Children's Self-evaluations Research Articles

An attempt to integrate information from young children into parent/teacher-based mental health evaluation of child internalizing disorders in epidemiological surveys.

To date, most large surveys on the mental health of children under 11 years old have relied exclusively on data collected from parents and teachers, with no information from children themselves. However, these children are valuable informants despite their young age. To evaluate the effects of adding young children's self-evaluation of internalizing disorders to a combined teacher/parent-based algorithm using data from a European survey carried out in Italy, Bulgaria, and in the Netherlands. Comparing concordances with the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA; considered as the gold standard) of a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire's (SDQ) parent/teacher-based predictive algorithm, with and without integrating a child self-evaluation. The child self-evaluation was using the Dominic Interactive (DI), a computerized, pictorial, self-administered questionnaire for young children, which followed DSM 5 diagnoses definitions for internalized disorders. The concordance comparisons concerned 238 children, 5 to 12 years old from out-patient clinics, double evaluated, using kappa concordance test . Subsequent variations in disorder prevalence were evaluated in cross-sectional surveys in the general populations of the three study countries (n = 3,442). Adding self-evaluated child DI-based 'probable' internalizing disorder diagnoses to the SDQ parent/teacher algorithm increased concordance with gold standard: kappa increased from .25 (.14-.37) to .36 (.23-.49). In terms of population-based data, this addition increased the prevalence of 'probable' emotional disorders from 2.00 % (1.56-2.53) to 3.63 % (3.03-4.31) and revealed an expected gender difference. The inclusion of young children's self-reported data on internalizing disorders is a valuable addition to the generally used combined parent/teacher-based SDQ algorithm, and therefore better reflects the true prevalence of these disorders in these children. Further evaluation on larger validation samples is required.

Children and adolescent's self-reported gaming habits – An exploratory, cross-sectional study of gaming among 9–15-year-old school children

BackgroundGaming is one of the most common leisure activities among children and adolescents: virtually every child in Sweden plays some form of internet games. However, concerns have been raised regarding the risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as internet gaming disorder. A significant amount of research has been focused on evaluating hours spent gaming and the negative effect the activity has on children's lives, but few studies have focused on children's self-evaluation of their gaming and their perception of good and bad gaming habits. AimsThe first aim of this exploratory study was to describe children's and adolescents’ self-evaluation of their gaming habits. Secondly, we investigated how children and adolescents perceive their parents’ involvement in gaming, and whether this has any effect on their own, self-reported gaming habits. MethodsChildren and adolescents aged 9–15 (N = 541) attending public schools in Malmö, Sweden completed a digital survey. The data were collected between October 26 and December 3, 2021. ResultsTwo variables emerged as significant predictors of wanting help with reducing gaming: younger age and classification as an excessive gamer. Four variables emerged as significant predictors of wanting to game more: being a girl; being classified as an immediate gamer; having ever had arguments with their parents about gaming; and rating gaming as a highly valued activity. ConclusionOur findings contribute to the understanding of what factors influence children's and adolescents’ desire to either increase their time spent gaming or their willingness to get help regarding gaming behaviors. Overall, our findings may be used to guide further, more in-depth research in this domain.

Children's self-evaluation of their prosociality when comparing themselves with a specific versus abstract other.

This study examines the development of children's self-assessment of their prosociality in normative social comparisons with an average peer, who was either a concrete individual, or an abstract one, at a school of average socioeconomic level in south Israel (N = 148, Age 6-12 years, 51% females; June 2021). Results show that older children exhibited the better-than-average (BTA) effect by perceiving themselves as more generous than their average peer. Conversely, younger children exhibited a worse-than-average effect, in that they assumed that their peers would act more generously than themselves ( ). Only the older children (aged 8 years onward) were significantly affected by the concreteness of the target of comparison by exhibiting the BTA effect only when the average peer was abstract (not concrete).

