Abstract
The family context plays a critical role in the health of the child. This was the first study to examine the usefulness of the General Functioning subscale of the Family Assessment Device (FAD-GF) in assessing family functioning and its relationship to internalizing symptoms in school-aged children aged between 9 and 11 years of age. Eight hundred and forty-seven year 4 and 5 students from 13 schools (607 intervention students, and 240 control students) participated in the Aussie Optimism Positive Thinking Skills Program (AO-PTS) – a universal school-based program targeting internalizing symptoms. Students rated how ‘healthy’ they perceived their family to be at pre-test and at 6-months follow-up. Although some aspects of validity and reliability could be improved, results indicated that perceptions of family functioning at pre-test were predictive of internalizing symptoms at the 6-months follow-up. The FAD-GF therefore showed promise as a potential measure of family functioning for children as young as 9 years old. Regardless of children’s pre-test levels of perceived family functioning, no intervention effects were found on the anxiety and depression scales; this finding suggests that child perceptions of family functioning may act as a general protective factor against internalizing symptomology.
Highlights
Internalizing symptoms and disorders refer to a range of difficulties primarily characterized by a disturbance in mood or emotion that include feelings of anxiety and depression (Hughes and Gullone, 2008)
The intervention group and the control group did not differ at pre-test in their reports of family functioning [F(1,649) = 1.47, p = 0.226] or of anxiety [F(1,847) = 2.75, p = 0.098], but there was a significant difference between the groups on depression scores [F(1,847) = 5.35, p = 0.021] with the control group reporting higher scores (M = 8.75) compared to the intervention group (M = 7.48)
Overall the sample was a healthy one with total mean scores for the Family Assessment Device (FAD)-GF falling beneath the clinical cut off of 2 (M = 1.87, SD = 0.47)
Summary
Internalizing symptoms and disorders refer to a range of difficulties primarily characterized by a disturbance in mood or emotion that include feelings of anxiety and depression (Hughes and Gullone, 2008). In children, internalizing symptoms and disorders have become an increasing mental health concern and are thought to affect one in every seven school aged child (Bayer et al, 2011) with a median age of onset of 11 years (Kessler et al, 2005). Internalizing disorders are estimated to affect 10–15% of preschool children aged between 18 months and 5 years (Bayer et al, 2011). 6–8% of children aged between 6 and 12 years suffer from depression, while 10–20% of these children suffer from anxiety (Briggs-Gowan et al, 2004; Rapee et al, 2009).
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