires immediately before and after the 12-week group. Parents and adolescents were surveyed regarding their experience with the group. Significant pre-to post-treatment gains were found on measures of both social competence and problem behaviors associated with AS/HFA. Effect sizes ranged from .34 to .72. Adolescents reported more perceived skill improvements than did parents. Parent-reported improvement suggests that social skills learned in group sessions generalize to settings outside the treatment group. Larger, controlled studies of social skills training groups would be valuable.

The development, reliability, and validity of a new instrument, the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), is described. The results indicate that the SPAI-C has high test-retest reliability and internal consistency. In addition, an assessment of concurrent and external validity indicates statistically significant correlations with commonly used self-report measures of general anxiety and fears and parental reports of children's anxiety and social competence. The results of a factor analysis indicate that the scale consists of three factors: Assertiveness/ General Conversation, Traditional Social Encounters, and Public Performance. Finally, scores on the SPAI-C successfully differentiate socially anxious and non-socially-anxious children. The instrument appears to be a reliable and valid measure for childhood social anxiety and fear and may prove useful for improving clinical assessment and documenting treatment outcome.

In this survey study of 430 undergraduates, elements of the social competencies and interpersonal processes model were tested. Two social competencies were hypothesized to mediate the direct effects of 2 independent variables, attachment anxiety and avoidance, on 2 outcomes, psychological distress and perceived social support. Social self-efficacy was expected to be a significant mediator only for attachment anxiety. Emotional awareness, construed as low levels of alexithymia, was expected to be a significant mediator only for attachment avoidance. A bootstrap method was used to estimate the significance of indirect effects. Structural equation analyses suggested that, instead of specialized significant parings of one mediator with one independent variable, both social self-efficacy and emotional awareness served as significant mediators for both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance.

We report the results of a quasi-experimental study evaluating the effectiveness of the Mindfulness Education (ME) program. ME is a theoretically derived, teacher-taught universal preventive intervention that focuses on facilitating the development of social and emotional competence and positive emotions, and has as its cornerstone daily lessons in which students engage in mindful attention training (three times a day). Pre- and early adolescent students in the 4th to 7th grades (N = 246) drawn from six ME program classrooms and six comparison classrooms (wait-list controls) completed pretest and posttest self-report measures assessing optimism, general and school self-concept, and positive and negative affect. Teachers rated pre- and early adolescents on dimensions of classroom social and emotional competence. Results revealed that pre- and early adolescents who participated in the ME program, compared to those who did not, showed significant increases in optimism from pretest to posttest. Similarly, improvements on dimensions of teacher-rated classroom social competent behaviors were found favoring ME program students. Program effects also were found for self-concept, although the ME program demonstrated more positive benefits for preadolescents than for early adolescents. Teacher reports of implementation fidelity and dosage for the mindfulness activities were high and teachers reported that they were easily able to integrate the mindful attention exercises within their classrooms. Theoretical issues linking mindful attention awareness to social and emotional competence and implications for the development of school-based interventions are discussed.

The literature on participant roles in bullying lacks empirical studies that seek to explain what differentiates defenders from outsiders (or passive bystanders). The present study tested a conceptual model in which two personal characteristics of early adolescent students (empathy and perceived social selfefficacy) were considered as possible determinants of their participant behavior in bullying episodes. A total of 294 Italian early adolescents (mean age ¼ 13.3 years, range: 12-14) participated in the study. The structural equation modeling showed that high levels of empathic responsiveness were positively associated with both active defending and passive bystanding behavior, as assessed through peer nominations. In contrast, high levels of social self-efficacy were associated with helping behavior, whereas low levels of social self-efficacy were associated with passive bystanding behavior. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for researchers and educational practitioners.

