Assessment Of Children's Behavior Research Articles

Training in pediatric psychology: survey results and recommendations.

Little specific information is available on the types of experiences that are important for training in pediatric psychology. To address this need, the membership of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP) was surveyed regarding their views on the structure and content of training. A total of 160 completed forms were received, representing a return rate of approximately 32%. Survey results suggested that training in pediatric psychology should (a) encompass course work and applied experiences in developmental and clinical child psychology, behavioral assessment and intervention, and child health psychology; (b) move from broad-based activities occurring early in graduate training, to more specialized experiences later on (internship and postdoc); (c) consider viewing postdoctoral training as a necessary step in the preparation of pediatric psychologists. Distinctions between pediatric psychology and clinical-child and health psychology are discussed with respect to training needs.

Child Behavioral Assessment (Book)

Child Behavioral Assessment (Book)

Syndromal Diagnosis and the Behavioral Assessment of Childhood Disorders

The recent appearance of the Third Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) will impact considerably on child behavior therapists. However, the extent to which syndromal diagnosis in general, and DSM-III in particular, enhances behavioral assessment has yet to be explicated. The present paper suggests that the synthesis of child behavioral assessment and DSM-III diagnosis is both warranted and useful. Such a synthesis gives behavior therapists access to the nomothetic considerations inherent to syndromal diagnosis, at the same time bringing the specificity and treatment planning capacities of behavioral assessment to bear upon DSM-III diagnosis. This paper discusses the utility of nomothetic and idiographic data in child behavioral assessment, and proposes a model for the synthesis of syndormal diagnosis and child behavioral assessment. Illustrations of the model in clinical practice are provided.

Mother-child dyads at risk: Assessment of maternal and child affect and behavior

Mother-child dyads at risk: Assessment of maternal and child affect and behavior

Rating scales in the assessment of child behavior

Abstract A critical element of any treatment approach is the assessment of behavioral functioning and outcome. Numerous techniques have become accepted as parts of behavioral assessment, but rating scales, though often used by researchers and clinicians, have been largely neglected in discussions of behavioral assessment. This article will describe how child behavior rating scales may be used in conjunction with other techniques for descriptive and evaluative functions throughout five assessment stages. Special attention will be paid to differential utility and applicability according to these identified phases and functions.

Measurement of Childrearing Expectations Using the Parent as a Teacher Inventory

Many programs in parent education aspire to treat the participants as individuals. Usually this goal is not achieved for lack of instruments which could differentiate parents according to their specific needs. This paper reports the progress of one effort to develop and validate an instrument that can be used to measure critical aspects of a parent’s attitudes and behavior that influence child development. The Parent as a Teacher Inventory (PAAT) is a composite attitude scale in which individual parents of preschoolers or primary students describe feelings about aspects of the parent-child interactive system, their criteria of judgment for assessing child behavior, and their value preferences and frustrations concerning child behavior.

Method factors associated with assessment of child behavior: Fact or artifact?

A sample of 64 phobic children between the ages of 6 and 16, with their general population matched controls, were rated by parents on the Louisville Behavior Check List and Louisville Fear survey and by School Behavior check list. The analysis of ratings by factor analysis revealed three instrument factors while a multiple discriminant analysis elicited a multidimensional phobic trait that crossed observers, situations, and instruments. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for multivariant analysis of behavior change as well as for classification of psychopathological disorders of childhood. The thesis is advanced that instrument factors elicited by factor analysis in psychotherapy change studies are statistical artifacts and that a multiple discriminant analysis is a more appropriate technique for the study of change as well as for classification.