Attachment is an exciting topic where different research traditions, as diverse as psychoanalytic and cognitive psychology, have come together to reinvigorate the field. In the present issue there are two papers that indicate the fertility of this particular research area. The first of these is the paper by McCarthy and Taylor on the role of attachment style as a mediating link between abusive experiences in childhood and adult functioning. They found that avoidance/ambivalent attachment style, but not self-esteem and relationship attributions, mediated the impact of early abusive experiences on later adult functioning. A second paper by Crandell and Hobson also found that an aspect of women's accounts of their own childhood histories (in this case lack of coherence) was related to lower IQs in their children. This difference remains significant even after the influence of maternal IQ, education, and family socioeconomic status were taken into account. There was also some suggestion that the link between maternal “state of mind” and child IQ might be mediated partly by the quality of parent/child interactions. The authors suggest that although it is necessary to be cautious in interpreting the results from IQ tests with children as young as 3 years, the study highlights the need to consider how mother–infant relations may have an effect on young children's cognitive abilities. This result, if it can be replicated, represents a challenge to contemporary theories in developmental psychology that tend to downplay the role of shared environmental factors.

Recognition is increasing that suicide in young people poses an important public health challenge. Suicide in prepubertal children is very rare, but it increases for both genders in each of the adolescent years (McClure, 1994). In England and Wales, for example, the 1990 suicide rates per million for males and females aged 15 to 19 years were 57 and 14 respectively (McClure, 1994). Mortality rates in this age group were higher only for accidents. Since the Second World War, there has been an increase in male youth suicide rates in most European countries and in North America. In England and Wales, the suicide rate of males aged 14 to 24 years increased by 78% between 1980 and 1990! (Hawton, 1992). This increase is particularly striking when seen in comparison to the stable rates for other age groups and for young females (Diekstra, Kienhorst, & De Wilde, 1995).

Based on hospital statistics, it is estimated that the rate of nonfatal suicide attempts is 50 to 100 times higher than fatal attempts (Flisher, Ziervogel, Chalton, Leger, & Robertson, 1993). Evidence is emerging that the increase in rate of completed suicide is accompanied by an increase in the rate of attempted suicide (Hawton, Fagg, Simkin, Bale, & Bond, 1997). The rates of 15–24-year-olds presenting at the general hospital in Oxford with deliberate self-harm increased by 194% for males and 36% for females between 1985 and 1995 (Hawton et al., 1997).

There is increasing interest regarding electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in young persons but limited information about its optimal use. This paper reviews the indications, effectiveness, and side effects of the treatment in the teenage population and their implications for everyday clinical practice. There is particular reference to factors influencing the clinician to recommend or advise against convulsive therapy, steps in the assessment of patients, and consent issues. Practical aspects of ECT administration are also examined, including treatment locale, anaesthesia, electrode position, stimulus characteristics, EEG monitoring, and use of psychotropics during and after the ECT course.

Infantile autism is a heterogenous disorder with unknown aetiology. Evidence from the relatively few family and twin studies suggests a genetic component. Co-occurrence or cosegregation between infantile autism and chromosomal abnormalities may identify candidate regions, which could be tested in linkage or association studies.

The purpose of this study was to use the Danish Cytogenetic Central Register in order to detect autosomal chromosome abnormalities associated with infantile autism, and to review the literature for cases of autism associated with autosomal chromosome abnormalities to identify candidate chromosomal regions.

The register-based study identified possible candidate regions on chromosome 7q21 and 10q21.2, which have not previously been reported.

A few interesting candidate regions, 15q11–13, 16q23, and 17p11.2 were found in the literature survey.

