the need for this to be openlyacknowledged.

The parent(s) with personality dis-order is one issue addressed for thefirst time in the second edition. It ishere that the systems approach to thefamily, the need to incorporate educa-tion, as well as different therapeutictechniques such as cognitive analytictherapy and multiple family groups isneeded. Parallel with the systemicapproach to the family is the plea formore communication and co-operationbetween the different agencies in-volved. The issues of the roles ofthe different agencies, the fights forterritory and for scarce resources areaddressed in the same frank andhumane way as the family issues. Ifco-operation can be achieved thenparental blame and stigma could beavoided. There is recognition that suchco-operation demands a more imagi-native approach by professionals and awillingness to work with risk as op-posed to the culture of risk avoidance.

Very complex ethical and legal issuesare discussed, as well as the changes inthe concept of ‘family’.

This book presents a balanced,expert source of knowledge for pre-vention and treatment. The impressivelist of contributors of different fields ofmental health, as well as the presenceof the voice of the users is a powerfulmodel of what could be achieved,without dismissing the work and effortneeded to effect such changes. It is avery valuable tool for all those in-volved in the care of the psychiatricpatients and their children who ‘arelooking to mental health professionalsto acknowledge their priorities andpredicaments’.

Clara LewCambridge Society for Psychotherapy,

Cambridge, affiliated to theUnited Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy,

Psychodynamic Section

DOI: 10.1002/icd.417

HANDBOOK OF RESEARCHMETHODS IN DEVELOPMENTALPSYCHOLOGY.Edited by Douglas Teti. Blackwell,Oxford, 2005. pp. 584. Price: $124.95;£85, ISBN 0631222618

Developmental science is an excitingand rapidly advancing field. TheHandbook of Research Methods in Deve-lopmental Science demonstrates thatdevelopmental researchers have movedwell beyond simply observing beha-vioural change to having developedmethods and analysis mechanisms thatcan identify and quantify the process ofchange during development. The con-tributors to this handbook use real data

to demonstrate design and statisticalissues across a number of key areas indevelopmental science, making thishandbook considerably more than justa methods textbook.

The handbook is divided into fivesections covering developmentaldesigns, measurement issues, the im-plementation and assessment of inter-vention programmes, data analysis,and progress made in some recentresearch directions. Each chapter pro-vides a self-contained summary of atopic written by authors who arehighly knowledgeable and experi-enced in these research areas. Theseare up-to-date and well-written re-views of the latest findings in a widerange of areas including individual

Book Reviews446

Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Inf. Child Dev. 15: 443–453 (2006)

differences, interventions with prema-ture babies, children’s eyewitnesstestimony, memory development, tem-perament, parenting competence, andenhancing socioemotional develop-ment.

At times I found it disappointingthat there was a lack of cross-referen-cing across chapters, especially whenchapters on interventions or new direc-tions in research could have been welllinked to earlier design chapters thatdiscussed concepts such as validity,reliability, and issues of data collection.The independent content of each chap-ter will, however, enable many readersto benefit who may have been put offby the idea of over 500 pp. on researchmethods. Undoubtedly many readerswill choose to just focus on theirindividual area of interest, althoughby doing so they will have missed avaluable opportunity to be remindedabout critical aspects of researchdesign and analyses as well as beingexposed to new analyses techniques.

The appeal of the handbook is wide-ranging. The diversity of the topicsmakes this an excellent referencesource for graduate students in devel-opmental psychology. It will also pro-vide invaluable practical advice forboth new and established researcherswho want an overview of researchmethods and are interested in ways inwhich they might be able to exploitnew techniques to address their re-search questions. Equally, lecturersteaching research method courses need

to look no further than this handbookfor interesting research examples thatwill engage their students while theylearn about cross-sectional and long-itudinal designs and discover the im-portance of controlling as well asmanipulating variables. Finally, thechapters on evaluating interventionsare likely to appeal to an even broaderaudience. The authors of these sectionsparticularly encourage clinicians, aswell as those involved in educationand public policy, to explore theprinciples involved in interpretingdata and to consider issues related tothe appropriate use of control compar-isons and understanding the effects ofattrition when drawing conclusionsfrom intervention studies.

Overall it is impressive to see ahandbook which highlights the impor-tance of conducting simple and wellcontrolled studies. All researchers, nomatter how experienced they are, canbenefit from being reminded of theneed to have good research questionsand to conduct research in a systematicway that allows them to address thesequestions. This handbook providesconfirmatory evidence that develop-mental researchers have clearly earnedthe right to be called scientists.

Jane S. HerbertUniversity of Sheffield, UK

DOI: 10.1002/icd.419

CHILDREN’S RESPONSES TO THESCREEN: A MEDIAPSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH.Patti M. Valkenburg. LawrenceErlbaum: Mahwah, NJ, London, 2004.

pp. 222. Price $22.50; £16.50. ISBN0805847642.

The subject of the child’s relationshipwith the media is one that has been

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Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Inf. Child Dev. 15: 443–453 (2006)