Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Research Articles

Positive Peers-Differential Impact of a Social Intervention Strategy on Four Personality Subgroups

Using specific educational and social strategies the Positive Peer Group Intervention Program (PPIG) is designed to improve self concept among at-risk students. Teachers were asked to identify children showing any one of four functional and/or dysfunctional characteristics of leaders (Positive Leaders; Controversial Leaders; Rejected Isolates and Neglected Isolates). 'Facilitators' worked with each of these groups. Since each group demonstrated qualitatively different social skills, it was hypothesized that the program would impact them differentially. Scales from the Piers Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale were analysed in a pre-post experimental-control design. After demonstrating statistically significant results, the differences among the four groups were investigated. The practical and educational implications of these differences are discussed.

The positive influence of maternal identification on body image, eating attitudes, and self-esteem of Hispanic and Anglo girls.

The role of maternal identification in the development of girls' body image, eating attitudes, and self-esteem was examined. Hispanic and Anglo girls (n = 410) ages 8-13 were surveyed using the Body Esteem Scale (BES), the Children's Eating Attitudes Test, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and the Child Figure Drawing task. From this sample, normal-weight girls with high or low scores on the BES were selected for the main study. Ninety-two mother-daughter pairs participated in this second phase in which mothers completed similar questionnaires and girls performed a Q-sort task measuring maternal identification. Maternal identification was positively correlated with girls' self-esteem and negatively correlated with eating problems and body dissatisfaction. Also, mothers with high self-esteem tended to have daughters with high self-esteem. The mothers of girls with low BES scores found a significantly greater discrepancy than the mothers of girls with high BES scores when contrasting their daughters' current shape with either the ideal figure for their daughter or the figure they believed boys would find attractive. Girls who aspired to be like their mothers in terms of personality traits felt better about themselves and their bodies compared with girls with low maternal identification.

Patterns of Teacher‐Student Interaction in Inclusive Elementary Classrooms and Correlates with Student Self-Concept

The efficacy of placing students with special needs in inclusive classrooms may depend in part on how instructional factors contribute to student outcomes. Differences in frequencies and levels of cognitive engagement of interactions among nine teachers in inclusive elementary classrooms were related to three other variables: teachers' ratings on the Pathognomonic-Interventionist (PATH/INT) Scale, students' designation either as exceptional or at-risk (EX/AR) or as typically achieving (TA), and students' scores on the Piers Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. Teachers with PATH beliefs, who attribute learning difficulties to permanent characteristics of the student that are beyond the teacher's mandate, interacted infrequently with their EX/AR students at low levels of cognitive engagement. Teachers with INT beliefs, who see themselves as responsible for the achievement of all their students irrespective of their disabilities, interacted with all students more frequently, and at higher levels of cognitive engagement. In contrast to the PATH teachers, their EX/AR students received more instructional interactions than their TA students. As expected, the EX/AR students in all classrooms had lower Piers Harris Self-Concept Total Scale scores than typically achieving students. However, both TA and EX/AR students had lower Self-Concept Total Scale scores in the classrooms of teachers with PATH beliefs, compared to students in the classrooms of INT teachers. The relationship is discussed between teachers' beliefs, their different patterns of instructional interactions with students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms, and the possible impact of instructional interventions on students' self-concept.

Impact of pediatric epilepsy on the family: a new scale for clinical and research use.

