Problem-Solving Training for Children and Adolescents.

2009 ◽  
pp. 153-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Frauenknecht ◽  
David R. Black
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Children And Adolescents

Social Competence of Children and Adolescents

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 147-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Social Skills ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Abstract Notion ◽  
Goals And Objectives

For those aiming to improve the social competence of others, the choice is usually between shaping specific micro-skills or more general problem-solving. While these are not mutually exclusive in practice, research has tended to investigate them separately. One of the major issues facing those targeting micro-skills is their validity in the setting of concern. For those targeting problemsolving, the issue is predominantly one of triggering problem-solving behaviour in the absence of trainer prompts. Other major issues which still have to be satisfactorily resolved include the identification and assessment of children requiring improved social skills and social competence. In addition, there is a need to remind ourselves that while improved social skills should lead to improved judgments about an individual's social competence, the latter is a somewhat abstract notion which tells us little about an individual's goals and objectives. While improved social competence should be one of our goals, it must be anchored to well defined behavioural objectives. One can be the life and soul of a party and receive high social competence ratings, yet be lonely and isolated once the party ends.

Gender Differences in Coping Strategies in Children and Adolescents

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Eschenbeck ◽  
Carl-Walter Kohlmann ◽  
Arnold Lohaus
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Gender Effects ◽  
Avoidant Coping ◽  
Stressful Situation

Abstract. The present study focuses on gender effects and interactions between gender, type of stressful situation, and age-group in coping strategies in childhood and adolescence. The sample consisted of N = 1990 children and adolescents (957 boys, 1033 girls; grade levels 3-8). Participants responded to a coping questionnaire (Fragebogen zur Erhebung von Stress und Stressbewältigung im Kindes- und Jugendalter, SSKJ 3-8; Lohaus, Eschenbeck, Kohlmann, & Klein-Heßling, 2006 ) with the five subscales: seeking social support, problem solving, avoidant coping, palliative emotion regulation, and anger-related emotion regulation. Repeated measures ANOVAs with Gender and Grade Level as the between-subject factors and Situation (social, academic) as the within-subject factor were performed separately for each of the subscales. In general, girls scored higher in seeking social support and problem solving, whereas boys scored higher in avoidant coping. These three main effects were further modified by significant Gender × Situation interactions and for both seeking social support and avoidant coping by significant Gender × Situation × Grade Level interactions. Compared to the academic situation (homework), gender differences were more pronounced for the social situation (argument with a friend), especially in adolescence. The results are discussed with respect to a gender-specific development of coping strategies.

A Comparison of the Proportional Reasoning Abilities of Learning Disabled and Non-Learning Disabled Children and Adolescents

1983 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-320
Author(s):  
Rose Sinicrope ◽  
Lori Bell Mick
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
School District ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Proportional Reasoning ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Reasoning Abilities

Noelting's (1980a, 1980b) three parallel instruments on proportional reasoning—two presenting problem-solving tasks in the ratio and division interpretations of fractions and one presenting the tasks in the purely symbolic form of numerical fractions—were administered to 6 female and 41 male learning disabled students, grades four through eight. Performances on the instruments were then compared to the performances of 120 non-learning disabled students in grades five through nine of the same school district. The purpose of the study was to determine whether learning disabled students differed in their development of proportional reasoning and whether their disability was in the use of symbols and language and not in their ability to solve proportional problems. Developmental scalograms, PPR>0.93, resulted in support of the hypothesis that the proportional reasoning abilities of the learning disabled student are developmental and thus not unlike those of the non-learning disabled student. A comparison of the three means for the two groups revealed a reversal in performance with the learning disabled students more successful at problem solving and the non-learning disabled students more successful at the purely symbolic form of numerical fractions. Unlike the non-learning disabled students, the learning disabled students' inability to express a strategy did not indicate an inability to solve the problem.

Emerging Minds

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Siegler
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Infants And Toddlers ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Children’S Thinking

How do children acquire the vast array of concepts, strategies, and skills that distinguish the thinking of infants and toddlers from that of preschoolers, older children, and adolescents? In this new book, Robert Siegler addresses these and other fundamental questions about children's thinking. Previous theories have tended to depict cognitive development much like a staircase. At an early age, children think in one way; as they get older, they step up to increasingly higher ways of thinking. Siegler proposes that viewing the development within an evolutionary framework is more useful than a staircase model. The evolution of species depends on mechanisms for generating variability, for choosing adaptively among the variants, and for preserving the lessons of past experience so that successful variants become increasingly prevalent. The development of children's thinking appears to depend on mechanisms to fulfill these same functions. Siegler's theory is consistent with a great deal of evidence. It unifies phenomena from such areas as problem solving, reasoning, and memory, and reveals commonalities in the thinking of people of all ages. Most important, it leads to valuable insights regarding a basic question about children's thinking asked by cognitive, developmental, and educational psychologists: How does change occur?

