Numerous individual factors, including race, have been identified to date that may place children at risk for bullying involvement. the importance of the school's environment on bullying behaviours has also been highlighted, as the majority of bullying occurs at school. the variables associated with racial bullying and victimization, however, have rarely been specifically examined. the purpose of the current study, therefore, was to determine which individual-and school-level factors are associated with racial bullying and victimization. Canadian records from the 2001/2002 health Behaviors in School-Aged Children Survey (hBSC) were used for the current analyses. Participants included 3,684 students and their principals from 116 schools from across the country. Results indicated that racial bullying and racial victimization were more strongly related to individual factors such as race and sex than school-level factors. African-Canadian students were found to engage in racial bullying as well as report being racially victimized. In addition, school climate did not account for observed differences between schools on racial bullying and victimization, but racial bullying appeared to decrease in supportive schools with higher teacher diversity.

Children's efforts to hide or exaggerate facial expressions of pain were compared to their genuine expressions using the cold pressor task. Fifty healthy 8- to 12-year-olds (25 boys, 25 girls) submerged their hands in cold and warm water and were instructed about what to show on their faces. Cold 10 degrees C water was used for the genuine and suppressed conditions and warm 30 degrees C water was used for the faked condition. Facial activity was videotaped and coded using the Facial Action Coding System to provide objective, detailed accounts of facial expressions in each condition, as well as during a baseline condition. Parents were subsequently asked to correctly identify each of the four conditions by viewing each video clip twice. Faked expressions of pain in children were found to show more frequent and more intense facial actions compared to their genuine pain expression, indicating that children had some understanding but were not fully successful in faking expressions of pain. Children's suppressed expressions, however, showed no differences from baseline facial actions, indicating that they were able to successfully suppress their expressions of pain. Parents correctly identified the four conditions significantly more frequently than would be expected by chance. They were generally quite successful at detecting faked pain, but experienced difficulty differentiating among the other conditions. The results indicate that children are capable of controlling their facial expressions of pain when instructed to do so, but are better able to hide their pain than to fake it.

Students with specific learning disabilities (LDs) must present documentation of their disability to receive academic supports and services at the postsecondary level. The purpose of this study is to examine the quality of disability documentation being provided by students entering postsecondary education in a Canadian setting and, in doing so, to better evaluate the quality of diagnostic protocols in elementary and secondary school. Disability documentation provided by 247 students applying to receive academic supports was examined at three postsecondary institutions in Ontario. Results indicate that only half of students provided documentation including a psychological report, with the remainder providing either no documentation or school-based identification protocols. Most documentation was incomplete and did not include a clear diagnostic statement, indicating problems with the disability documentation provided by students with LDs in Ontario. Recommendations for improvement of documentation and diagnostic practices at the elementary and secondary schooling levels are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible additive neurocognitive deficits in adults with both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and serious depressive symptoms. Participants were 54 university students who completed a psycho-educational assessment. Three groups were examined: a group with comorbid ADHD and elevated depressive symptoms (ADHD + DEP; N = 18); a group with ADHD only (N = 18); and a group with elevated depressive symptoms only (DEP; N = 18). Group differences were examined on a battery of neurocognitive tests. The ADHD + DEP group performed significantly worse than the other groups on processing speed tasks and delayed recall of conceptual verbal information and significantly worse than the ADHD group on shifting tasks. Depressive symptom severity was significantly correlated with processing speed, verbal memory performance, and shifting in the ADHD and ADHD + DEP groups. Results suggest that the co-occurrence of ADHD and depressive symptoms in adults is associated with additional neurocognitive impairment.