Developmental foundations and clinical applications of social information processing: A review

“Indeed, socially rejected school-age children appear more likely to make attributional errors regarding peers’ intentions in social situations and are more likely to infer hostile or negative intent (Crick & Dodge, 1994; Schultz, Izard, & Ackerman, 2000).”

“Classic attachment theory emphasizes the importance of children’s relationships with their primary caregivers and the manner in which those relationships affect future relationships (Bowlby, 1982).”

“Significant parental stressors, such as parental psychopathology (eg, depression), may also negatively impact child adjustment by interfering with effective parenting behavior (Downey & Coyne, 1990 ).”

“Social information processing has been a primary focus of childhood intervention since D’Zurilla and Goldfried (1971) proposed their initial model.”

“…reduction of internalizing or externalizing symptoms when included in a multimodal treatment approach, one study found that inclusion of social information processing may be a key component in the effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral therapies that target aggression (Landenberger & Lipsey, 2005).”

“Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) is a multifaceted program with one module of instruction on social information processing (Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, & Quamma, 1995 ).”

“Drawing from the literature on youth aggressive behavior, it seems that the extent to which aggressive responses are detrimental to youth functioning may be moderated in part by the cultural acceptability of aggression versus disengagement as a problem-solving strategy (Chen & French, 2008 ).”

“Specifically, depressed children tend to have a greater bias toward self-blame across situations, leading to attributions of internal and stable causes in negative situations and attributing external influences to positive situations (Graham & Juvonen, 1998).”

“Drawing from social learning and information-processing models, Schwartz and Proctor (2000) investigated whether exposure to community violence was associated with positive evaluations of aggressive responses to social situations in a sample of low-income, ethnic minority, urban school-age children.”

“Other research suggests that depressed children may be more likely to understand ambiguous peer interactions with a hostile intent attribution bias, thereby assigning negative intent to the interactions (Quiggle et al., 1992).”

“Research has found that these approaches are effective in reducing depressive symptoms (Clarke et al., 1999) and externalizing symptoms (Rohde et al.) among adolescents.”

“…effects of the Coping Power Program (and associated Coping Power parent component) have found that aggressive preadolescent boys who participated in the Coping Power Program had decreased rates of later substance use (Lochman & Wells, 2003) and covert delinquent behavior (Lochman & Wells, 2004).”

“One of the most thoroughly studied interventions is the Incredible Years Classroom Social Skills and Problem-Solving Curriculum (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2004).”

“One of the earliest intervention programs, the Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving (ICPS) program (Shure & Spivack, 1982), was designed for preschool and elementary school children and has been evaluated in a number of clinical trials.”

“When generating behavioral response options, school-age children who experience social rejection are also more likely to identify avoidant or aggressive strategies to solve social problems (Warden & Mackinnon, 2003).”

“Research has documented that children who experience relational problems have difficulties interpreting the actions of their peers when compared to socially accepted children (Dodge, Murphy, & Buchsbaum, 1984 ).”

“Evaluation of the treatment program indicated that after participation in the intervention children demonstrated more prosocial interpersonal behavior, less aggression, and improved conflict management skills (Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Hammond, 2001 ).”

“Although few data are available to elucidate the relationship between child attachments and social information processing, a significant body of research exists to support a more general connection between parent–child relationship patterns and children's social competence in preschool (Pettit, Dodge, & Brown, 1988 ).”

“Applied to the study of social information processing, secure attachments have been frequently emphasized as essential to the transmission of social information and the development of effective and appropriate levels of independence and social competency (Rubin & Rose-Krasnor, 1992).”

“…effects of the Coping Power Program (and associated Coping Power parent component) have found that aggressive preadolescent boys who participated in the Coping Power Program had decreased rates of later substance use (Lochman & Wells, 2003) and covert delinquent behavior (Lochman & Wells, 2004).”

