A multi-modal abnormality in the integration of parts and whole has been proposed to account for a bias toward local stimuli in individuals with autism (Frith, 1989; Mottron & Belleville, 1993). In the current experiment, we examined the utility of hierarchical models in characterising musical information processing in autistic individuals. Participants were 13 high-functioning individuals with autism and 13 individuals of normal intelligence matched on chronological age, nonverbal IQ, and laterality, and without musical experience. The task consisted of same-different judgements of pairs of melodies. Differential local and global processing was assessed by manipulating the level, local or global, at which modifications occurred. No deficit was found in the two measures of global processing. In contrast, the clinical group performed better than the comparison group in the detection of change in nontransposed, contour-preserved melodies that tap local processing. These findings confirm the existence of a “local bias” in music perception in individuals with autism, but challenge the notion that it is accounted for by a deficit in global music processing. The present study suggests that enhanced processing of elementary physical properties of incoming stimuli, as found previously in the visual modality, may also exist in the auditory modality.

Children with and without autism were compared on two visual search tasks in which a letter target appeared among two sets of letter distracters. In one task, the target shared colour with one set of distracters but was unique in shape — the feature search task. In the other, the conjunctive search task, the target shared colour with one set and shape with another set of distracters. Although search was slower in the conjunctive task than the feature task in normally developing control children, children with autism showed no significant slowing in reaction time in the conjunctive task and were faster than control children in this task. This result is discussed in the light of theories of visual search which state that rate of search is determined by the degree of similarity between target and distracters.

High-functioning adults with autism and control adults were tested on a perceptual learning task that compared discrimination performance on familiar and novel stimuli. Control adults were better able to discriminate familiar than novel stimuli — the perceptual learning effect. No perceptual learning effect was observed in adults with autism although they discriminated the novel stimuli significantly better than control adults. This enhanced discrimination learning about novel, but not familiar, stimuli in autism is discussed in relation to two current hypotheses of information processing in autism — weak central coherence and reduced attention-switching — and a new third hypothesis, which suggests that features held in common between stimuli are processed poorly and features unique to a stimulus are processed well in autism.

Language impairments are commonly observed among children referred for psychiatric services. The most frequent psychiatric diagnosis of children with language impairment (LI) is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is not clear whether there are differences between children with ADHD and comorbid LI and children with other psychiatric disorders who are also comorbid for LI. In the present study the language, achievement, and cognitive processing characteristics of 166 psychiatrically referred 7–14-year-old children were examined using a 2 × 2 (ADHD, LI) design to examine four groups: children with ADHD+LI, children with ADHD who have normally developing language, children with psychiatric diagnoses other than ADHD with a language impairment (OPD+LI) or without a LI (OPD). Results indicated that children with LI were at the most disadvantage regardless of the nature of the psychiatric diagnosis. Contrary to prediction, working memory measures, used to tap the core cognitive deficit of ADHD in executive functions, were more closely associated with LI than with ADHD. It was concluded that caution must be exercised in attributing to children with ADHD what might be a reflection of problems for children with language impairment generally. As most therapies are verbally based it is notable that language competence is rarely evaluated systematically before such therapies are undertaken.

The relationships between maternal age (at birth) and educational and psychosocial outcomes at age 18 were examined in a birth cohort of 1025 New Zealand children. This analysis indicated the presence of consistent tendencies for increasing maternal age to be associated with declining risks of educational underachievement, juvenile crime, substance misuse, and mental health problems. Children with teenage mothers had risks of later adverse outcomes that were 1.5 to 8.9 times higher than the risks for offspring of mothers aged over 30. Subsequent analyses revealed that the associations between maternal age and later educational and psychosocial outcomes were largely, but not wholly, explained by associations between maternal age and the child-rearing practices and home environments experienced by children. In general, increasing maternal age tended to be associated with more nurturant, supportive, and stable home environments. In turn, these linkages between maternal and childhood environment explained most of the association between maternal age and later outcomes. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are considered.

