The conference on which this volume is based was one of a series of symposia initiated by the Department of Psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on the theory and research surrounding topics of interest to the faculty and germane to the Hawaiian community. In order to encourage interaction around specific themes, the symposium series has assembled a small, select group of scholars to exchange knowledge, ideas, and enthusiasm with the resident faculty, students, and the community at large. The first two symposia concentrated on cross-cultural themes (Marsella, Tharp, & Ciborowski, 1979; Marsella, DeVos, & Hsu, 1985). The third one addressed a significant social problem: aggression and violence in children. At the time that our plan was being developed, Hawaii, along with mainland states, was experiencing or at least expressing widespread alarm over the involvement of children and youth in violent crime, in belligerence at school, as perpetrators of aggression at home, and as victims of physical abuse. This symposium was planned around a major area within the department, the Clinical Studies Program. The Clinical Studies Program has developed along two interrelated lines of concentration: one emphasized the foundation of clin­ cical psychology in basic science and the other expanded its purview into the broader community, covering prevention, systems change, and social networks.

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I: Perspective.- 1. Childhood Aggression and Violence: Introduction.- Caveats on Theory and Method.- Search for the Pure Measure of Effect.- Medicalization of Violence.- Health and Behavior.- Culture of the Social Problem.- II: Contemporary Themes.- 2. Childhood Aggression and Violence: Contemporary Issues.- Syndrome of Developmental Psychopathology.- Genetic Influences.- Gender Differences.- Hyperactivity and Aggression.- Childhood Violence.- 3. A Neurological View of Violence.- The Limbic System and Violence.- Neurological Studies of Violent Children.- Genetic Studies Relating to Violent Behavior.- Treatment of Violence.- Discussion: Violence and Responsibility.- 4. Analyzing Response Relationships in Childhood Aggression: The Clinical Perspective.- Aggression and Juvenile Crime.- Psychopathology and Childhood Aggression.- Aggression in Children with Handicaps.- Aggression and Social Skills.- Other Response Relationships.- 5. Potential Relations Between the Development of Social Reasoning and Childhood Aggression.- Children's Moral Judgments.- Children's Understanding of Social Coordination and Convention.- Facilitating Moral Development.- Relationship Between Social Judgments and Action.- III: Familial and Societal Issues.- 6. Childhood Aggression in The Context of Family Interaction.- Coercive Family Interaction.- The Marital Relationship.- Family Organization.- Treating Childhood Aggression Through Family Therapy: Reprogramming the Family System.- 7. Child Maltreatment: Prevalence, Consequences, Causes, and Interventions.- Prevalence.- Developmental Consequences.- The Etiology of Child Abuse.- The Implications for Interventions.- 8. Girls and Violence: An Exploration of the Gender Gap in Serious Delinquent Behavior.- Sex Differences in Self-Report Data.- Sources of the Gender Gap in Delinquent Behavior.- Violence and Traditional Female Delinquency.- 9. Familial, Peer, and Television Influences on Aggressive and Violent Behavior.- Demographics of Aggressive Behavior.- Prediction of Antisocial Behavior.- Television and Aggressiveness.- Measurement of Violence on Television.- Prevention and Intervention.- 10. Aggression and its Correlates over 22 Years.- Early Measures.- Later Measures.- Data Acquisition.- Results and Discussion.- Intergenerational Effects.- 11. Etiology and Prevention of Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents.- Early Predictors of Antisocial Behavior and Delinquency.- An Integrated Theory of Delinquency.- Prevention Project.- IV: Overview.- 12. Childhood Aggression and Violence: Individual and System Approaches.- Childhood Aggression and Violence Within the Individual.- Toward a Systems Alternative.