“Arsenio and Lemerise (2001) extended the Crick and Dodge model by including morality and emotion processes of children and their social partners into social information processing.”

“encoding relevant information about the problem (Quiggle, Garber, Panak, & Dodge, 1992), exhibit a negative problem orientation (Nezu, Nezu, & Clark, 2008), are more likely to generate problem responses that are less assertive and irrelevant to the problem (Quiggle et al.), and are more likely to evaluate ineffective…”

“The Coping Power Program (Lochman & Wells, 2003), a preventive group-treatment program, is a modification of the Anger Coping Program (Lochman, 1992).”

“The Social Relations Program (Lochman, Coie, Underwood, & Terry, 1993 ) was designed to decrease aggression and peer rejection by increasing social problem-solving skills.”

“Furthermore, school-age childrenwith externalizing disorders aremore confident in their ability to engage in an aggressive response to a social problem than typical children or children with only ADHD (Matthys et al., 1999).”

“Not surprisingly, school-age children who report negative experiences such as neglect or social rejection appear more likely to demonstrate negative, or even biased, interpretative styles (Crick &Dodge; Feldman & Dodge, 1987; Gibb, 2002).”

“Spivack and colleagues (Shure & Spivack, 1980 ; Spivack & Shure) suggested that there were several prerequisite cognitive skills that were necessary for effective social information processing.”

“Socially accepted children tend to attribute social success to internal and controllable causes when compared to unaccepted children (Dill, Vernberg, Fornagy, Twemlow, & Gamm, 2004 ).”

“In a study linking parenting style and school-age children's social adjustment, Kaufmann and colleagues ( 2000 ) found that authoritative parenting, characterized by high warmth, respect, and limit-setting, was associated with higher child social competence than was authoritarian parenting.”

“In a study of preschool-aged children, Coy, Speltz, DeKlyen, and Jones (2001) found no correlation between VIQ and social information processing, whereas Lochman and Lampron (1986) found that higher VIQ was associated with greater frequency of verbal assertion strategies to solve problems.”

“Results of these studies indicate that both overtly aggressive boys and girls rate aggressive responses to conflict situations more positively compared to their nonaggressive peers (Crick & Werner, 1998 ).”

“Studies have found that aggressive children differ in their generation of alternative solutions to a social problem (Gouze, 1987 ).”

“Although the literature is sparse, there is some evidence that the social information-processing deficits seen in depression are more pronounced in suicidal individuals (Speckens & Hawton, 2005 ).”

“Not surprisingly, school-age children who report negative experiences such as neglect or social rejection appear more likely to demonstrate negative, or even biased, interpretative styles (Crick & Dodge; Feldman & Dodge, 1987 ; Gibb, 2002 ).”

“Subsequent research also found a distinction between proactive and reactive aggression, with teachers reporting greater social information-processing deficits in school-age children with reactive aggression than children with proactive aggression or mixed aggression (Day, Bream, & Pal, 1992 ).”

“In a study of preschool-aged children, Coy, Speltz, DeKlyen, and Jones (2001) found no correlation between VIQ and social information processing, whereas Lochman and Lampron (1986) found that higher VIQ was associated with greater frequency of verbal assertion strategies to solve problems.”

“Likewise, aggressive school-age males were found to overly attribute aggression to others’ behaviors during both competitive and cooperative tasks (Lochman & Dodge, 1998) and in ambiguous situations that result in unpleasant outcomes (Guerra & Slaby, 1989; Sancilio, Plumert, & Hartup, 1989).”

“Likewise, aggressive school-age males were found to overly attribute aggression to others’ behaviors during both competitive and cooperative tasks (Lochman & Dodge, 1998) and in ambiguous situations that result in unpleasant outcomes (Guerra & Slaby, 1989; Sancilio, Plumert, & Hartup, 1989).”

“The attention to developmental factors highlighted by Spivack and Shure (1974) as well as models articulated by Crick and Dodge (1994) and Rubin and Krasnor (1986) represent significant steps toward understanding social information processing in youth.”

