Biomedical subjects

C Slomkowski

Publications and source records attributed to C Slomkowski.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

A new instrument to assess sibling relationships in antisocial youth: the social interaction between siblings (SIBS) interview: a research note.

This paper presents psychometric information on a new interview (SIBS) designed to examine sibling influences on antisocial behavior. The feasibility of the instrument and internal consistency of the SIBS scales was documented in a sample of 29 children (ages 6-11) with a delinquent older brother. In addition, adequate to excellent test-retest reliability of the SIBS scales was demonstrated in an unselected sample. The potential utility of the SIBS interview for assessing the role of siblings in the development of antisocial behavior is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

Is self-esteem an important outcome in hyperactive children?

Using a prospective design, this study examined (a) whether hyperactive children suffer from low self-esteem as adolescents; (b) whether low self-esteem is associated with poor functioning in adolescence; (c) whether hyperactive children exhibit a positive illusory bias, in which self-esteem is independent of level of functioning; and (d) whether self-esteem in adolescence is associated with poor functioning in adulthood. Subjects were 65 children diagnosed as hyperactive in childhood, and 62 matched controls sampled from a medical clinic. After controlling for current mental disorder, the hyperactive cohort reported lower self-esteem in adolescence, was judged by clinicians to have lower levels of overall adjustment in adolescence, and had lower educational achievement and occupational rank in adulthood, as compared to controls.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Adjustment in middle childhood and early adolescence: links with earlier and contemporary sibling relationships.

The relation of individual differences in internalizing and externalizing behavior in middle childhood and early adolescence to children's concurrent sibling relationships and their mothers' mood, and to their sibling and mother-child relationships in the preschool period was studied. Thirty-nine younger and 39 older siblings observed at home in the preschool period were studied 5 and 7 years later. Differences in adjustment were related to contemporary sibling relationships and maternal mood, and to sibling and mother-child interaction in the preschool period, even when mothers' current mood was taken into account.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1993

Treatment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.

Children's mental disorders are frequent, often chronic, and precursors of adult dysfunction. Most of the 9 million children with mental disorders go untreated. The successful treatment of childhood disorders represents a major public health concern. Although no cure is available for any condition, effective treatments exist. These include psychotherapies, such as behavioral treatment, parental therapy, family therapy, and medications. Mood disorders may respond to psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments. Anxiety disorders have been found to respond to medication and psychotherapeutic interventions. Hyperactivity disorders benefit greatly from stimulant medications, as do conduct disorders. Combining medication with behavioral treatment provides optimal efficacy in hyperactive children. Favorable outcomes in conduct disorders are also obtained from psychotherapeutic interventions with parents and children. In autism, the most severely handicapping childhood disorder, treatment can reduce disturbance to a level that enables the child to remain in the home rather than being placed in an institutional setting. The motor and phonic tics of tourette's disorder can be controlled with medication. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can be improved through psychotherapeutic treatments. There is an array of therapeutic interventions that can bring meaningful relief to children with serious, chronic mental disorders. Their successful application is a wise investment, given the pain, long-term disadvantages, and financial costs associated with untreated childhood behavioral and emotional disorders.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Young children's understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs: individual differences and their antecedents.

Individual differences in young children's understanding of others' feelings and in their ability to explain human action in terms of beliefs, and the earlier correlates of these differences, were studied with 50 children observed at home with mother and sibling at 33 months, then tested at 40 months on affective-labeling, perspective-taking, and false-belief tasks. Individual differences in social understanding were marked; a third of the children offered explanations of actions in terms of false belief, though few predicted actions on the basis of beliefs. These differences were associated with participation in family discourse about feelings and causality 7 months earlier, verbal fluency of mother and child, and cooperative interaction with the sibling. Differences in understanding feelings were also associated with the discourse measures, the quality of mother-sibling interaction, SES, and gender, with girls more successful than boys. The results support the view that discourse about the social world may in part mediate the key conceptual advances reflected in the social cognition tasks; interaction between child and sibling and the relationships between other family members are also implicated in the growth of social understanding.

Affect↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sisters, brothers, and delinquency: evaluating social influence during early and middle adolescence.

Although a number of studies have shown that brothers are highly correlated for delinquent behavior, much less research has been conducted on sisters. We propose that sisters, like brothers, show notable similarity for delinquent behavior, and also promote each other's delinquency through direct interaction. We examined these issues in 164 brother and sister pairs studied over a 4-year period (from early to middle adolescence) in a study of intact families in the rural Midwest. Sibling similarity for self-reports of delinquent behavior were highly correlated for both brothers and sisters. Conditional effects of high levels of hostile-coercive sibling relationships and older sibling delinquency predicted younger sibling delinquency in both brother and sister pairs. For brothers, conditional effects were also detected for high levels of warmth-support, in contrast to sisters. The conditional effects of older sibling delinquency and relationship quality were shown to predict change in younger sibling delinquency through adolescence. The results add to a growing literature on sibling effects as well as theoretical models that emphasize the role of social interaction between siblings as a risk factor for the development of delinquent activity in adolescence.

Adolescent↗