There is no brief, global instrument available that specifically measures the psychosocial impact of pediatric epilepsy on the family. An 11-item scale was created for parents' use to evaluate the influence of epilepsy on the major aspects of their family and child's life. This will be a helpful tool both in the clinical setting and as an outcome measure for research studies. Mothers rated their child's quality of life on a visual analogue scale (1-6) and completed the Impact of Pediatric Epilepsy Scale (IPES), which assesses the impact on academic achievement, participation in activities, health, relationships with family and with peers and siblings, social activities, self-esteem, and the caregiver's hopes for their child's future adapted from the scale developed by Jacoby. External validation was determined by comparison of the IPES with physicians' reports of the characteristics of the child's epilepsy and neurological limitations and parents' ratings on the Family Environment Scale or Parenting Stress Index. In addition, each school-aged child completed the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, Brother-Sister Questionnaire, and Loneliness Scale. Teachers of children completed the Academic Performance Rating Scale. Seven days later, retest reliability of the IPES was evaluated. Ninety-seven mothers of children aged 2-16 years completed the IPES and the appropriate family and age-related questionnaires. Internal validation on the IPES yielded a Cronbach's a for the scale of 0.92. A significant Pearson's correlation indicated that total scores were consistent over time (r = 0.81). Spearman's correlations for the individual items were also significant, ranging from 0.48 to 0.78. Significant Spearman's correlations also indicated that quality of life was negatively related to impact on each of the 11 items of psychosocial function. Children with IPES scores above the median differed in some psychosocial aspects from those who scored below. Their parents were more stressed, their siblings were more respectful, they had lower self-esteem, and they experienced more emotional problems. Total impact was also significantly related to seizure frequency, total number of medications taken, number of visits to a physician in the previous year, and number of nights spent in hospital for neurological reasons. The IPES is an accurate, acceptable, and quick measurement tool that reflects the way in which childhood epilepsy has an impact on the child and on family life. It may be helpful in routine clinical care and may be useful in the research setting to find ways to improve the lives of children with epilepsy.

Self-Concept in Gifted Youth: An Investigation Employing the Piers-Harris Subscales

The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale was used to investigate the self-concept of 368 intellectually gifted children in grades 4-12. Previous research had suggested that differences by gender and grade level might be masked by reporting only global self-concept scores, however, few studies reported subscale scores. In this Population gender was not a Significant variable for global self-concept. Significant gender differences were observed on three subscales. Behavior, Intellectual and School Status, and Anxiety. Females rated themselves higher on the first two and males on the latter. School level was a significant variable for glob self-concept; Students in junior high school reported lower self-concept than did students in either elementary school or high school. Similar results were observed with the Behavior subscale. The present study supports the view that a global score for self-concept can mask underlying differences when subscale scores are summed.

Coteaching deaf and hearing students: research on social integration.

Coteaching, also known as team teaching, offers an alternative to the dilemma of choosing between the residential school, which offers a deaf community but sometimes a poor record of achievement, and inclusion, which promises better achievement but results in increased social isolation. Under a coteaching arrangement, deaf or hard of hearing students can share a deaf peer group while being exposed to the social contact and academic requirements of a mainstream class. The study sample consists of the deaf or hard of hearing students at one elementary school on the West Coast with extensive experience with coteaching, plus a random selection of their hearing peers. Students were administered the Piers Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (Franklin, 1981), My Class Inventory (Fisher & Barry, 1985), and the Childhood Loneliness Scale (Asher, Hymel, & Renshaw, 1984). Consistent results indicated that while age differences appeared, there were no negative social consequences of coteaching for deaf students. The study indicates that on the basis of social benefits, coteaching warrants further systematic research.

Clarification of Students' Career Interests and Its Effect on Self-Concept

Given the importance of careers in Western society, surprisingly little attention has been given to career development as an integral part of adolescent psychological development. This study investigated the impact of clarifying career interests on adolescent self-concept. Fifty-five Year Nine students attending a rural high school took part in a school-based career development program. Pretest and post-test measures were taken utilising the Piers-Harris Children's Self-concept Scale. Two groups of students were allocated to a career intervention that involved a career interest test followed by specific career exploration, whereas a third group was allocated to a control condition. One intervention group was allocated to a longer period of exploration between the intervention and the post-test. A significant increase in self-concept scores was found for the longer exploration group. A similar trend was evident for the shorter exploration group, but this effect was not significant.