This study reconsiders the relationship of childhood Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and childhood conduct problems with adult criminal activity by clarifying the role of the cardinal behaviors associated with the DSM-IV ADHD subtypes (inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity). Since their childhood (average age 9 years), 230 male and 75 female subjects have been followed prospectively and were interviewed as young adults (average age 26 at follow-up). Early childhood behavior ratings by parents and teachers were examined to determine the role of conduct problems, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and inattention in predicting adult criminal involvement as measured by both official arrest records and self-report. Results show that both hyperactivity-impulsivity and early conduct problems independently, as well as jointly, predict a greater likelihood of having an arrest record for males, but not for females. For male subjects with 10 or more self-reported crimes, both early conduct problems and hyperactivity-impulsivity were significant predictors, both alone and in combination. Therefore, it appears that predominantly the symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity, but not inattention, contribute to the risk for criminal involvement over and above the risk associated with early conduct problems alone.

Adult post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients often report a wide range of cognitive problems in memory, concentration, attention, planning, and judgement. Evaluation of these cognitive aspects of PTSD in adults has helped to define the nature of the disorder. However, there is a paucity of such work in younger subjects. This study has employed the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) to examine cognitive factors in children and adolescents with PTSD. Eighteen child and adolescent patients with PTSD and 22 control subjects completed the test. PTSD subjects showed poorer overall memory performance compared with controls. Specifically, they were worse on the prospective and orientation items of the RBMT. The results are discussed in the light of research on everyday memory in adults with PTSD.

Eighteen children aged between 7 and 16 years who had undergone a liver transplantation were interviewed using the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index (CPTS-RI) to discover if they had post-traumatic stress symptoms. A case control design was used to define which factors were important for the development of post-traumatic stress. Results of a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), with post-traumatic stress symptom intensity as measured on the CPTS-RI as the dependant variable, revealed a significant difference between the liver transplantation group compared with children who had a chronic life-threatening illness or had undergone a routine surgical operation. A post hoc (Tukey's HSD test) statistical analysis was performed and significance at the .05 level was found between the liver transplantation group and both the chronic illness group and the routine surgical operation group. Our results indicate that the acute life-threat involved in the liver transplantation contributed to the development of post-traumatic stress. It was thought that dissociation may be important in preventing the resolution of the trauma. Additional investigations are needed with larger numbers in a longitudinal study beginning before the transplant to determine the course of the PTSD symptoms and the appropriate timing of interventions to reduce the harmful effects of these symptoms.

The Quebec Child Mental Health Survey (QCMHS) was conducted in 1992 on a representative sample of 2400 children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years from throughout Quebec. Prevalences of nine Axis-I DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) mental health disorders were calculated based on each informant (for 6–11-year-olds: child, parent, and teacher; for 12–14-year-olds: child and parent). Informant parallelism allows the classification of results of the demographic variables associated with disorders in the logistic regression models. This strategy applies to group variables (correlates of disorders) whereas informant agreement applies to individual diagnoses. Informant parallelism implies that results for two informants or more are in the same direction and significant. In the QCMHS, informant parallelism exists for disruptive disorders, i.e. in two ADHD regression models (child and parent) higher rates among boys and young children, and in three oppositional/conduct disorders regression models (child, parent, and teacher) higher rates among boys. No informant parallelism is observed in the logistic regression models for internalizing disorders, i.e. the patterns of association of demographic variables with anxiety and depressive disorders vary across informants. Urban-rural residence does not emerge as a significant variable in any of the logistic regression models. The overall 6-month prevalences reach 19.9% according to the parent and 15.8% according to the child. The implications of the results for policy makers and clinicians are discussed.

The aims of this study were to estimate the rate of post-traumatic stress reactions in Palestinian children who experienced war traumas, and to investigate the relationship between trauma-related factors and PTSD reactions. The sample consisted of 239 children of 6 to 11 years of age. Measures included the Rutter A2 (parent) and B2 (teacher) scales, the Gaza Traumatic Event Checklist, and the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index. Of the sample, 174 children (72.8%) reported PTSD reactions of at least mild intensity, while 98 (41%) reported moderate/severe PTSD reactions. Caseness on the Rutter A2 scale was detected in 64 children (26.8%), which correlated well with detection of PTSD reactions, but not with teacher-detected caseness. The total number of experienced traumas was the best predictor of presence and severity of PTSD. Intervention programmes for post-war children need to be evaluated, taking into account developmental and cultural aspects, as well as characteristics of the communities involved.

