This study reports a cognitive-behavioural intervention implemented to increase academic performance of an 11-year-old boy with Attention-Deficit Disorder/Without Hyperactivity. The child was trained in the use of positive self-talk to reduce the cognitive distortions and deficiencies associated with his symptoms. Reports from the child, his parent and his teacher, together with objective measures and observations, were used to assess the efficacy of treatment in reducing symptoms and increasing academic performance. Results suggest an increase in academic performance with a greater improvement in productivity rather than in accuracy. These improvements could be related to the decreases in the problematic symptoms of in attention and anxiety. Unconditional conclusions cannot be drawn, however, about the effect of the intervention on impulsivity, because of the difficulties found in measuring this construct Improvements to overcome this problem and other modifications that may improve the overall validity of future studies are suggested.

In the predominantly sociometric approach used to investigate the social and personal experience of adolescents with ADHD, teachers, parents, peers, or observers rate their perception of the sociol relationships experienced by the adolescent with ADHD.The adolescent's subjective perspective of his or her situation has been largely ignored.The present study examined self-reported peer rejection, peer-related loneliness, coping “strength”, and interpersonal concerns experienced by 84 adolescents: 22 with ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type (ADHD-PI), 19 with ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive Type (ADHD-PHI), and 43 nondisordered adolescents. The adolescents, from southwest Sydney, attended mainstream schools.Adolescents with ADHD-PI reported significantly less manageability and less concern about others' feelings and about relationships with others than did nondisordered adolescents.Adolescents with either ADHD-PI or ADHD-PHI reported significantly less global sense of coherence and significantly more peer-related loneliness than did nondisordered adolescents. No significant difference was reported between the adolescent groups on measures of comprehensibility, meaningfulness, and concern about being rejected and humiliated. These contrasting self-reported profiles of the social and personal experience of adolescents with ADHD and nondisordered adolescents have implications for researchers and practitioners.

The Western Australian Child Health Survey (WACHS) surveyed 4- to 16-year-olds and their families. In a pilot study of 189 households, one in five children reported mental health prob1ems.A clinical calibration trial confirmed a link between morbidity on the Child Behaviour Checklist and DSM-III-R diagnosis in clinical interview. In the main study of 1462 households, one in six young people showed at least one mental health problem. Adolescent risk behaviours were associated with developmental coping issues and some behavioural problems. Poor parental health and mental health and some school environments were factors related to adverse health outcomes for young people.

Bully-victim problems at school may have negative effects on students' mental health. Adolescents (N = 845) attending schools in South Australia anonymously answered questionnaires that included a measure of suicidal ideation. Student involvement in bully-victim problems at school and the emotional reaction to being viaimised by peers were also examined. Self-report but not peer nomination indicated that high levels of peer victimisation and relatively ineffective coping responses were independently and significantly associated with suicidal ideation. Implications for school policies and practices to address the issue of youth suicide are discussed.

The coping styles of 61 mother/daughter dyads were investigated to establish the extent to which mothers and daughters share coping strategies and to examine cohort effects on coping. For this sample, mothers and daughters generally agreed on the preferred coping styles. However, one strategy showed a positive correlation between mothers and doughters, and two showed a slight negative correlation. When similarities of individual profiles were used to determine clusters, most of the groups which appeared contained mainly mothers or doughters. Cohort effects appear to be much stronger in determining patterns of preferred coping strategy than are family influences.

The validity of standardised ossessment instruments and their normative data is a significant issue in school psychology. Consequently, this study of 515 coeducational Queensland Year 5 students investigated the generalisability and robustness of the norms of two contemporary self-concept instruments, the Self-Description Questionnaire-I (SDQ-I; Marsh, 1988) and the Perception of Ability Scale for Students (PASS; Boersma & Chapman, 1992). Both tests have received praise for their theoretical construct but have been criticised for the regionalisation of their norming populations.The results of this study demonstrated that the Queensland students had higher mean PASS self-concept scores than the North American students used in the norming of all the PASS scales. For the SDQ- I, a similar distribution pattern was shown for Queensland students and SDQ-I norming sample, with the exception of small variability with Reading and Mothematics self-concepts scales. Issues associated with interpreting and reporting of assessment results and with the assessment responsibilities of educational psychologists and counsellors are discussed.