Primary School Children's Self-Reports of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Related Symptoms and Their Associations With Subjective and Objective Measures of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

BackgroundThe diagnosis of Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is primarily dependent on parents’ and teachers’ reports, while children’s own perspectives on their difficulties and strengths are often overlooked.GoalTo further increase our insight into children’s ability to reliably report about their ADHD-related symptoms, the current study examined the associations between children’s self-reports, parents’ and teachers’ reports, and standardized continuous performance test (CPT) data. We also examined whether the addition of children’s perceptions of ADHD-symptoms to parents’ and teachers’ reports would be reflected by objective and standardized data.MethodsThe study included 190 children with ADHD, aged 7–10 years, who were referred to a pediatric neurologic clinic. A retrospective analysis was conducted using records of a clinical database. Obtained data included children’s self-reports of their attention level and ADHD-related symptoms, parent, and teacher forms of the Conners ADHD rating scales, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher’s Report Form (TRF), and CPT scores.ResultsChildren’s self-evaluations of their functioning were globally associated with their teachers’ and parents’ evaluations, but not uniquely. Children’s self-reports of ADHD symptoms were not uniquely linked to a specific CPT impairment index, but to a general likelihood of having an impaired CPT. The CPT performance successfully distinguished between the group of children who defined themselves as inattentive and those who did not.ConclusionPrimary school children with ADHD are able to identify their limitations and needs difficulties and that their perspectives should inform clinical practice and research. The clinical and ethical imperative of taking children’s perspectives into account during ADHD diagnosis and treatment is highlighted.

Self-Reported and Parental Assessments of Internet Gaming Disorder, and Their Accordance with DSM-5 Criteria in a Clinical Relevant Population.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is of growing importance as a research field and in clinical settings, as documented by the inclusion of the diagnosis in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and the preliminary International Classification of Diseases. Studies using screening tools to assess IGD and comparison with expert evaluations in clinical relevant populations are rare. Furthermore, concerned parents are often the first source of information in clinical practice, and their assessment of addictive behavior often differs widely from their child's self-evaluation. In two studies (N = 95) we investigated the usefulness of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) with adolescents at risk of IGD, either in parental company (Study 1) or alone (Study 2). Self-reported assessments on the scales were compared with parental ratings (only Study 1) and an expert face-to-face evaluation according to DSM-5 (both studies). We found higher correlations between expert evaluations of IGD criteria and screening scores for self-reported compared with parental ratings. Quality of categorization into persons with and without IGD confirmed that parental assessments were not conclusive in this setting. In this context, different cutoff values, sensitivity, and specificity for the screening instruments are discussed. We conclude that IAT and CIUS provide tentative usefulness for self-evaluation of adolescents at risk of IGD, and suggestions for using different cutoff scores for varying purposes are provided. In our study, parental assessments on the screening tools lead to an overestimation of IGD and are, therefore, not recommended as a sole source of information in clinical settings.

Anxiety disorders in children with high intellectual potential.

Several studies have reported anxiety disorders in children with high intellectual potential (HIP). However, there are discrepant results possibly as a result of methodological biases (different/absent definitions of HIP, small sample sizes, non-validated/adapted/specific tools for assessing anxiety and a single observational source). To examine more thoroughly the relationships between HIP and anxiety in large samples of children using clear definitions of HIP, different observational sources and specific assessments of anxiety. Children with HIP (n = 211, total IQ ≥130) were compared with children without HIP (n = 397, total IQ <130) for anxiety using different observational sources (child psychiatric diagnosis, parental evaluation and child's self-evaluation). Intellectual functioning was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale. There were significantly more children with HIP who had anxiety disorders than children without HIP based on the child psychiatric diagnosis. Moreover, based on the child's self-evaluation, children with a high Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI ≥130) were significantly more anxious than children with a VCI <130, whereas children with a high Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI ≥130) were significantly less anxious than children with a PRI <130. Finally, there was no significant relationship between levels of intellectual functioning and anxiety according to parental observation. The results highlight the importance of using multiple observational sources and conducting analyses on different dimensions of intellectual functioning (such as VCI and PRI), rather than only on the composite total IQ score. High verbal potential might be a factor of vulnerability for anxiety, whereas high perceptual reasoning might be a protective factor. Further studies are necessary to understand better the mechanisms underlying these results.

대인인지에 어려움을 보이는 유아의 모래상자놀이 적용 사례연구

대인인지에 어려움을 보이는 유아의 모래상자놀이 적용 사례연구

The mediating effect of self-evaluation bias of competence on the relationship between parental emotional support and children's academic functioning.

