Comprised of papers and commentaries from the Earlscourt Symposium on Childhood Aggression held in Toronto, Canada, this volume reflects the Earlscourt Child and Family Centre's commitment to linking clinical practice to identifiable research-based interventions which are known to be effective in the prevention and treatment of antisocial behavior in children. The education of human services professionals has typically failed to train individuals to work with specific client populations, providing a generalist approach grounded in theoretical assumptions and professional values rather than research and empirical studies. This compelling book serves to fill this gap in professional education in the area of childhood aggression. Representing substantial accomplishments in the advancement of an understanding of the plight of aggressive children and how best to ameliorate their often unpredictable and painful situations, this text allows for cautious optimism that empirical research can have practical consequences for aggressive children and their prospects for a better life. As such, it is a truly important information resource for professionals in the fields of developmental psychology and counseling.
An edited, interdisciplinary work resulting from a conference held at York University covering the causes of aggression in girls and intervention strategies for remediation. This book should be of interest to clinical practitioners who deal with violent
"Aggressive behavior during childhood and adolescence is an important risk factor for later serious and persistent adjustment problems in adulthood, including criminal behavior, school dropout as well as family-related and economic problems. Researchers have thus deployed considerable efforts to uncover what drives individuals to attack and hurt others. Each chapter explores the issue of aggression with an introduction, theoretical considerations, measures and methods, research findings, implications, and future directions"--
This comprehensive volume reviews and synthesizes a vast body of knowledge on maladaptive aggression and antisocial behavior in youth. Written from a clinical-developmental perspective, and integrating theory and research from diverse fields, the book examines the origins, development, outcomes, and treatment of this serious problem in contemporary society. Major topics addressed include the types and prevalence of aggressive and antisocial behavior; the interplay among neuropsychiatric, psychosocial, and neurobiological processes in etiology; known risk and protective factors; gender variables; and why and how some children "grow out of" conduct disturbances. Chapters also discuss current approaches to clinical assessment and diagnosis and review the evidence for widely used psychosocial and pharmacological interventions.
A major benchmark in the understanding of psychiatric illness in children and adolescents, Developmental Psychopathology and Wellness reports on progress in identifying genetic and environmental influences on emotional-behavioral disorders. A team of 22 international authorities presents work that changes the way child psychiatry and clinical psychology are conceptualized, debunking misconceptions about depression, antisocial behavior, and other conditions to enhance our understanding of the causes of child psychopathology -- and improve the ways we treat these disorders. Coverage of basic principles describes the influence of genomic medicine, as explained by trailblazers in the field who demonstrate the importance of the developmental perspective. Chapters on gene-environment interaction review the important concepts of personality and temperament, cognition, and sex -- including findings from molecular genetic investigations on adolescent cognition, temperament, and brain function. Disorder-based examples show how emotional-behavioral illness and wellness attest to the interaction of genetic and environmental factors over time, providing new insight into the study of anxious depression, ADHD, autism, and antisocial personality disorders. And in considering how we can bridge the gap between research and clinical applications, Dr. Hudziak describes his family-based gene-environment approach as a means of better understanding etiopathology and treatment. Among the other significant contributions: Thomas Achenbach focuses on the importance of culture in understanding the genetic and environmental impact on children, with insights into measuring these sources of influence. Joan Kaufman reports on her seminal work on the genetic and environmental modifiers of risk and resilience in child abuse, relating maltreatment to other forms of environmental risk, genetic mediation, and reactivity. D. I. Boomsma describes the genetic architecture of childhood worry, presenting data from an extraordinary sample of 30,000 twin pairs. Frank Verhulst draws on a 14-year study to detail the advantages of the developmental perspective in understanding antisocial behavior. Stephen Faraone offers guidelines for moving beyond statistics to document the functional significance of DNA variants associated with psychopathology. As the contributors ably demonstrate, these new approaches to the care and treatment of at-risk children are applicable to daily practice, teaching, and research. Developmental Psychopathology and Wellness shows that these psychopathologies are not a matter of nature versus nurture or genes versus environment, but rather an intertwining web of them all.
"Offering the first comprehensive analysis of this topic in over 30 years, this book is sure to fuel discussion and debate among researchers, practitioners, and students in developmental psychology, child clinical psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, criminology, and related disciplines. In the classroom, it is a unique and valuable text for graduate-level courses."--BOOK JACKET.
Comprehensive and up-to-date, this book belongs on the desks of practitioners, students, researchers, and policymakers in clinical, child, school, and developmental psychology; child and adolescent psychiatry; and social work; as well as others working with children and families at risk.
For developmental scientists, the nature versus nurture debate has been settled for some time. Neither nature nor nurture alone provides the answer. It is nature and nurture in concert that shape developmental pathways and outcomes, from health to behavior to competence. This insight has moved far beyond the assertion that both nature and nurture matter, progressing into the fascinating terrain of how they interact over the course of development. In this volume, students, practitioners, policy analysts, and others with a serious interest in human development will learn what is transpiring in this new paradigm from the developmental scientists working at the cutting edge, from neural mechanisms to population studies, and from basic laboratory science to clinical and community interventions. Early childhood development is the critical focus of this volume, because many of the important nature-nurture interactions occur then, with significant influences on lifelong developmental trajectories.
Understanding and Treating the Aggression of Children: Fawns in Gorilla Suits provides a thorough review of the theoretical and research basis of the techniques and interventions in the treatment of aggressive and sometimes violent children. This is not a dry and sterile academic review but rather one that comes from work directly in the therapy room with thousands of hurting and in many cases traumatized children. One cannot read this book without being deeply moved and touched by the pain of these children and yet also be buoyed by their courage and willingness to persevere against formidable barriers. The metaphor of the fawn in a gorilla suit is introduced, followed by chapters covering developmental failures and invisible wounds, profound and unacknowledged losses, the implication of new findings from neuroscience, psychodynamics of aggressive children, risk factors when treating the traumatized child, special considerations when treating children in foster care, strengthening relationships with parents and helping them be more effective, enhancing relationships with direct care and instructional staff, developing mature defenses, and coping skills, creating a therapeutic milieu for traumatized children, and fostering hope and resilience.