As part of a UNICEF-sponsored Psychosocial Programme in Bosnia, data were collected from a representative sample of 339 children aged 9–14 years, their mothers, and their teachers in order to investigate risk and moderating factors in children's psychological reactions to war. Self-report data from children revealed high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms and grief reactions, but normal levels of depression and anxiety. Mothers' self-reports also indicated high levels of post-traumatic stress reactions, but normal levels of depression and anxiety. Child distress was related to both their level of exposure and to maternal reactions. Structural equation modeling was used to quantify the relationships between these risk factors and child distress, and to examine putative pathways to account for the association between child and maternal health. Children's adjustment was associated significantly with both exposure (ϕ = ·37) and maternal mental health (ϕ = ·37). Modeling also revealed a significant distorting effect of mother's own mental health on behavioural ratings of her child (ψ = ·59). Although evidence exists for an association between maternal mental health and mother rating errors, there is also a substantive association between maternal mental health and children's adjustment following war.

Tasks of fluency tap the ability to generate multiple responses spontaneously following a single cue or instruction. The present study compared the fluency performance of subjects with autism and clinical control subjects at two different levels of ability (high-functioning subjects with a verbal IQ of 76 or greater, and globally learning disabled subjects with a verbal IQ of 74 or below). A battery of tasks was employed to assess subjects' word fluency (for letters and semantic categories), ideational fluency (for uses of objects and interpretations of meaningless line drawings), and design fluency (for abstract meaningless designs). Subjects with autism showed reduced fluency for both the word and ideational fluency tasks, generating significantly fewer responses than the clinical control subjects. Results were particularly striking for the ideational fluency tasks. On these tasks, autistic subjects produced very low response totals, with the performance of the high-functioning subjects with autism equivalent to that of the learning disabled subjects with autism and significantly inferior to that of the learning disabled control individuals. In contrast, the results of the design fluency paradigm paint a different picture. This paradigm revealed no significant difference in the quantity of designs generated by the subjects with autism and the control subjects but a clear qualitative difference, with the autistic group producing significantly higher rates of disallowed and perseverative responses. Whilst the results of the word and ideational fluency tasks are suggested to support the hypothesis that individuals with autism are impaired in the generation of novel responses and behaviour, the results of the design fluency task are equally consistent with an impairment in the regulation of behaviour through inhibition and/or monitoring. The implications of these findings for the study of executive function abilities in autism are discussed.

Associations between the extent of conduct problems at age 8 years and later life opportunity outcomes at age 18 years were examined in a birth cohort of New Zealand children studied prospectively to age 18 years. Conduct problems at age 8 were assessed using a combination of parent and teacher reports of conduct disordered and oppositional behaviours. Two measures of life opportunities were assessed at age 18: (a) whether the young person had left school by age 18 without educational qualifications; (b) whether the young person had experienced a period of unemployment of 3 months or longer following school leaving. The analysis suggested the following conclusions: (1) There were clear and significant (p<.0001) tendencies for increasing levels of conduct problems at age 8 to be associated with increasing risks of leaving school without qualifications and of unemployment by age 18. (2) A substantial component of these associations was explained by a series of confounding social, family, and individual factors (notably child intelligence, early attentional problems, and family sociodemographic disadvantage) that were associated with both early conduct problems and later life opportunities. (3) Further analysis suggested that linkages between early conduct problems and later educational underattainment and unemployment (after adjustment for confounders) were mediated by a series of adolescent behavioural processes including patterns of peer affiliations, substance use, truancy, and problems with school authority.

This study explored the claim that individuals with autism and Asperger's disorder tend to process locally rather than holistically. Participants observed a large or “global” number composed of smaller or “local” numbers. The response was contingent upon the identification of either the large stimulus or the small stimuli. Relative to age, sex, and IQ matched controls, global processing in children and adolescents with autism (N = 12) and Asperger's disorder (N = 12) was more vulnerable when the local stimuli were incongruent. The autism group made more global errors than their matched control group, regardless of whether there was local incongruence. In contrast, the Asperger's disorder group made a similar number of global errors as their respective control group. These results were discussed in relation to an “absence of global precedence” notion, “weak central coherence” theory, and right-hemisphere dysfunction. The neurobiological significance of these findings were discussed in the context of a fronto-striatal model of dysfunction.