It is well established that children's self-evaluation bias of competence is related to the quality of parent-child emotional relationship. Such biases are linked to children's academic functioning and achievement. Links have also been established between the quality of parent-child emotional relationship and children's academic functioning. No study has yet explored how the effects of children's emotional relationship with their parents and children's self-evaluation bias combine to explain their academic functioning. The first goal was to examine whether the quality of parental emotional support reported by both children and parents was related to the children's self-evaluation bias of competence. The second goal was to examine the relationships between children's and parents' reports of emotional support, and children's academic functioning as measured by teachers' report of their motivation, self-regulation of school activities, and academic achievement. The third goal was to determine whether a children's self-evaluation bias mediated the relationship between parental emotional support and academic functioning. In a 2-year longitudinal design, participants were 524 elementary pupils (grades 4 and 5), one of their parents, and their teachers. Our results indicated that a bias in self-evaluation in the first year of the study mediated the relationship between the quality of parental emotional support assessed at the first year and their school functioning evaluated by their teacher 1 year later. The mediational model received clear support when it refers to the emotional support reported by children, but mixed support when reported by parents.

Cutting a long story short? The clinical relevance of asking parents, nurses, and young children themselves to identify children's mental health problems by one or two questions.

Background and Aims. Assessing young children's mental health is a crucial and challenging task. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of asking parents, nurses, and young children themselves to identify children's mental health problems by only one or two questions. Methods. In regular health check-ups of 4- to 9-year-old children (n = 2682), parents and public health nurses assessed by one question whether the child had any emotional or behavioral difficulties. The child completed a self-evaluation enquiry on his/her emotional well-being. A stratified proportion of the participating parents were invited to a diagnostic interview. Results. Sensitivities were fairly good for the parents' (68%), nurses' (65%), and their combined (79%) one-question screens. Difficulties identified by parents and nurses were major risks (OR 10–14) for any child psychiatric disorders (P < 0.001). The child's self-evaluation was related to 2-fold to 3-fold risks (P < 0.05) for any psychiatric diagnosis, for any emotional diagnosis, and for negative situational factors. Conclusion. The one-question screen for parents and public health nurses together quite adequately identified the young children with mental health problems. The child's self-evaluation provided relevant and complementary information on his/her mental health and especially emotional problems.

Mothers' Attributions in Reminiscing Conversations About Children's Successes and Failures: Connections With Children's Self‐Evaluations

Effects of feedback on children's self-evaluations are well established, yet little is known about how parents talk with children about everyday successes and failures, despite the importance of parent-child reminiscing in children's psychological understanding. We examine mothers' attributions and performance evaluations in conversations about their 5-year-olds' ( N = 80) success and failure experiences, and connections between conversations and children's self-evaluations. Conversations differed for success and failure: Mothers were equally likely to make internal-person, internal-process, or external attributions for successes, but were most likely to make an evaluation. For failures, mothers were equally likely to make internal-process or external attributions, or evaluations. Internal-person attributions for success and external attributions were associated with negative self-evaluations. However, children expressed fewer negative self-evaluations when mothers made internal-process attributions for failure, or positively evaluated the success. Results support the experimental literature and extend it to external attributions, which were common in mothers' framing and linked to negative self-evaluations.

Validity of a figure rating scale assessing body size perception in school-age children

This study aimed to provide data concerning the validity of a short sequence of face valid pictorial stimuli assessing the perception of body size in school-age children. A sequence of gender and age-appropriate silhouettes was administered to 314 boys and girls aged 6-14 years. The self-evaluations provided by the children correlated significantly with their actual BMI corrected for age. Furthermore, the children's self-evaluations always significantly correlated with the evaluations provided by the three external observers; i.e., both parents and the interviewers. The results indicate that this sequence of pictorial stimuli, depicting realistic human forms appropriate for children, is a valid measure of children's body image. Relevant differences across age groups were also found, indicating that before the age of eight, the correlations between the children's self-evaluations and their BMI or the judgments of the three observers are lower than in the other age groups.