Two studies, comprising training in phonological analogy and semantic analogy with pre- and post-training assessments, were conducted to investigate whether young children made orthographic analogies in learning to read a nonalphabetic script, Chinese, as alphabetic readers do. Twenty Chinese first-graders and 20 third-graders participated in each of the studies. The results showed that not only the third-graders, but also the first-graders made phonological analogies by the phonetic (i.e. the orthographic component in a Chinese character that provides sound cues) and semantic analogies by the radical (i.e. the orthographic component that provides meaning cues). It was, therefore, suggested that the roles and functions of the phonetics and radicals could be taught explicitly in school from an early age to help improve children's reading skills.

This paper examines the effects of living in a stepfamily during childhood and adolescence on a range of psychosocial outcomes at age 18 years. Data collected during an 18-year longitudinal study were used to examine a sample of 907 children with respect to: exposure to living in a stepfamily during the period from age 6 to 16 years; measures of psychosocial outcomes including mental health, antisocial behaviour, substance use, restricted life opportunities, and sexual risk-taking at age 18 years; and measures of prospectively collected confounding factors. The analyses revealed that children exposed to living in a stepfamily for the first time between ages 6–16 years had elevated risks of a range of psychosocial outcomes at 18 years. These included elevated risks of: (1) juvenile offending; (2) nicotine dependence; (3) abuse or dependence on illicit substances; (4) leaving school without qualifications; (5) early onset of sexual activity; and (6) multiple sexual partners. However, these risks were reduced substantially when psychosocial outcomes were adjusted for the confounding effects of antecedent factors such as: family socioeconomic characteristics; family history of instability, adversity, and conflict; mother's age, religiosity, and smoking; child gender; and preexisting child conduct and attentional problems. After adjustment, the odds ratios between exposure to a stepfamily and adolescent outcomes were nonsignificant. Additional analysis revealed that there were no significant differences in outcomes for boys and girls exposed to stepfamilies. It was concluded that although young people exposed to living in a stepfamily had increased risks of poor psychosocial outcomes, much of this association appeared to be spurious, and arose from confounding social, contextual, and individual factors that were present prior to the formation of the stepfamily.

We examined differences between school classes with respect to three aspects of psychosocial adjustment at school, namely the extent that children in the class liked to play with each other, the number of teacher-reported behaviour problems, and children's feelings of well-being at school. The sample consisted of 1282 4- to 5-year-olds from 94 school classes and 51 schools, but due to nonresponse actual sample sizes were somewhat smaller for most analyses. Multilevel analyses showed that on average 87% of the variance was at the child level, 11% at the class level, and 3% at the school level. This indicated that a non-negligible amount of variance could not be accounted for by factors at the child level. Furthermore, this variance was mainly associated with differences between classes instead of differences between schools. A set of variables that pertained to sociodemographic characteristics of schools, school facilities, organisational aspects of classrooms, and the teacher did not provide an adequate explanation for the differences in adjustment levels. In contrast to these traditional variables, social network indices yielded substantial correlations, showed consistent trends across the different adjustment measures, and fulfilled the necessary requirement that to explain differences between school classes the predictor variables themselves should differ for classes within the same school. These results suggested that aspects of the interpersonal relations of children in the classroom such as proximity, integration, and the amount of contact could be determinants of differences between school classes in psychosocial adjustment.