Intelligent, Attractive, Well-Behaving, Unhappy: The Structure of Adolescents' Self-Concept and Its Relations to Their Social Behavior

The self-concept (SC) structures of adolescent girls and boys were examined and related to their social behavior in situations of bullying. The participants were 281 eighth-grade adolescents, aged 14 to 15 years, from 15 school classes. The measures used were the Participant Role Questionnaire and an applied version of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. A cluster analysis was performed to form groups with similar SC profiles. The ultimate solution consisted of six clusters, which differed significantly from each other in how much their members tended to bully others, assist the bully, reinforce the bully, and withdraw from bullying situations. Adolescents who tended to bully others typically had high social and physical SC, although their view of themselves was rather negative on the other SC domains. Youngsters who tended to assist or reinforce the bully either had an SC structure similar to that of the bullies, or they scored low on all SC domains. Withdrawing from bullying situations was m...

The structure of self-concept in female preadolescent twins: A behavioral genetic approach.

Two hundred and forty-three female monozygotic (MZ) and 164 female dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, aged 11 and 12 years, who participated in the ongoing Minnesota Twin Family Study, completed six specific scales of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (P-H). Model-fitting analyses yielded three major conclusions. First, approximately 30% of the variance in specific self-concepts in female preadolescents was due to genetic factors, with the remaining variance being accounted for primarily by nonshared environmental factors and measurement error. Second, the underlying common genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental factors influenced specific facets of self-concept directly and independently, rather than through an intervening phenotypic general self-concept. Finally, whereas genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental factors were necessary to explain the commonality among the specific self-concept scales, only genetic and nonshared environmental factors were sufficient to explain the specificity of those scales.

The structure of self-concept in female preadolescent twins: a behavioral genetic approach.

Two hundred and forty-three female monozygotic (MZ) and 164 female dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, aged 11 and 12 years, who participated in the ongoing Minnesota Twin Family Study, completed six specific scales of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (P-H). Model-fitting analyses yielded three major conclusions. First, approximately 30% of the variance in specific self-concepts in female preadolescents was due to genetic factors, with the remaining variance being accounted for primarily by nonshared environmental factors and measurement error. Second, the underlying common genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental factors influenced specific facets of self-concept directly and independently, rather than through an intervening phenotypic general self-concept. Finally, whereas genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental factors were necessary to explain the commonality among the specific self-concept scales, only genetic and nonshared environmental factors were sufficient to explain the specificity of those scales.

Clinical Change in Adolescent Aggressive Behavior: A Group Therapy Approach

The effects of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on adolescent aggressive behavior were examined. Participants included 11 adolescent boys (6 African American and 5 white). The Youth Self Report, the Child Behavior Checklist, and the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale were administered pretest (before group therapy) and posttest (after group therapy). Results revealed that adolescents reported statistically significant changes in aggressive behavior, attentional problems, somatic complaints, anxious/depressed behavior, and perceptions of intellectual and school achievement and status. Parents reported clinical changes in adolescent aggressive behavior, albeit not at the level of statistical significance. These findings suggest that group therapy can be an important mechanism to help adolescents examine their attributional biases and alter maladaptive patterns of interpersonal conflict.

The Relationship between Self-Drawing and Self-Reports in the Evaluation of Emotional Well-Being in Outpatient Adolescents Assessments

The present study examined the following structural elements contained in the self-drawings of 50 adolescents referred for psychological assessment: size, line pressure, inclusions, erasures, and overall completeness. Scores on these structural elements were correlated with the adolescents' self-reports on measures of self-esteem (Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory) and anxiety (Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale). There was a positive and significant correlation between the line pressure used in the self-drawings and the self-reports of self-esteem and anxiety (Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale). The correlations between the structural elements of size and erasures with the Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory were found to be moderate and in the direction predicted, however, they did not meet the criteria for statistical significance at the 1% level. Suggestions for further research using children's self-drawings are presented.

Development of a health-related quality of life instrument for use in children with spina bifida.

