The assessment of daily life stress in youngsters is receiving extensive research attention due to its pertinence to psychological and medical problems. This investigation addressed concerns from previous studies of daily life stress in children and adolescents. These included an integration with rathlgs of negative affectivity, exploration of developmental changes, and presentation of psychometric data. The Daily Life Stressors Scale (DLSS) is a 30-item measure designed to assess the severity of aversive feelings and evelyday events for youngsters. Three groups of children and adolescents were evaluated to assess the scale's test-retest reliability and construct and concurrent validity.Developmental changes in a normative group were also examined. Results indicated the DLSS to be moderately reliable and valid for children. Also, male children reported more stress than female children, whereas female adolescents reported more stress than male adolescents. Results were discussed with respect to resilience, gender role stress, therapy implications, and usefulness for determining precursors to physiological problems.KEY WORDS: daily stress; negative affectivity; childhood.Research on stress in children and adolescents has burgeoned in recent years, with investigators exploring both major life stressors (e.g., Kearney, Drabman, and Beasley parental divorce) and those that occur daily. Research into the effects of major life events on children predates work on daily life stressors, thus providing more information about assessment (Arnold, 1990), course (Cohen, Burt, & Bjorck, 1987), related effects (Kaplan, Grossman, Landa, Shenker, & Weinhold, 1986), and treatment (Noshpitz, 1990). Several researchers (e.g., Banez & Compas, 1990) have speculated, however, that daily life stressors may have greater impact on an individual's quality of life because these events are more frequent, psychologically proximal, and predictive of present and future psychological symptoms (Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981).Common problems associated with increased stress in school-aged children include eating and sleeping pattern changes, lack of concentration or motivation at school, somatic complaints, and social withdrawal (Sears & Milburn, 1990). In addition, stress during adolescence is related to depression and suicide, substance abuse, eating disorders, and problematic parent-adolescent interactions (Hendren, 1990). Among more "clinical" populations, the effects of stressors such as relocation have been noted. For example, persons with mental retardation sometimes display increased maladaptive behavior upon relocation to another residential facility (Hemming, Lavender, & Pill, 1981), and youngsters placed in foster-care programs often show increased symptoms of internalizing and externalizing disorders (Tuma, 1989). Unfortunately, research into the assessment of daily life stressors in children is in its infancy and remains marked by several methodological and conceptual problems.Perhaps the most enveloping conceptual problem i...

Previous research examining the scientific stature of counseling psychology training programs has not attended to emerging methodological issues. Two databases (PsycLIT from 1974 to June of 1991 and the Social Science Citation Index [SSCI] from 1971 to 1991) provided publication and citation frequencies for all 488 counseling psychology faculty affiliated with all 68 currently active doctoral programs. Grand total scores from these databases were determined and then adjusted on the basis of faculty size alone, faculty age alone, and faculty size and age combined. An additional stability correction was derived by deleting the record of the most prolific (PsycLIT) or cited (SSCI) faculty member from the total scores of each program. The leading programs identified on the basis of the 11 adjusted and unadjusted measures of scientific stature are presented. An r of .70 between PsycLIT and SSCI was found.

Impairments in visuomotor integration (VMI) may contribute to anomalous development of motor, as well as socialcommunicative, skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it is relatively unknown whether VMI impairments are specific to children with ASD versus children with other neurodevelopmental disorders. As such, this study addressed the hypothesis that children with ASD, but not those in other clinical control groups, would show greater deficits in high-VMI dynamic grip-force tracking versus low-VMI static presentation. Seventy-nine children, aged 7-17 years, participated: 22 children with ASD, 17 children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), 18 children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and 22 typically developing (TD) children. Two grip-force tracking conditions were examined: (1) a low-VMI condition (static visual target) and (2) a high-VMI condition (dynamic visual target). Low-frequency force oscillations <0.5 Hz during the visuomotor task were also examined. Twoway ANCOVAs were used to examine group x VMI and group x frequency effects (α = 0.05). Children with ASD showed a difficulty, above that seen in the ADHD/FASD groups, tracking dynamic, but not static, visual stimuli as compared to TD children. Low-frequency force oscillations <0.25 Hz were also significantly greater in the ASD versus the TD group. This study is the first to report VMI deficits during dynamic versus static grip-force tracking and increased proportion of force oscillations <0.25 Hz during visuomotor tracking in the ASD versus TD group. Dynamic VMI impairments may be a core psychophysiologic feature that could contribute to impaired development of motor and socialcommunicative skills in ASD.

Youngsters with problematic nonattendance present a difficult dilemma for school psychologists and educators, particularly because of the prevalence and heterogeneity of the behavior. However, because of the information gap that often exists between researchers and practitioners, essential facts about the characteristics and treatment of this population are often unavailable to school personnel. This is unfortunate given that such personnel usually make initial decisions about referral and/or school-based intervention. Therefore, clinicians were surveyed about recently referred and treated cases of school refusal behavior. Data were obtained on clinical prevalence, demographic characteristics, length of absenteeism, severity, etiology, and length, type, and success of treatments used. Recommendations are made with respect to the initial referral and treatment of this population.

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