A population-based sample of Norwegian children aged 18 months (N=921), 30 months (N=784), and 50 months (N=737) was examined with the EAS Temperament Survey (Buss & Plomin, 1984). The factor structure, psychometric properties, and stability estimates of the instrument were assessed. A cross-validation of the temperament factors of Emotionality, Activity, and Shyness show that the covariance structure conforms with the three scales described by Rowe and Plomin (1977) and Boer and Westenberg (1994). When items from the experimental scale of Sociability were included in the analysis, a four-factor solution confirmed the separate usability of this scale as well. The factor structure does not seem to vary substantially with the age of the children. The scores on the four temperament scales show high stability from one time of measurement to the next. Although no strong gender differences were found, there were significant age trends. Emotionality and Shyness increased from 18 to 50 months, while Activity and Sociability decreased. The study confirmed the structure and stability of the EAS over 3 years among young children, providing support for its use with children as young as 18 months.

The purpose of the present study was to identify clinically relevant subtypes of aggressive children based on measures of children's self-systems and significant others' perceptions of relationship quality. In a sample of aggressive second- and third-graders, a cluster analysis of these children's perceptions of support and significant others' (mother, teacher, and peers) perceptions of relationship quality revealed one subgroup in which self- and other-ratings were both below the group mean (concordant-negative), one in which both were above the sample mean (concordant-positive), and one in which they were discrepant (high child-report and low other-report). All three clusters were rated as more aggressive than controls. However, children in the discrepant group were rated as considerably more aggressive and delinquent than those in the two concordant clusters, who did not differ from each other on measures of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Results are discussed from an attachment perspective and in terms of the clinical significance of this self–other discrepancy.

From a sample of middle-class mothers and their 3-year-old children, a selected group of 36 mothers were divided into 2 groups according to the quality of their responses to the Adult Attachment Interview as a Questionnaire (Crandell, Fitzgerald, & Whipple, 1997). Twenty mothers provided coherent accounts of their early parent–child relationships (secure) and 16 mothers provided idealised, entangled, or otherwise incoherent accounts of their early parent–child relationships (insecure). The mothers were administered an abbreviated version of the WAIS-R and the children were given an abbreviated version of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. The quality of mother–child interactions was assessed by videotaping a 20-minute play episode and clean-up period, and by rating the degree of synchrony according to a modified version of the Belsky Parent–Child Interaction System (Whipple, Denburg, & Davies, 1993). The results were that children of secure mothers scored 19 points higher on the Stanford-Binet test compared to children of insecure mothers. (The adjusted mean difference was 12 points when maternal IQ, education, and family SES were taken into account.) The group difference in the children's IQ remained significant when comparisons were made between a subgroup of 12 secure and 12 insecure mothers who were matched for maternal IQ. Finally we examined the subgroup of 16 cases where child IQ scores were either 10 points higher or lower than maternal IQ. In all 6 cases where child IQ was at least 10 points below maternal IQ, the child had a mother who was insecure; in contrast, only 4 of the 10 children who had IQ scores 10 points higher than maternal IQ had an insecure mother. In terms of parent–child interaction patterns, there was suggestive evidence that the degree of parent–child synchrony was also related to child IQ. The results suggest important social-developmental contributions to young children's performance on standardised tests of intellectual ability.

The role of attachment style, self-esteem, and relationship attributions as possible mediators between abusive childhood experiences and difficulties in establishing supportive love relationships in adulthood were investigated in a sample of women known to be at risk of experiencing relationship problems. Measures of child abuse, the quality of love relationships, and the three potential mediators were made concurrently in adulthood. Participants who had experienced child abuse were found to be six times more likely to be experiencing difficulties in the domain of adult love relationships than those who had not. Self-esteem and relationship attributions were not found to be related to child abuse. When both child abuse and avoidant/ambivalent attachment style were considered together avoidant/ambivalent attachment style, but not child abuse, was found to be related to relationship difficulties. These findings indicate that avoidant/ambivalent attachment style, but not self-esteem and relationship attributions, is a mediating factor in the route from child abuse to adult relationship abilities.

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.