Purpose -Continued research on the assessment and development of emotional and social intelligence competencies represents an opportunity to further both theoretical and applied applications of behavioral science to the management of human capital. While the field has continued to expand over the preceding decades, research has often trailed application, especially as it relates to cross-cultural validity. The purpose of this introductory essay to this special issue of CCM serves to focus on cultural issues related to applied use of competencies in diverse cultures. Design/methodology/approach -Emotional and social intelligence competencies are defined and an overview provided for the papers that will follow, with original research linking these constructs to performance in various occupations and cultures, as well as issues related to their development. Findings -Emotional and social intelligence competencies are found to represent a practical and theoretically coherent, reliable and valid approach to assessing and developing individuals in diverse cultures. Research limitations/implications -As an introductory essay, the paper lays the foundation for the following articles in this special issue. Originality/value -Although competencies are in widespread use around the world, issues related to cross-cultural validation are seldom studied empirically. This introductory essay and subsequent articles will help clarify emotional and social competencies as a behavioral approach to applying emotional intelligence to the practical needs of organizations.

The Early Development Instrument (EDI), a teacher-completed measure of children's school readiness at entry to grade 1 was designed to provide communities with an informative, inexpensive and psychometrically sound tool to assess outcomes of early development as reflected in children's school readiness. Its psychometric properties at individual level were evaluated in two studies. Five a priori domains: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and communication, and cognitive development and general knowledge, were tested in a factor analysis of data on over 16,000 kindergarten children.

The quality of the home environment is widely recognized as a strong contributor to young children's emergent literacy and social competence and to their subsequent educational success. The present study examined the relationships between family variables (socioeconomic status (SES), social risk factors, and home learning variables) and children's emergent literacy competence and children's social functioning. The sample for this study was obtained by randomly selecting 48 classrooms within three Head Start programs and, then, randomly selecting five girls and five boys from each class. The final sample consisted of 325 families for which information about both child and primary caregiver was obtained from multiple sources (teacher, outside assessor, and primary caregiver). A mediational model was hypothesized and tested using structural equation modeling. The findings are consistent with the hypotheses that family social risk and home learning experiences mediate the association between SES and Head Start children's school readiness in the areas of emergent literacy competence and social functioning.

This study examined results of a comprehensive, multifaceted longitudinal school-based prevention program called Raising Healthy Children (RHC). RHC focuses on enhancing protective factors with the goal of promoting positive youth development, reducing identified risk factors, and preventing adolescent problem behaviors. Participants included 938 elementary students from first or second grade who were enrolled in 10 area schools in the Pacific Northwest and randomly divided into two groups, those receiving RHC and peer controls. Analyses were conducted 18 months after implementation and focused on academic and behavioral improvements within the school environment. Results using hierarchical linear modeling showed that RHC students, compared to their peers who did not receive the intervention, had significantly higher academic performance (t ratio = 2.27, p < .001) and a stronger commitment to school (t ratio = 2.16, p < .03) according to their teachers. Similarly, compared to control peers, RHC students showed a significant decrease in antisocial behaviors (t ratio = -2.43, p < .02) and increased social competency (t ratio = 2.96, p < .01).

We assessed the effects of teaching sociodramatic play to three children with autism. The training was conducted using a variation of Pivotal Response Training (PRT), a program traditionally used to teach language to children with autism. Measures of play skills, social behavior, and language skills were obtained before treatment, after treatment, and at a follow-up period. The correlation between language and pretend play was explored, as was the relationship between sociodramatic play and social competence. Positive changes were observed in play, language, and social skills. These changes generalized across toys and settings, although little generalization to other play partners occurred. Effects of play training with children with autism and maintenance of behavior change is discussed.

An intervention was developed to promote parent involvement with ethnic minority families of children attending Head Start preschool programs. Two hundred eighty-eight predominantly African American families from a small southern city were included in this study. Parent satisfaction with the program was high, yet engagement was less than optimal. Some effects were found for the program, despite low levels of participation. Ethnic minority parents who received the intervention increased the frequency of reading to their child as compared with parents in a comparison group who did not receive the program. The quality of the parent-teacher relationship was significantly correlated with parental participation in the intervention. Program participation and the parent-teacher relationship were correlated with higher levels of children&#39;s school readiness abilities. Children in the intervention condition showed stronger end-of-year receptive vocabulary and parent-rated social competence...