Effects of family intervention on the life quality of children with tourette syndrome

Objective To explore and evaluate the effect of family intervention on quality of life of children with tourette syndrome.Methods Total of 200 children with tourette syndrome were randomly divided into observation group and control group.The observation group received conventional treatment and family intervention including family education,family visits and education guidance to build a harmonious family environment and healthy lifestyle,while the control group only received the conventional treatment and care.The therapeutic effects of both groups were assessed by Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS),PedsQLTM 4.0 universal core scales score and Children' s subjective quality of life questionnaires.Results One year later,the frequency,intensity,complexity,interference,damage of spasm in the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group (t =14.370,20.612,17.677,24.386,11.643,13.972,respectively;P ＜0.01 ).The average scores of families report in the observation group in physical function,mental function,social function,role function were (90.78 ± 11.32 ),( 88.80 ± 14.43 ),( 76.78 ± 11.30 ),( 66.80 ± 14.53 ),respectively,which were higher than (80.10 ± 14.23 ),(58.10 ± 13.32),(58.50 ± 14.32),(52.80 ± 13.15 )in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant (t =5.873,17.563,10.677,7.139,respectively;P ＜ 0.01 ). Each dimension score of children self-evaluation in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P ＜ 0.001 ).There were significant differences in family life,companion contact,life environment,self-cognition,depress experience,anxiety,except the dimension of emotional body( P ＜0.01 ).Conclusions Family intervention can significantly improve the quality of life and the quality of the population for children with tourette syndrome. Key words: Tourette syndrome; Family nursing; Quality of life; Nursing evaluation research

Maternal Anxiety, Behaviors, and Expectations During a Behavioral Task: Relation to Children’s Self-Evaluations

This study examined the associations between maternal anxiety, behaviors, and expectations and children's self-evaluations of distress, coping, and performance during a stressful performance evaluation task. Seventy-five mothers (38 clinically anxious and 37 nonanxious) along with one of their children aged 6-14 (52.0% female; 78.7% Caucasian) were videotaped while preparing the child to deliver a speech about themselves. Child and parent assessments were obtained before and after the speech, and independent coders rated maternal behavior during the speech preparation. Maternal anxiety and behaviors accounted for a greater proportion of variance in children's self-evaluations than did maternal expectations, such that children of mothers who reported higher task anxiety and demonstrated more overcontrol and anxious behavior during the task evaluated themselves more negatively. These findings extend the literature by providing information about the relative associations between maternal factors and children's self-evaluations within the context of an in vivo stressful situation.

Stability of biases in self-evaluation and relations to well-being among elementary school children

This paper aims to investigate to what extent a bias in self-evaluation is an enduring characteristic among children, and whether there is a relationship between the trajectory of children's self-evaluation bias over a five-year period and their psychosocial adjustment. 462 children (200 boys) in Grade 3 (mean age = 8.6 years old) or Grade 4 (mean age = 9.7 years old) at the outset of the study participated following their parents’ written consent. The group-based approach using a multinomial modeling strategy allowed identifying five groups based on changes in the children's self-evaluation bias over the five-year period. Children in the stable and highly positive bias group stood out as having markedly more positive scores on all indices of psychosocial adjustment, and also outperformed the other children in achievement in language arts and math.

The rhythm's gonna get ya’ – background music in primary classrooms and its effect on behaviour and attainment

Three classes in different primary schools in a west London borough were given four tests, two with music and two with silence, to see if the music had a measurable effect on the behaviour and attainment of the children during tests. The results were then cross-referenced with the children's self-evaluation of their own musicality to ascertain if those children who experienced disruption of attainment and behaviour were in turn themselves musicians. Whilst this thesis was not proven, it is suggested that the music may have supported the reading tests but conversely disrupted the mathematics tests.

