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Background: Standard case criteria are proposed for combined use of the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule to diagnose autism and to define the broader category of autism spectrum disorders. Method: Single and combined Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule algorithms were compared to best estimate diagnoses in four samples: U.S. (n = 960) and Canadian (n = 232) participants 3 years and older, U.S. participants younger than 36 months (n = 270), and U.S. participants older than 36 months with profound mental retardation (n = 67). Results: Sensitivities and specificities of 80% and higher were obtained when strict criteria for an autism diagnosis using both instruments were applied in the U.S. samples, and 75% or greater in the Canadian sample. Single-instrument criteria resulted in significant loss of specificity. Specificity was poor in the sample with profound mental retardation. Lower sensitivity and specificity were also obtained when proposed criteria for broader spectrum disorders were applied. Conclusions: The Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule make independent, additive contributions to the judgment of clinicians that result in a more consistent and rigorous application of diagnostic criteria. (Contains 3 tables.)

In 2002, the National Institutes of Health sponsored a meeting concerning methodological challenges of research in psychosocial interventions in Autism Spectrum Disorders. This paper provides a summary of the presentations and the discussions that occurred during this meeting. Recommendations to federal and private agencies included the need for randomized clinical trials of comprehensive interventions for autism as the highest, but not the sole priority. Ongoing working groups were proposed to address psychosocial interventions with a focus on relevant statistics, standardized documentation and methods of diagnosis, development of outcome measures, establishment of standards in research; and the need for innovative treatment designs, including application of designs from other research areas to the study of interventions in ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling the heterogeneous trajectories along which antisocial behavior develops in childhood and adolescence may contribute in important ways to understanding antecedents of offending in adult life. This paper examines the development of aggressive and non-aggressive conduct problems in the Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth, a longitudinal study in the southeastern United States. Aggressive and non-aggressive conduct problems of clinical severity, police contact and arrest, and family and environmental correlates were assessed in four annual interviews for 789 boys and 630 girls aged 9 - 13 at first interview. The best fitting latent class model identified three developmental trajectories: stable low problem levels, stable high problem levels, and declining levels of conduct problems, for both aggressive and non-aggressive behaviors. Boys were over-represented in the stable high trajectory class on the aggressive trajectory, but sex differences in non-aggressive trajectories were less marked. The overlap between aggressive and non-aggressive trajectory classes was quite limited. Both classifications showed strong associations with risks of police contact and arrest in early adolescence, and with measures of family adversity. The results are discussed in relation to developmental models of conduct disorder and delinquency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on genetic and environmental influences on subtypes of conduct disorder behavior in boys. Includes property violations; Use of data from males in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescents Behavior Development; Differences between results according to mother and child ratings.

The problems of omitted variables in the empirical analysis of dynamic social processes is explained and alternative approaches to its solution briefly reviewed. The beta-logistic model of Heckman and Willis (1977) is introduced and then generalised for application to processes which include event history effects and time-varying covariates. The problem of initial conditions is explained. The generalised beta-logistic model is applied to residential mobility histories of households from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The egregious allegations of "baby farming," presented by some British media, suggest a dark and skewed view of an aspect of international child welfare that is caught in a struggle for global monitoring. Those individuals and couples who focus on the most expedient or inexpensive route to adopting a child learn which states within the United States or which countries have relatively fluid requirements that may be cursorily met or even circumvented, which home study preparers use boilerplate evaluations, and which attorneys or courts rubber stamp their reports. The mechanisms set forth by the 1993 Hague Convention propose monitoring and accountability in the field of intercountry adoption on a level never yet attempted domestically or internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Existing evidence points to a substantial rise in psychosocial disorders affecting young people over the past 50 years (Rutter & Smith, 1995). However, there are major methodological challenges in providing conclusive answers about secular changes in disorder. Comparisons of rates of disorder at different time points are often affected by changes in diagnostic criteria, differences in assessment methods, and changes in official reporting practices. Few studies have examined this issue using the same instruments at each time point., Methods: The current study assessed the extent to which conduct, hyperactive and emotional problems have become more common over a 25-year period in three general population samples of UK adolescents. The samples used in this study were the adolescent sweeps of the National Child Development Study and the 1970 Birth Cohort Study, and the 1999 British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey. Comparable questionnaires were completed by parents of 15-16-year-olds at each time point (1974, 1986, and 1999)., Results and Conclusions: Results showed a substantial increase in adolescent conduct problems over the 25-year study period that has affected males and females, all social classes and all family types. There was also evidence for a recent rise in emotional problems, but mixed evidence in relation to rates of hyperactive behaviour. Further analyses using longitudinal data from the first two cohorts showed that long-term outcomes for adolescents with conduct problems were closely similar. This provided evidence that observed trends were unaffected by possible changes in reporting thresholds.

"This paper briefly outlines the theoretical problem of the identification of duration-of-stay effects in migration. The empirical studies are critically reviewed with particular emphasis upon their treatment of heterogeneity and nonstationarity. New statistical tests developed by the authors are applied to Wisconsin migration data. These tests suggest that although heterogeneity and nonstationarity are strongly present within the data, duration-of-stay effects appear weak.", (excerpt)

One of the problems arising in the identification of the type of process generating the secondary sex ratio in human and other populations is that of 'spurious contagion'. A model is presented which allows the simultaneous estimation of the effects of (i) variation in the biological predisposition of couples to have children of a particular sex, (ii) variation in this predisposition with birth order, (iii) a Markov association between the sexes of adjacent sibs as the result of in utero interaction, and (iv) the socio-psychological predisposition of couples to limit families once they have obtain a desirable composition. Restricted forms of the model allow one to test for the presence of each of these effects whilst controlling for the others. The model is applied to data from the United States and Finland.