Background. Tr ait emotional intelligence ( trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy )i sa constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. This paper examines the validity of this construct, as operationalizedb yt he Tr aitE motional IntelligenceQ uestionnaire-Child Form (TEIQue-CF), in primarys choolchildren.

Two studies found positive relationships between the ability to manage emotions and the quality of social interactions, supporting the predictive and incremental validity of an ability measure of emotional intelligence, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). In a sample of 118 American college students (Study 1), higher scores on the managing emotions subscale of the MSCEIT were positively related to the quality of interactions with friends, evaluated separately by participants and two friends. In a diary study of social interaction with 103 German college students (Study 2), managing emotions scores were positively related to the perceived quality of interactions with opposite sex individuals. Scores on this subscale were also positively related to perceived success in impression management in social interactions with individuals of the opposite sex. In both studies, the main findings remained statistically significant after controlling for Big Five personality traits.

The aim of this article is to investigate how often adolescents engage in internet-based identity experiments, with what motives they engage in such experiments and which self-presentational strategies they use while experimenting with their identity. Six hundred nine to 18-year-olds completed a questionnaire in their classroom. Of the adolescents who used the internet for chat or Instant Messaging, 50 percent indicated that they had engaged in internet-based identity experiments. The most important motive for such experiments was selfexploration (to investigate how others react), followed by social compensation (to overcome shyness) and social facilitation (to facilitate relationship formation). Age, gender and introversion were significant predictors of the frequency with which adolescents engaged in internetbased identity experiments, their motives for such experiments, and their self-presentational strategies.

This work presents an analysis of the existing relationship between the emotional and the social competence among university students from Teaching Education (Pre-school and Primary School), Social Education, Pedagogy Education and Psycho-pedagogy Education from the University of Barcelona and the University of Lleida the years 2007-08 and 2008-09. The instruments used were: the Emotional Development Questionnaire for Adults (QDE-A) made by the Research in Psychoeducational Guidance Group (GROP) and the Social Skills Scale (EHS) by Gismero (2000). The data analysis technique used is the Pearson correlation. The sample consisted of 621 students, 86.5% women and 13.5 mean about 22.1 years old (SD=3.4). The correlations obtained corroborate the relationship between emotional competence and social competence. High scores are consistent with other papers and theoretical models.

Researchers working fairly independently of each other have created numerous measures of social and emotional competence (SEC). These measures tend to correlate (sometimes highly) with each other and with measures of stressful events, suggesting potential redundancy. We evaluated which, if any, SEC variables predicted unique variance in social and mental health after controlling for other SEC variables in the study and the impact of stressful events. Three-hundred and thirty-one university students participated in an anonymous, cross-sectional study. We measured stressful events, and a wide variety of SECs, including: social problem solving skill (effective problem orientation, automatic processing, and problem solving), alexithymia (difficulty identifying and describing emotions; minimising emotions), effective emotional control (low rumination, high impulse control, high aggression control, low defensive inhibiting of emotions), and level of emotional awareness. We also assessed a variety of aspects of social and mental health (e.g. depression, anxiety, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, life satisfaction, social support). Covariance analyses revealed that all SEC measures except minimising emotions had significant incremental value over the other measures and over stressful events in predicting social and mental health. The optimal set of predictors differed depending upon the type of health predicted. These findings have important implications for the design of social and emotional intervention programs. #

This chapter presents the SSI-Del-Prette, a social skills assessment instrument produced in Brazil in 2001, with satisfactory psychometric properties and online scoring, recommended by the Federal Council of Psychology. Besides its conceptual bases, the psychometric and formal characteristics of the instrument are described, including its factorial structure, examples of items and the procedure for application and scoring. At the end, the annotated bibliography about the SSI-Del-Prette is analyzed, thus illustrating its application in different contexts, with different samples and problems, including cases of anxiety and social phobia.