“However, the literature suggests that early fearful and isolative behaviors are significantly associated with less flexible problem-solving style and greater use of adult resources rather than using independent strategies (Rubin, Daniels-Beirness, & Bream, 1984 ).”

“In partial support of this relationship, prosocial information-processing practices among youth have been found to be positively associated with parental warmth and support in school-age children (Domitrovich & Bierman, 2001).”

“Gender differences in social information processing have also been documented in which girls typically demonstrate patterns of information processing that are judged to be more competent than those of boys (Lansford et al, 2006 ; Walker, Irving, & Berthelsen, 2002 ).”

“Another study found that preschoolers diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder were more likely to provide aggressive solutions or aggressive endings to stories that included a provocative event, ambiguous cues, and negative outcome (Coy et al., 2001).”

“Furthermore, Jaffee and D’Zurilla (2003) found that adolescents’ social information processes were positively associated with those of their mothers.”

“Additional research has suggested that school-age children raised with harsh parenting practices may learn to model hostile attributional biases and aggressive problem-solving strategies (Nelson, Mitchell, & Yang, 2008 ).”

“The Coping Course (Rohde, Jorgensen, Seeley, & Mace, 2004 ), an extension and modification of CWDA for use with adolescent offenders who are incarcerated, also includes a problem-solving component.”

“D’Zurilla and Goldfried (1971) D’Zurilla and Nezu (1999) Original adult model Adult Bell and D’Zurilla (2009) Adolescent Jaffee and D’Zurilla (2003) Speckens and Hawton (2005) Spivack and Shure (1974) Means-ends thinking Theory of mind Perspective taking Causal thinking Preschool Jones et al. (1980) Gouze (1987) Schoo…”

“In one such study, Jones, Rickel, and Smith (1980) found that maternal restrictiveness was positively associated with evasive problem solving, whereas maternal nurturance was negatively related to preschoolers’ reliance on authority figures to solve their problems.”

“Likewise, aggressive school-age males were found to overly attribute aggression to others’ behaviors during both competitive and cooperative tasks (Lochman & Dodge, 1998 ) and in ambiguous situations that result in unpleasant outcomes (Guerra & Slaby, 1989 ; Sancilio, Plumert, & Hartup, 1989 ).”

“Overall, research on ICPS efficacy indicated improvements in problem solving and reductions in impulsivity and inhibition one year postintervention (Shure, 1997).”

“As children age they are able to generate a greater number of solutions to social problems (Hains & Ryan, 1983) and demonstrate better-developed information processing skills (Jaffee & D’Zurilla, 2003).”

“Broader cultural differences in individualistic and collectivistic values have also been observed in adolescents’ preferred social problem-solving methods, even among geographically and ethnically similar societies (Keltikangas-Järvinen & Terav, 1996).”

“an avoidant problem solving style [35].”

“Researchers have quoted that “Indi-viduals with a positive problem orientation believe that problems are challenges to be solved rather than threats” (Adrian et al., 2010, p. 328).”

“However, this limitation corresponds with findings that children talking about revenge showed poorer narrative skills (Harris & Walton, 2009), and with research that shows impaired SIP in aggressive youth and youth endorsing revenge goals (Adrian et al., 2010; Crick & Dodge, 1994; Dodge & Rabiner, 2004; Lochman et al.…”

“One explanation is that the impairment from electronic product use on children's self-control, likely similar to the damage caused by cigarettes, has a gradual accumulation process (Adrian et al., 2010).”

“These preliminary data contradict results from the literature about the relation between “instrumental objectives” and violent behavior (Adrian et al. 2010; Dodge and Rabiner 2004; McDonald and Lochman 2012), since they indicate a relation between “instrumental objectives” and persistent offense…”

“Therefore, supporting children’s creativity can aid the development of social information processing processes (Adrian et al. 2010).”