Psychosocial Treatments for Conduct Disorder in Children and Adolescents

2007 ◽  
pp. 71-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan E. Kazdin
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Family Therapy ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Conduct Disorder ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Management Training ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Parent Management Training ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Parent Management

Antisocial and aggressive behavior in children (conduct disorder) is extremely difficult to treat in light of the stability of the problem, untoward long-term prognosis, and the diverse domains of dysfunction in the child, parent, and family with which the problem is associated. Significant advances have been made in treatment. Seven treatments with strong evidence in their behalf with children and adolescents are reviewed and include parent management training, multisystemic therapy, multidimensional treatment foster care, cognitive problem-solving skills training, anger control training, functional family therapy, and brief strategic family therapy. Parent management training is directed at altering parent-child interactions in the home, particularly those interactions related to child-rearing practices and coercive interchanges. Multisystemic therapy focuses on the individual, family, and extrafamilial systems and their interrelations as a way to reduce symptoms and to promote prosocial behavior. The multidimensional treatment foster care model focuses on youth who are in placement and who are to return to their parents or more permanent foster care. Behavioral treatments in the placement and in the setting to which the child is returned are part of a comprehensive effort to integrate treatment and community life. Cognitive problem-solving skills training focuses on cognitive processes that underlie social behavior and response repertoires in interpersonal situations. Also cognitively based, anger control training includes problem-solving skills training in the context of groups in the schools. The program has an additional component that includes parent management training. Functional family therapy utilizes principles of systems theory and behavior modification for altering interaction, communication patterns, and problem solving among family members. Brief strategic family therapy focuses on the structure of the family and concrete strategies that can be used to promote improved patterns of interaction. This treatment has been developed with Hispanic children and adolescents and has integrated culturally pertinent issues to engage the families. Questions remain about the long-term impact of various treatments, the persons for whom one or more of these treatments is well suited, and how to optimize therapeutic change. Even so, the extensive evidence indicates that there are several viable treatments for conduct disorder. Disseminating these to professionals and children and families remains a key challenge.

Academic Coping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Skinner ◽  
Emily Saxton
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
School Transitions ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Maladaptive Coping ◽  
Ways Of Coping ◽  
Academic Coping

Academic coping describes the profile of responses children and adolescents utilize when they encounter challenges, obstacles, setbacks, and failures in their scholastic work. Coping is one of multiple strands of research from a variety of subareas within educational and developmental science that share a common interest in this topic, including work on academic resilience, buoyancy, mastery versus helplessness, tenacity, perseverance, and productive persistence, as well as adaptive help seeking, self-regulated learning, and emotion regulation. These approaches focus on the responses (including emotions and goal-directed behaviors) students actually undertake on the ground when they encounter academic difficulties in their daily lives; patterns of action can be contrasted with the belief systems, motivations, or skill sets that underlie these responses. Since the mid 1980s, several dozen studies have examined academic coping in children and youth from 2nd to 12th grade (ages 7–18), including samples from 29 countries (Skinner & Saxton, 2019). These studies have identified multiple adaptive ways of dealing with academic stress, including problem solving, help seeking, and comfort seeking. These responses are considered productive because they allow students to gather resources and strategies, and so re-engage in demanding tasks with renewed purpose, vigor, and effectiveness. Multiple maladaptive ways of coping have also been identified, such as escape, rumination, or blaming others. These are considered unproductive because when enacted in response to academic demands, they are more likely to trigger disaffection, amplify distress, or provoke negative reactions from social partners. In general, research indicates that students normatively show a profile of coping that is high in adaptive strategies (especially problem solving, help seeking, and support seeking) and low in maladaptive responses. Studies find that students’ adaptive coping is linked to their academic functioning and success, including their educational performance, engagement, persistence, and adjustment to school transitions. In contrast, maladaptive coping is linked to a pattern of poor academic performance, disengagement, and school-related burnout. Students cope more adaptively when they possess motivational assets (such as self-efficacy, relative autonomy, or sense of belonging) and experience interpersonal supports from their parents, teachers, and peers. Studies documenting developmental trends suggest normative improvements in the coping repertoire during elementary school. However, over the transition to middle school in early adolescence, many adaptive ways of coping decline while reliance on maladaptive responses generally increases. Starting in middle adolescence, these problematic trends stabilize, and some studies indicate renewed improvement in coping, especially problem solving. Current research on academic coping faces theoretical, methodological, and applied challenges: (a) theoretically, more comprehensive conceptualizations are needed that integrate coping perspectives with social contextual, motivational, and developmental approaches; (b) methodologically, standard measures are needed that focus on core categories of academic coping, and that utilize allocation scoring; and (c) to further applied work, additional studies are needed that describe and explain normative and differential age-graded changes in adaptive and maladaptive coping across childhood and adolescence. Researchers who study academic coping believe that this work has much to offer educational theories, research, and interventions aimed at understanding how to help children and adolescents develop the capacity to deal constructively with the obstacles and problems they will inevitably encounter during their educational careers.

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