This study tested whether proactive and reactive aggression were differently predictive of later externalizing problems such as delinquency and DSM-related disruptive behaviors (i.e. oppositional defiant and conduct disorders). It also tested whether these two subtypes of aggressive behaviors interacted in predicting externalizing problems. A community sample of low SES boys participated in the study. Proactive and reactive aggression were rated by teachers when boys were 12 years old. Delinquency, oppositional disorders, and conduct disorders were assessed during mid-adolescence. Proactive but not reactive aggression predicted delinquency and disruptive behaviors. Moreover, high levels of reactive aggression weakened the link between proactive aggression and delinquency. Reactive aggression, however, did not moderate the link between proactive aggression and disruptive behaviors. We conclude that reactive and proactive aggression are two distinct types of aggressive behaviors with different predictive abilities. We also offer tentative explanations to account for the present findings.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome defined by the intrusive re-experiencing of a trauma, avoidance of traumatic reminders, and persistent physiological arousal. PTSD is associated with high levels of comorbidity and may increase the risk for additional disorders over time. While controversies remain regarding the applicability of the PTSD criteria to very young children, it has proved to be a useful framework for guiding assessment and treatment research with older children and adolescents. This article presents an overview of the literature on the clinical characteristics, assessment, and treatment of PTSD in children and adolescents.

Attachment has generally been examined from the infant's perspective. We focused on mothers' post-partum thoughts and behaviors. Guided by an ethological approach, maternal bonding was examined under conditions of proximity, separation, and potential loss. Ninety-one mothers were interviewed: mothers of full-term infants who maintained continuous proximity to the infant, mothers of healthy premature infants who were separated from the infant, and mothers of very low birthweight infants who experienced potential loss and prolonged separation. Mothers of term infants reported medium-to-high levels of preoccupations with thoughts of infant safety and well-being. Preoccupations increased with separation (Group 2) and significantly decreased with impending loss (Group 3). Attachment behaviors and representations were the highest among mothers of term infants and declined linearly with the duration of mother–infant separation. Maternal trait anxiety and depression were related respectively to higher levels of preoccupations and reduced attachment behaviors and representations, independent of the infant medical condition and mother–child separation. Discussion focused on the comparability of maternal and infant attachment in relation to the neurobiological system underlying bond formation.

This study is the first to provide direct observations of dyadic interactions with friends for preschool-aged disruptive children. Forty preschoolers (mean age 52 months) rated by parents as “hard to manage” on Goodman's (1997) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), as well as 40 control children (matched for age, gender, school, and ethnic background) were filmed for 20 minutes on two occasions playing with a teacher-nominated best friend. The videos were transcribed and coded for antisocial behaviour, displays of negative emotion, and empathic/prosocial responses to friend's distress. Individual differences in social behaviour were considered in relation to false-belief performance, affective perspective taking, and executive function skills (planning and inhibitory control). Compared with controls, the hard-to-manage group showed significantly higher rates of both antisocial behaviour and displays of negative emotion, as well as significantly lower rates of emphatic/prosocial responses. Across both groups combined, frequencies of angry and antisocial behaviours were related to poor executive control. Mental-state understanding was not significantly correlated with antisocial behaviour, emotion display, or empathy, suggesting that the interpersonal problems of young disruptive children owe more to failure of behavioural regulation than to problems in social understanding per se. However, given the relatively low power of the study, these findings require replication with a larger sample.

