The effects of verbal information on children's fear beliefs about social situations

Two experiments explored the role of verbal information in changing children’s fearrelated beliefs about social situations. In Experiment 1, 118 6- to 8- and 12- to 13-year-olds heard positive, negative, or no information about individuals’ experiences of three social situations. Fear beliefs regarding each situation were assessed before and after this manipulation. Verbal information had no significant influence on children’s fear beliefs. In Experiment 2, the same paradigm was used with 80 12- to 13-year-olds, but the information took the form of multiple attitude statements about the situations expressed by groups of peers, older children, or adults. An affective priming task of implicit attitudes was used to complement the explicit questions about fear beliefs. Negative information influenced both explicit and implicit fear beliefs. The source of information and the child’s own social anxiety did not moderate these effects. Implications for our understanding of the socialisation of childhood fears are discussed

Characterizing Community-Based Mental Health Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Disruptive Behavior Problems

This study describes the characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with disruptive behavior problems served in community-based mental health clinics, characterizes psychotherapy process and outcome, and examines differences between children with ASD and a non-ASD comparison group. Results indicate that children with ASD served in this setting are high functioning and diagnostically complex. Certain research-based behavioral and cognitive behavioral psychotherapeutic strategies were observed frequently, while parent training strategies and active teaching strategies were observed less frequently. The intensity or thoroughness with which strategies were pursued was relatively low. Outcome analyses indicate improvement in child symptoms and family functioning. Treatment delivery and outcome were similar for children with and without ASD. These findings represent the first detailed observational data characterizing community-based mental health services for children with ASD

Peer Toy Play as a Gateway to Children’s Gender Flexibility: The Effect of (Counter)Stereotypic Portrayals of Peers in Children’s Magazines

Extensive evidence has documented the gender stereotypic content of children’s media, and media is recognized as an important socializing agent for young children. Yet, the precise impact of children’s media on the endorsement of gender-typed attitudes and behaviors has received less scholarly attention. We investigated the impact of stereotypic and counter-stereotypic peers pictured in children’s magazines on children’s gender flexibility around toy play and preferences, playmate choice, and social exclusion behavior (n = 82, age 4–7 years-old). British children were randomly assigned to view a picture of a peer-age boy and girl in a magazine playing with either a gender stereotypic or counter-stereotypic toy. In the stereotypic condition, the pictured girl was shown with a toy pony and the pictured boy was shown with a toy car; these toys were reversed in the counter-stereotypic condition. Results revealed significantly greater gender flexibility around toy play and playmate choices among children in the counterstereotypic condition compared to the stereotypic condition, and boys in the stereotypic condition were more accepting of gender-based exclusion than were girls. However, there was no difference in children’s own toy preferences between the stereotypic and counter-stereotypic condition, with children preferring more gender-typed toys overall. Implications of the findings for media, education, and parenting practices are discussed, and the potential for counterstereotypic media portrayals of toy play to shape the gender socialization of young children is explored