David S. Pellegrini

A Revised Class Play Method of Peer Assessment.

Presentation dune technique sociometrique applicable en milieu scolaire permettant devaluer la relation interpair: le Revised Class Play Method

Diagnoses in school-age children of bipolar affective disorder patients and normal controls

A family study of psychiatric diagnoses was performed in 29 children of bipolar patients and 37 children of normal controls, ages 6-17. There were no differences in major or minor affective diagnoses between the patient and control groups, but there was an increase of non-specific diagnoses in the patient group. Using DSM-III criteria, 10% of patients children and 14% of controls children had had at least one episode of major depression. This suggests that major depression in children is not familially related to adult bipolar major affective disorder. The observed prevalence of depression in childhood is increased when both direct interview of children and interview of parents are performed.

Age differences in coping: does less mean worse.

Previous research suggests that elderly people utilize fewer coping strategies than younger people. Some researchers suggest that these quantitative changes reflect decreases in the use of maladaptive strategies; others contend that they reflect decreases in the use of adaptive strategies by older adults. The present article reports the findings of three studies of coping in older people, two addressing coping with health problems, and the other addressing coping with moving. In all three studies, the number of self-reported coping strategies decreases with age. Results do not support the idea that decreases in the number of strategies imply decrements in the quality of coping, however: in two studies, age was unrelated to the effectiveness of strategies, in the third, effectiveness ratings were higher for older subjects. The need for evaluation of specific outcomes of coping strategies is discussed, along with the need for task-specific measurement of coping. It is proposed that decreases in the number of coping strategies reflect improved coping efficiency, rather than a deterioration of adaptational skills.

Variability in children's level of reasoning about friendship☆☆☆

Abstract Maturity and variability in level of friendship reasoning were evaluated in 4th-7th grade children. Peer reputation in the classroom was also assessed. Results indicated greater intraindividual variability in friendship reasoning than previous reports have suggested. In addition, friendship reasoning maturity made significant contributions in accounting for variance in Positive and Isolated peer reputation even after sex, socio-economic status (SES), and IQ were taken into account, while reasoning variability was the only variable accounting for significant variance in Disruptive peer reputation. Implications for social cognition research and intervention are discussed.