Loneliness Among Children with Special Needs

Section I. Loneliness Attributes.- 1 Theoretical Approaches to Loneliness.- What is loneliness?.- Types of loneliness.- The developmental perspective.- Disabilities and loneliness.- Conclusions.- 2 Personal Aspects of Loneliness.- Self-perceptions.- Social skills.- Attribution style.- Conclusions.- Section II. Interpersonal Family and Peer Contexts.- 3 Family Environment.- Stages in connectedness.- Children's disabilities and parental stress.- Child characteristics.- Parental characteristics.- Family characteristics.- Loneliness and parental attitudes.- Conclusions.- 4 Peer Relations and Children's Friendships.- Social status: Acceptance and rejection.- Friendship relations.- Friendship and status.- Classroom climate, friendship, and loneliness.- Conclusions.- Section III. A Subtyping Approach.- 5 Subtyping Approach to Loneliness Research.- Subtyping aggressive children.- Subtyping rejected children.- Subtyping of students with learning disabilities.- Subtyping comparisons for groups with learning disabilities and behavior disorders.- Discussion of the two studies.- Conclusions.- Section IV. Coping and Intervention.- 6 Coping with Loneliness.- Stress and coping.- Categories for coping with loneliness.- Individualized coping style.- Conclusions.- 7 Approaches in Intervention Research.- Conclusions from prior interventions.- Social intervention models: Deficit and systemic approaches.- Model-based interventions for externalizing maladjustment.- Integrating the two models: The script intervention.- Implications for interventions with lonely children.- Conclusions.- Section V. Epilogue: Development, Disabilities, and Loneliness.- 8 Summary and Future Directions.- The world of the family.- The world of peers.- Subtyping of loneliness and adjustment.- Coping and resilience.- Empowering the lonely child.- Transactional relations.- Diversity in social functioning.- 9 Issues for Further Exploration.- Sense of coherence and loneliness.- Change and change agents.- Future research directions.- References.- Author Index.