Quality-of-life: Child and parent perspectives following severe traumatic brain injury

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can produce temporary or permanent impairment. Quality-of-life (QoL) after TBI has been well studied in adults, but less so in children. The aim of this study was to assess the QoL of children with TBI and compare the findings with the evaluations of parents and children without brain injury.Methods: Participants were 23 children with TBI, mean age 11 years, who had been treated at the SARAH Network of Rehabilitation Hospitals. Participants were matched by age, sex, parents’ socio-cultural level and place of residence with 23 other children who had no history of brain injury. The instruments used were the SARAH QoL Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the SARAH Physical-Functional Classification of the Child and Adolescent and a structured interview with parents.Results: The results demonstrated that, in an average 4 years after the accident, all of the children with TBI were attending school and most could walk independently. The parents’ reports about post-TBI problems were marginally associated with the children's self-evaluations. The parents showed important concerns regarding their child across all dimensions of life.Conclusions: Children with TBI report significantly reduced QoL compared to a control group in the physical, psychological, cognitive and total score dimensions. However, TBI children with average academic performance (65%) obtained the same QoL scores as the control group.

Social Anxiety and Self-Evaluation of Social Performancein a Nonclinical Sample of Children

In an investigation of socially anxious children's social behavior and self-evaluation, 28 high socially anxious and 28 low socially anxious children, ages 11 to 13 years, appraised their performance before and after participating in a role-play task. Half of the children were given video feedback prior to giving their posttask self-evaluations. High socially anxious children anticipated poorer performance on the role-play task, and some group differences in observed social performance were evident. Self-evaluations from video feedback only improved for the high socially anxious children who displayed more eye contact, gave longer verbal responses, and used more constructive verbal strategies in the role-play scenarios.

Conception of Wellness in Families with a Diabetic Child

Focusing on wellness and adopting perspectives from positive and perceptual psychology, perceptions about health and illness were studied in 55 families with diabetic children, their siblings (8-17 years old) and mothers. Individual interviews were conducted on definitions of wellness, rationale for children's self-evaluation of wellness, consequences of wellness and definition of diabetes. Content analysis revealed that respondents have a comprehensive definition of wellness focusing on adaptation and performance. Significant role-specific differences emerged. Mothers' perceptions reflected their role in caregiving and socializing children. Children emphasized school performance and absence of health problems. Siblings focused on harmonious relationships. In accordance with the perspective of positive psychology, adults' as well as children's perceptions are congruent with the pursuit of wellness despite chronic illness.

Evaluations and Perceptions of Self, Ingroup, and Outgroup: Comparisons Between Mexican-American and European-American Children

The present research examined evaluations of self, ingroup members, and outgroup members among young Mexican-American and European-American children. European-American children showed a greater discrepancy between evaluations of themselves and other ingroup members, and perceived fewer ingroup members as like themselves, relative to Mexican-American children. European-American children also evaluated ingroup targets more positively than outgroup targets, and perceived substantially fewer outgroup targets to be like them, while Mexican-American children showed more balanced perceptions and evaluations of ingroup and outgroup targets. Considerations of group differences in status and culture are discussed, along with implications of these findings for research on children's self-evaluations.

Avaliação de habilidades sociais de crianças com um inventário multimídia: indicadores sociométricos associados a freqüência versus dificuldade&lt;A NAME="roda1"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;

A literatura sobre avaliação da competência social e das habilidades sociais é permeada de resultados controvertidos, provavelmente devidos ao uso de diferentes indicadores, informantes e conceitos norteadores. Dada a relevância dessas questões, em particular da auto-avaliação de crianças, e a relativa escassez de estudos a seu respeito, este artigo relata uma pesquisa que teve por objetivo comparar diferenças e semelhanças em algumas propriedades psicométricas, associadas a indicadores de freqüência e dificuldade de desempenhos sociais obtidos com o "Inventário multimídia de habilidades sociais para crianças" (IMHSC-Del-Prette). O IMHSC-Del-Prette foi aplicado inicialmente a 406 escolares de 7 a 13 anos (média =8), de ambos os sexos, com diferentes graus de dificuldade de aprendizagem, e reaplicado um mês depois com 191 (47%) estudantes dessa amostra. Os resultados foram mais favoráveis ao indicador de dificuldade que ao de freqüência nos seguintes aspectos: simetria na distribuição dos escores, consistência interna, correlação entre teste e reteste, índices de discriminação entre itens e escores e estrutura fatorial (quatro ao invés de três fatores). São discutidas as implicações metodológicas e práticas desses resultados, indicando-se novas direções de pesquisa.