Family violence: impact on children.

Violence within the family is increasingly being recognized as a serious societal problem in the United States. Four types of family violence are discussed: violence toward children, siblings, women, and the elderly. This paper explores the development of violent relationships in the family from both biological and psychological perspectives, with the latter encompassing four frameworks--the psychopathological model, the social learning model, the aversively stimulated aggression concept, and systems theory. The authors also examine the risk factors for and the effects of violence as well as the characteristics of the aggressor and the victim. Available intervention strategies for various types of violent behavior are then discussed.

Comorbidity for disruptive behavior disorders in psychiatrically hospitalized children.

A variety of instruments were used to compare six groups of inpatient children: pure attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH), pure conduct disorder (CD), pure oppositional defiant disorder (OD), ADDH + CD, and ADDH + OD, and a clinical control group who had no DBD diagnosis. Children with ADDH and CD or OD exhibited a greater degree of psychopathology. Children with CD and OD were more similar than different, indicating that perhaps a continuum of pathology exists between these diagnostic classifications.

Hopelessness in children and adolescents. An overview.

Most research on hopelessness has focused on adult populations. However, with the recent publication of Kazdin's Hopelessness Scale for Children, there has been increasing attention directed toward hopelessness in children. This report reviews research on hopelessness, and in both adults and children, emphasizes findings which support Beck's cognitive trial view of depression. Also discussed is the neglected topic of hopelessness within the academic setting, including attributions, motivation and delayed gratification. This report suggests ways to prevent and treat hopelessness in the school-aged child, focusing primarily on cognitive-behavioral techniques.

Current perspectives on anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: an overview.

This report provides an overview of the status of child and adolescent anxiety disorders. General biological and theoretical concepts of anxiety are reviewed, as are current diagnostic systems. We then examine developmental, epidemiologic, and clinical data, as they add to our understanding of child and adolescent anxiety disorders. A brief discussion of the assessment and treatment of childhood anxiety is also included. Some areas of future research are identified.

Psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents: the contribution of the child's temperament and the parents' psychopathology and attitudes.

Correlates of child psychopathology were studied in a community sample of 210 children and adolescents (with equal numbers of boys and girls). Children suffering from a psychiatric disorder had more temperamental difficulties and their parents showed a higher level of psychopathology than those without a disorder. Furthermore, a regression analysis revealed that difficult temperamental traits in the child and the parents' attitudes toward the child were primary predictors of psychiatric disorders in the child. The relationship between the parent and child as well as the environment-temperament impact on child psychopathology are discussed.

Correlates of hopelessness in psychiatrically hospitalized children.

The importance of hopelessness within the study of childhood psychiatric disorders is becoming increasingly apparent. The present study divides a child inpatient sample (age 7 to 12 years) into two groups based on scores from the Kazdin Hopelessness Scale for Children. Comparisons made between the two groups on various measures showed that children with high hopelessness had lower cognitive ability, "difficult child" temperament characteristics, more anxiety, lower self-esteem, and a higher degree of psychopathology than the low-hopelessness group. The role of hopelessness in academic success and future psychopathology are discussed.

Risk factors and correlates of severe psychiatric disorders in a sample of inpatient children.

This study used three informants to assess pervasiveness of psychopathology in a sample of 100 psychiatrically hospitalized children. Analyses of risk factors for severely disturbed and less disturbed children revealed that hopelessness, anxiety, low self-esteem, undisciplined personality profile, and negative life events differentiated the severely disturbed group from the less disturbed group. Implications of these findings are discussed, with an emphasis on the importance of focusing on degree of psychopathology with regard to risk factors.

Life events and major depression in a sample of inpatient children.

This study reports on the relationship between stressful life events and depression in an inpatient sample of 100 children, age 7 to 12 years. Thirteen children were diagnosed as depressed on the basis of structured interviews. These subjects reported having more negative life events (both unit and weighted) as measured by the life Events Checklist (LEC) than did the remaining sample. They also had lower self-concepts, greater hopelessness, and higher scores on the withdrawal and depression subscales of the Personality Inventory for Children than the nondepressed inpatient group. The significance of these findings is discussed.

Correlates of anxiety in psychiatrically hospitalized children and their parents.

The authors separated 100 children hospitalized in a child psychiatry service into three groups according to their level of anxiety on the basis of the responses of the children and their parents to diagnostic interviews. Differentiation of the groups of children was validated by independent test instruments. Results of tests administered to the children and their parents revealed significant relationships between anxiety in the adults and in the children. In addition, parents of anxious children reported more SCL-90-R symptoms as well as more negative family relations than parents of nonanxious children and the more severely anxious children had higher rates of dysthymia and negative life events.