The present study attempted to generate and evaluate a taxonomy of the situations and tasks most likely to lead deviant children to experience social difficulties. In Study 1, elementary school teachers and clinicians were asked to notice such situations as they occurred. The outcome was a 44-item Taxonomy of Problematic Social Situations for Children. This survey was administered to teachers of 45 socially rejected children and 39 adaptive children. The survey was found to have high internal consistency and high test-retest reliability. Six situation types emerged as factors in analyses: Peer Group Entry; Response to Peer Provocations; Response to Failure; Response to Success; Social Expectations; and Teacher Expectations. Teachers rated the rejected group as having more problems than the adaptive group in each situation, but particularly in Response to Peer Provocations and Teacher Expectations. In Study 2, 15 items within the six factors were presented in hypothetical format to 39 clinic-referred rejected aggressive children and 34 adaptive children, who were asked to role-play their responses. The items, in particular the provocation items, again differentiated the two groups. Sex and age differences were also found. The usefulness of this taxonomy in a three-step model of clinical assessment is proposed.

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Theoretically based measures of social information-processing patterns in specific situations were developed and administered to popular, average, socially rejected, and socially neglected girls and boys in the first, third, and fifth grades (total n = 95). Measures included interpretations of peers' intentions, quantity and quality of responses generated to problematic stimuli, evaluations of responses, and enactments of particular responses. Three kinds of situations were generated empirically as stimuli: being teased, being provoked ambiguously, and initiating entry into a peer group. Deviant children (rejected and neglected) were found to respond deficiently compared to average and popular children, but only in the situation in which they were teased. Older children performed more competently than younger children in all three situations. Interactions among gender, sociometric status, and age also were found. Findings were interpreted as evidence of the elusiveness and complexity of social information-processing defects among low sociometric status children.

IntroductionKambin’s Triangle is a right triangle over the dorsolateral disc. The area of this right triangle currently serves as a strategic site of posterolateral, minimally invasive access to the nerve root for delivery of epidural steroid injections. This posterolateral approach has also been considered a safe area of access to the intervertebral disc space and, thus, an effective approach in reducing complications, such as violation of the thecal sac, the nerve root, or the bony elements of the spine during minimally invasive spinal surgery. No published studies have been performed to characterize the dimensions of the Kambin's Triangle. Our aim is to characterize its dimensions at the lumbar levels and determine its efficacy and safety as a site of access for minimally invasive spinal surgery.MethodsTwo randomly chosen adult male cadavers were used for this study. The measurements were made bilaterally at their lumbar levels (L1–L5), which equates to 16 total measurements (eight bilateral disc spaces on two cadavers). The disc space was first accessed using a Kirschner wire in a standard oblique approach. With the assistance of fluoroscopy, a Kirschner wire was passed into the disc through the Kambin’s Triangle. The procedure was performed on the cadavers bilaterally at four levels, followed by open dissection. The calculations of the area were made by measuring the exiting nerve root, the superior border of the caudal vertebra, and the superior articulating facet—the borders of the Kambin's Triangle.ResultsThe Kambin’s Triangle height and width respectively averaged at 12 mm and 10 mm (L1–L2), 13 mm and 11 mm (L2–L3), 17 mm and 11 mm (L3–L4), and 18 mm and 12 mm (L4–L5). Thus, the area at each level was 60 mm2 (L1–L2), 71.5 mm2 (L2–L3), 93.5 mm2 (L3–L4), and 108 mm2 (L4–L5). All dissected levels demonstrated adequate anchoring of the Kirschner wire into the disc space with no evidence of nerve injury. Following this, a retractor was placed and complete discectomies were performed. All exiting nerves were protected in this safe zone and the thecal sac remained inviolate.ConclusionUnderstanding the Kambin’s Triangle will assist surgeons in the minimally invasive approach to spinal surgeries, with potentially safe placement of interbody cages through this strategic space.

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