This paper examines risk factors for the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and its severity and chronicity, in a group of 217 young adults who survived a shipping disaster in adolescence. The survivors were followed up 5 to 8 years after the disaster. Risk factors examined fell into three main categories: pre-disaster child and family vulnerability factors, including childhood psychopathology; objective and subjective disaster-related experiences; and post-disaster factors, including results from screening questionnaires administered 5 months post-disaster, coping mechanisms adopted subsequently, life events, and availability of social supports. Developing PTSD following the disaster was significantly associated with being female, with pre-disaster factors of learning and psychological difficulties in the child and violence in the home, with severity of exposure to the disaster, survivors' subjective appraisal of the experience, adjustment in the early post-disaster period, and life events and social supports subsequently. When all these factors were considered together, measures of the degree of exposure to the disaster and of subjective appraisal of life threat, and ratings of anxiety obtained 5 months post-disaster, best predicted whether survivors developed PTSD. For those survivors who developed PTSD, its duration and severity were best predicted not by objective and subjective disaster-related factors, but by pre-disaster vulnerability factors of social, physical, and psychological difficulties in childhood together with ratings of depression obtained 5 months post-disaster, and whether survivors received post-disaster support at school. The implications of these findings are considered for targeting assessment and intervention efforts at survivors most at risk of developing difficulties in adjustment following similar traumatic experiences.

This study reports on the development of a structured interview, My Exposure to Violence (My ETV), that was designed to assess child and youth exposure to violence. Eighty participants between the ages of 9 and 24 were assessed. Data from My ETV were fit to a Rasch model for rating scales, a technique that generates interval level measures and allows the characterization of both chronic and acute exposure. Results indicated that the fit statistics for six scales, covering both lifetime and past year victimization, witnessing of violence, and total exposure, were all good. These scales were found to have high internal consistency (r=.68 to .93) and test–retest reliability (r=.75 to .94). Evidence of construct validity was provided by the item analysis, which revealed a theoretically sensible ordering of item extremity, and also by analysis of bivariate associations. As expected, younger subjects generally reported less exposure to violence than did older subjects, males reported more exposure than did females, African-American subjects reported higher levels of exposure than did White subjects, violent offenders reported more exposure than did non-offenders, and those living in high crime areas reported more exposure than did those residing in low crime areas. Future areas of investigation and the potential contribution to studies of antisocial behavior and post-traumatic stress disorder are discussed.

Abbreviations: ETV: Exposure to Violence; IRT: item response theory; My ETV: My Exposure to Violence; PHDCN: Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods; PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder.

The effects of postnatal depression on cognitive test scores at 20 months and 4;8 years of age as well as the timing (onset in the early postnatal period versus later), severity, number of episodes, duration of longest phase, recency, and chronicity of material depression on children's cognitive scores at 6;3 years was investigated. In South Bavaria, Germany, 1329 mothers of singletons were screened when the children were 6;3 years of age for the presence of depressive symptoms since the birth of their infant. A standard interview (SADS-L) was used to ascertain DSM-IV diagnosis and details of depressive episodes. Ninety-two mothers were diagnosed as having suffered DSM-IV defined depression (7%). Seven hundred and twenty-one mothers had no depressive episodes or symptoms from their children's birth until 6;3 years and were used as control group. The children had been assessed with the Griffiths Scales of Babies' Abilities (20 months), the Columbia Mental Maturity Scales (CMM) at 4;8 years, and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) at 6;3 years. No significant main effects of severity, timing of onset, duration, or chronicity of depression of the child's cognitive development were found. Significant interactions of gender with chronicity of maternal depression (i.e. early-onset major and repeated episodes) were detected. Low SES boys or boys born at neonatal risk of mothers with chronic depression had lower Achievement Scores in the K-ABC at 6;3 years than children of mothers with less severe depression or controls. It is concluded that maternal depression per se has negligible effects on children's cognitive development. Long-term effects may be found when maternal depression is chronic, the child is a boy and neonatal risk-born, or the family suffers other social risks.