The development, reliability, and validity of a new instrument, the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), is described. The results indicate that the SPAI-C has high test-retest reliability and internal consistency. In addition, an assessment of concurrent and external validity indicates statistically significant correlations with commonly used self-report measures of general anxiety and fears and parental reports of children's anxiety and social competence. The results of a factor analysis indicate that the scale consists of three factors: Assertiveness/ General Conversation, Traditional Social Encounters, and Public Performance. Finally, scores on the SPAI-C successfully differentiate socially anxious and non-socially-anxious children. The instrument appears to be a reliable and valid measure for childhood social anxiety and fear and may prove useful for improving clinical assessment and documenting treatment outcome.

The concept of competence gives rise to a large number of contributions, focusing inter alia on the need to clearly define the concept, which is so commonly used that it would run the risk of be emptied of its substance. The term competence seems, indeed, employed in very diverse contexts and with different meanings. Since the beginning of the 1990s, several authors in the field of human resource management offer an effort of synthesis from several different definitions in order to propose a unified conceptual framework, rigorously defined. The approach taken here is to render the definitions and issues of competence after focusing instead on irreducible differences rather than on commonalities. The underlying assumption is that the "disorder" observed in the language and in companies does not necessarily means a conceptual vacuum, but also that, born and used in different contexts, the word 'competence' does refer to issues specific to these contexts. These scientific issues are often not apparent in contributions that attempt to put the different definitions in perspective. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we present a number of definitions and issues of the term of competence in several scientific disciplines-ergonomics, psychology, linguistics, management – in France and the USA, why these contexts appeared (to fill what scientific gap ?)-as well as their implications for companies.

Political skill is a construct that was introduced more than two decades ago as a necessary competency to possess to be effective in organizations. Unfortunately, despite appeals by organizational scientists to further develop this construct, it lay dormant until very recently. The present article defines and characterizes the construct domain of political skill and embeds it in a cognition-affect-behavior, multilevel, meta-theoretical framework that proposes how political skill operates to exercise effects on both self and others in organizations. Implications of this conceptualization are discussed, as are directions for future research and practical implications. Sean Lux is a visiting instructor in entrepreneurship at the University of South Florida and a PhD candidate at Florida State University. His research examines how actors shape social systems over time. He is examining how entrepreneurs develop performance-enabling social networks and how firms shape economic institutions. 320 Journal of Management /

This study investigated family and classroom characteristics associated with parents' and teachers' ratings of 183 preschool children's social competence. Results of multilevel modeling indicated that teachers' negative ratings of the children were predicted by negative teacher behaviors and less optimal classroom climate. Children with higher stress were more likely to demonstrate low social competence when in class with other children with less optimal social competencies. Teachers' positive ratings of the preschooler's social competence were predicted by positive assessments of classroom climate and teacher behaviors. Positive classroom climate appeared to mediate the relationship between teacher behaviors and preschoolers' social competence. Path analyses indicated that higher socioeconomic status directly predicted parent ratings of social competence. Paths between child stress and parent ratings of social competence were significant as were paths between teachers' ratings of preschoolers' competence at school and parent ratings of social competence. These findings have implications for teacher training and parent education programs.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh kualitas desain, inovasi produk, kompetensi sosial, kompetensi teknis, kualitas produk, kualitas layanan terhadap kepuasan pelanggan dengan mengembangkan sebuah model penelitian dan 6 hipotesis yang diajukan dalam penelitian ini. Jumlah sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah 150 responden, yaitu pengguna kendaraan Toyota di Semarang. Teknik analisis data menggunakan Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) dari software AMOS 16.0 dalam model dan pengkajian hipotesis. Berdasarkan hasil analisis data, dapat disimpulkan bahwa model tersebut dapat diterima dengan baik dan selanjutnya hasil penelitian ini memberikan implikasi teoritis bahwa pengaruh variabel kualitas desain, variabel inovasi produk, variabel kompetensi sosial, variabel kompetensi teknis, variabel kualitas produk, variabel kualitas layanan terhadap variabel kepuasan konsumen adalah positif dan signifikan. Variabel yang dominan berpengaruh terhadap kualitas produk adalah kualitas desain, dan terhadap kualitas layanan adalah kompetensi sosial, sedangkan terhadap kepuasan pelanggan adalah kualitas layanan.

