Protocol for the design of an instrument to measure preadolescent children's self-report of covert aggression and bullying.

Introduction: Covert bullying in schools is associated with a range of academic, social, emotional and physical health problems. Much research has focused on bullying, but there remains a gap in understanding about covert aggression and how to most accurately and reliably measure children's own reports of this behaviour. This paper reviews relevant literature and outlines a research project that aims to develop a self-report instrument that effectively measures covert aggression and bullying.

Neurological and biological foundations of children's social and emotional development: an integrated literature review.

This article provides an integrated review of the expert literature on developmental processes that combine social, biological, and neurological pathways, and the mechanisms through which these pathways may influence school success and health. It begins with a historical overview of the current understanding of how attachment relationships and social environments influence brain development and plasticity and are, therefore, central to the physical and mental health of individuals and populations. It then expands on the effect of plasticity in relation to behavior and learning at school.

The association of maternal overweight and obesity with breastfeeding duration.

Objective: To determine whether maternal prepregnancy overweight or obesity has an independent effect on breastfeeding duration.

Study Design: A prospective birth cohort study of 1803 live-born children and their mothers ascertained through antenatal clinics at the major tertiary obstetric hospital in Perth, Australia, were followed until 3 years of age. Unconditional logistic, Cox regression, and Kaplan Meier analyses were used to model the association between maternal prepregnancy overweight and obesity and the duration of predominant or any breastfeeding allowing for adjustment of confounders (infant factors: gender, birth weight, gestational age, age solids introduced, and older siblings; maternal factors: smoking, education, age, race, marital status, pregnancy and birth complications, cesarean section, and socioeconomic status).