Although tests of young children's understanding of mind have had a remarkable impact upon developmental and clinical psychological research over the past 20 years, very little is known about their reliability. Indeed, the only existing study of test–retest reliability suggests unacceptably poor results for first-order false-belief tasks (Mayes, Klin, Tercyak, Cicchetti, & Cohen, 1996), although this may in part reflect the nonstandard (video-based) procedures adopted by these authors. The present study had four major aims. The first was to re-examine the reliability of false-belief tasks, using more standard (puppet and storybook) procedures. The second was to assess whether the test–retest reliability of false-belief task performance is equivalent for children of contrasting ability levels. The third aim was to explore whether adopting an aggregate approach improves the reliability with which children's early mental-state awareness can be measured. The fourth aim was to examine for the first time the test–retest reliability of children's performances on more advanced theory- of-mind tasks. Our results suggest that most standard and advanced false-belief tasks do in fact show good test–retest reliability and internal consistency, with very strong test–retest correlations between aggregate scores for children of all levels of ability.

Data gathered over the course of a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of over 900 New Zealand children were used to examine factors associated with the formation of affiliations with delinquent or substance using peers in adolescence (15 years). The findings of this study include:

(1) Adolescent peer affiliations were associated with a wide range of prospectively measured social, family, parental, and individual factors. This analysis indicated that those children most at risk of forming deviant peer affiliations were those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, dysfunctional families, who showed early onset conduct problems and other difficulties.

(2) Regression analysis suggested that specific factors that were associated with increased risks of later deviant peer affiliations included family socioeconomic status, parental conflict, mother/child interaction, childhood sexual abuse, parental alcoholism, parental criminal offending, parental illicit drug use, parental smoking, early conduct problems, early anxiety/withdrawal, and early smoking experimentation.

It is concluded that peer affiliations in adolescence are shaped by a complex social, family, and individual process that includes social stratification, family functioning, and individual behavioural predispositions.

Executive functioning was investigated in 34 children (24 boys and 10 girls) with developmental language disorder (DLD) and 21 children (18 boys and 3 girls) with high-functioning autistic disorder (HAD) matched on Full Scale IQ, Nonverbal IQ, age (mean age 9 year, 1 month), and SES. The DLD group had a Verbal IQ that was 10 points higher than the HAD group. These children were given the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Mazes subtest from the WISC-R, the Underlining test, and the Rapid Automatized Naming test. In addition, these children were given the Vineland Scales of Adaptive Functioning and the Wing Diagnostic Symptom Checklist in order to assess severity of autistic symptomatology. Results indicated that the only significant difference between the two groups on the cognitive tasks was perseverative errors on the WCST; there was no significant difference on total number of categories achieved or total number of errors on the WCST or on the other executive function measures. There was also significant overlap in the scores between the two groups and the difference in perseverative errors was no longer significant when Verbal IQ was partialled out. Executive functioning was strongly related to all IQ variables in the DLD group and particularly related to Verbal IQ in the HAD group. Although there was a relationship in the HAD group between executive functioning and adaptive functioning, as well as between executive functioning and autistic symptomatology, these relationships were generally no longer significant in the HAD group after the variance due to Verbal IQ was accounted for. The results are interpreted to indicate that although impaired executive functioning is a commonly associated feature of autism, it is not universal in autism and is unlikely to cause autistic behaviors or deficits in adaptive function.

Based on parent and teacher ratings of primary school children on a scale comprising the 18 DSM-IV AD/HD symptoms, this study used confirmatory factor analysis to compare three models: all items in one factor; inattention in one and hyperactivity and impulsivity items in a separate factor; and inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity items in three separate factors. It also examined the prevalence rates of the three AD/HD Types, and gender and age differences. Results supported both the two- and three-factor models, with the three-factor model only slightly better than the two-factor model. Based on parent-teacher agreement, the prevalence rates were 1.6, 0.2 and 0.6 % for the Inattentive, Hyperactive- Impulsive, and Combined Types, respectively. Overall, the male to female ratio was 5[ratio ]1, and boys were rated higher than girls by both parents and teachers. Age differences were minimal. The implications of the findings in relation to some of the assumptions made in DSM-IV for AD/HD are discussed.