Advances In Clinical Child Psychology

Advances in Clinical Child Psychology is a serial publication designed to bring together original summaries of the most important new develop ments in the field of clinical psychology and its related disciplines. Each chapter is written by a key figure in an innovative area of research or by an individual who is particularly well qualified to comment on a topic of major contemporary importance. These chapters provide convenient, concise explorations of empirical and clinical advances in the field. The chapter topics are chosen by the editors and are based on sug gestions by the advisory editors, unsolicited suggestions provided by colleagues, and from all of our reading of the latest published empirical and theoretical works. As such, it reflects our collective perception of the trends that are leading the field of clinical child psychology. Those trends are clearly evident in Volume 9. Two chapters describe the cur rent state of the art of intellectual and neuropsychological measurement. Two chapters discuss the classification and origins of the two types of attention deficit disorders. And one chapter focuses on the developmen tal importance of adolescence in child and family dysfunctions. But the overwhelming theme of this volume is the relationship between biolog ical and psychological variables. In choosing these chapters, we believe that we are merely reflecting the changing nature of research in the field.

Advances in Clinical Child Psychology is a serial publication designed to bring together original summaries of the most important new develop ments in the field of clinical psychology and its related disciplines. Each chapter is written by a key figure in an innovative area of research or by an individual who is particularly well qualified to comment on a topic of major contemporary importance. These chapters provide convenient, concise explorations of empirical and clinical advances in the fields of clinical child psychology, child psychiatry, and related disciplines. The chapter topics are chosen by the editors and are based on sug gestions by the advisory editors, unsolicited suggestions provided by colleagues, and all of our reading of the latest published empirical and theoretical works. They reflect our collective perception of the leading trends in the field of clinical child psychology. The contents of Volume 10 reflect multiple themes. Two chapters focus on different aspects of the child's family: the home and family environment associated with childhood psychopathology and the characteristics of parents whose parenting has become twisted into the abuse or neglect of their own children. The key topics of aggression and stealing are dealt with in two chapters, and five chapters deal with the variety of topics that were formerly under the umbrella concept of minimal brain dysfunction.

Psychologists have long been interested in the problems of children, but in the last 20 years this interest has increased dramatically. The in tensified focus on clinical child psychology reflects an increased belief that many adult problems have their origin in childhood and that early treatment is often more effective than treatment at later ages, but it also seems to reflect an increased feeling that children are inherently important in their own right. As a result of this shift in emphasis, the number of publications on this topic has multiplied to the extent that even full-time specialists have not been able to keep abreast of all new developments. Researchers in the more basic fields of child psychol ogy have a variety of annual publications and journals to integrate research in their areas, but there is a marked need for such an integra tive publication in the applied segment of child and developmental psychology. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology is a serial publication designed to bring together original summaries of the most important developments each year in the field. Each chapter is written by a key figure in an innovative area of research or practice or by an individual who is particularly well qualified to comment on a topic of major contemporary importance. Each author has followed the stan dard format in which his or her area of research was reviewed and the clinical implications of the studies were made explicit.

It is with both pride and sadness that we publish the twentieth and last volume of Advances in Clinical Child Psychology. This series has seen a long and successful run starting under the editorship of Ben Lahey and Alan Kazdin, who passed the baton to us at Volume 14. We are grateful to the many contributors over the years and to the Plenum staff for producing a quality product in a timely manner. This volume covers a diverse array of significant topics. In the open ing chapter, Maughan and Rutter explore the research literatures related to continuity and discontinuity of antisocial behavior from childhood to adulthood. Their review and conceptualization emphasize the significance of hyperactivity and inattention, early-onset conduct problems, low reac tivity to stress, and poor peer relations as potentially influential variables in the persistence of antisocial behavior. Social cognitions, environmental continuities, substance abuse, cumulative chains of life events, and protec tive processes are considered as well.

As in past volumes, the current volume of Advances in Clinical Child Psychology strives for a broad range of timely topics on the study and treatment of children, adolescents, and families. Volume 18 includes a new array of contributions covering issues pertaining to treatment, etiol ogy, and psychosocial context. The first two contributions address conduct problems. Using quali tative research methods, Webster-Stratton and Spitzer take a unique look at what it is like to be a parent of a young child with conduct problems as well as what it is like to be a participant in a parent training program. Chamberlain presents research on residential and foster-care treatment for adolescents with conduct disorder. As these chapters well reflect, Webster-Stratton, Spitzer, and Chamberlain are all veterans of programmatic research on treatment of child and adolescent conduct problems. Wills and Filer describe an emerging stress-coping model that has been applied to adolescent substance use and is empirically well justi fied. This model has implications for furthering intervention strategies as well as enhancing our scientific understanding of adolescents and the development of substance abuse. Foster, Martinez, and Kulberg confront the issue that researchers face pertaining to race and ethnicity as it relates to our understanding of peer relations. This chapter addresses some of the measurement and conceptual challenges relative to assessing ethnic variables and relating these to social cognitions of peers, friendship patterns, and peer accep tance.

Advances in Clinical Child Psychology is a serial publication designed to provide researchers and clinicians with a medium for discussing new and innovative approaches to the problems of children. In this fourth volume, a group of highly distinguished authors have described advanc ing knowledge in a number of critical areas of applied child psychology. These include childhood depression, drug abuse, social skills deficits, community-living skills, the genetics of childhood behavior disorders, and affective states in children. In addition, major statements on new approaches to the assessment of dysfunctional family systems and the social skills of children, as well as the increasingly important methodol ogy of epidemiology, are included in this volume. These chapters pro vide a synopsis of many of the most important advances in the field of clinical child psychology. The quality of a series of this sort is, of course, due to the quality of the contributing authors. We feel very fortunate indeed, therefore, to have been able to entice such a distinguished group of authors to con tribute to this volume. We are also most appreciative of the guidance and assistance of the consulting editors who provided us with ideas for chapter topics and authors and who carefully reviewed and edited each chapter. We also express our hearty thanks to Leonard R. Pace of Plenum whose expertise and support has always been generously given. BENJAMIN B. LAHEY ALAN E. KAZDIN ix Contents The Epidemiology of Child Psychopathology 1 William Yule 1. Introduction ............................................ .