Although issues pertinent to psychotherapy with ethnic minorities have been attended to increasingly over the past two decades, the issue of skin color has more or less been neglected in the psychotherapy literature. The idealization of light skin color in mainstream White and ethnic minority communities in the United States has impacted a wide range of societal and individual perceptions ranging from physical attractiveness to intellectual and social competence. The relevance of this impact in the psychotherapeutic relationship is explored in this article. Skin color is addressed within an historical context, and its influence on intrapsychic and interpersonal processes in the lives of clients and therapists are discussed. Clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate the dynamics of skin color in the therapeutic relationship.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the published teacher version of the preschool Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) for Head Start children. Three major questions were addressed. First, does the published SSRS replicate the factors found in the test manual, which are based on the tryout version of the SSRS? Second, is there empirical support for two independent Social Skills and Problem Behaviors domains? Third, do sociometric indices of peer acceptance provide convergent and divergent validity for SSRS constructs? The SSRS was administered to a sample of 943 urban Head Start children. Exploratory factor analyses replicated the Internalizing and Externalizing factors from the tryout version but did not replicate prosocial factors. Self-Control, Interpersonal Skills, and Verbal Assertion factors were found, but they were not identical to the tryout version factors. Higher-order factor analyses revealed only one social competency dimension, with Social Skills and Problem Behaviors factors inversely related. Sociometric data did not provide convergent and divergent validity for SSRS factors. Implications for the continued development of the SSRS include further study of the relationship between the Social Skills and Problem Behaviors scale, concurrent validity, and the preschool parent version.

This study was a randomized control trial (RCT) of Parent Management Training-The Oregon Model (PMTO) in Norway. A sample representing all health regions of Norway and consisting of 112 children with conduct problems and their families participated in the study. Families were randomly assigned to either PMTO or a regular services comparison group. PMTO was delivered via existing children's services, and families were recruited using the agencies' regular referral procedures, making this the first effectiveness study of PMTO and the first RCT of PMTO conducted outside of the United States. Using a multiagent-multimethod approach, results showed that PMTO was effective in reducing parentreported child externalizing problems, improving teacher-reported social competence, and enhancing parental discipline. Age level and gender modified the effects of PMTO treatment on other outcomes. In a path model, participation in PMTO was associated with improved parental discipline, and effective discipline predicted greater child compliance, fewer child-initiated negative chains, and lower levels of child externalizing problems. Findings are presented along with a discussion of the implications for practice and research and the challenges accompanying effectiveness trials.

... Funderburk Sheila M. Eyberg Katharine Newcomb Cheryl B. McNeil Toni Hembree-Kigin Laura Capage ABSTRACT. Followup school assessments were conducted 12 months and 18 months following completion of Parent-Child Inter-action Therapy (PCIT), a behavioral family ...

Few investigations have examined directly the psychosocial functioning of depressed children. In the present study, 20 depressed and 20 nondepressed fourth-and fifth-grade children were observed in free play during their recess period at school, and their self-perceptions were assessed in subsequent individual sessions. The 10 boys and 10 girls in each group were selected according to their scores on both the Child Depression Inventory and the Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression. Analyses conducted on the eight categories of behavioral observations revealed significant differences between the social behavior of the depressed and the nondepressed children. Although the depressed children made more overtures for social contact than did the nondepressed children and were approached by other children more frequently, they spent more time alone and engaged in a higher frequency of negative interactions with their peers. Consistent with these results, the depressed children's responses to the Self-Perception Profile for Children indicated that they experienced themselves as less socially competent in general, as well as less competent across several specific domains o f functioning. These findings are discussed as they relate to developmental processes, theories of adult depression, and recent studies on socially isolated children, and directions for future research in this area are offered.