The objective of this study was to develop a spina bifida health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instrument. Items were generated through semistructured interviews, and reduced by frequency-importance product ranking. Validity was assessed by correlating the HRQOL score with a global question concerning the child's well-being using the Spearman's rank coefficient, and the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (P-H) using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Reproducibility was assessed at 2-week intervals using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Field testing was undertaken in a larger sample to evaluate item-total correlation, internal consistency and construct validity. Patients taking part in the study were 329 children and adolescents with spina bifida attending two treatment centres. Over 600 items were generated. These were reduced to 47 questions and 50 questions, for children and adolescents respectively. The correlation between the HRQOL score and the global question was r = 0.57, and with the P-H was 0.26 (children). These values for adolescents were 0.63, and 0.89, respectively. Reproducibility was ICC = 0.78 (children) and 0.96 (adolescents). Following field testing, the questionnaire was further reduced to 44 questions (children) and 47 questions (adolescents) by eliminating questions with an item- total correlation less than 0.20. Cronbach's alphas for the final instrument were 0.93 (children) and 0.94 (adolescents), and construct validity correlations were 0.63 (children) and 0.37 (adolescents). The spina bifida HRQOL instrument has good measurement properties and may be used as a discriminative instrument. Assessment of responsiveness is necessary before using it to evaluate therapy in clinical trials.

Structural modeling analysis of body dysphoria and eating disorder symptoms in preadolescent girls

Researchers have identified eating disorders among prepubertal children, and attention is being focused on children who may be at risk for developing an eating disorder. In this investigation, a total of 148 girls ages 8 to 13 in grades 3 through 7 completed the Children's Eating Attitudes Test, Children's Depression Inventory, Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, the physical appearance and attributes items, and a measure of social pressure for thinness. The Body Image Assessment procedures for children (BIA-C) and preadolescents (BIA-P) were also administered The LISREL VII program was used to test a structural model of the development of eating disorder symptoms in preadolescent girls. The results of this study supported the prediction that body dysphoria, social pressure for thinness, low self-esteem, and depression are significant risk factors for eating disorder symptoms in preadolescent girls.

School-based counseling groups for children of divorce: Effects on the self-concepts of 5th grade children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a school-based counseling group on the self-concepts of 5th grade children of divorce. The investigator selected as the experimental group, a divorce counseling group formed and led by a counselor at an urban elementary school. The investigator formed a “waiting list” control group with 5th graders not participating in a divorce counseling group but whose parents were divorced. Also, a second control group was composed of 5th graders whose parents were married. The amount of self-concept change was measured by comparing the mean change in the experimental group's Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept scores (on the pretest and posttest self reports) with the mean changes in the control groups' scores. There were no significant differences between the self-concept gains of Group #1 (experimental group) and Groups #2 and #3 (control groups). However, results indicated that participants in the school-based divorce group appeared to show the greatest improvement in their ability to relate with others. There was a trend toward the improvement of a dimension of self-concept (Popularity) in the treatment group; however, more exposure to the group experience such as long-term/repeated interventions at developmentally critical periods appears necessary to provide children of divorce with sufficient support.

Body image dissatisfaction in preadolescent children

This study was designed to explore preadolescent children's body image dissatisfaction and to identify psychometrically sound measures of dissatisfaction for this population. Participants were 109 male and 95 female elementary school students ranging from 8 to 10 years of age. Children completed Child Figure Drawings, a revised version of the Body Dissatisfaction scale of the Eating Disorder Inventory (Revised EDI-BD), Anxiety and Happiness and Satisfaction subscales of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and each child's gender, race, height, and weight were also recorded. The Child Figure Drawings and the Revised EDI-BD were readministered after 2 to 3 weeks. The Revised EDI-BD emerged as a psychometrically sound measure of body dissatisfaction within this age range. Girls demonstrated significantly higher levels of body dissatisfaction and lower levels of self-esteem than boys. The results are discussed in terms of the development and implications of body dissatisfaction in preadolescent children.

The Influence of Parents and Siblings on the Development of a Personal Premise System in Middle Childhood

Abstract Children's perceptions of the influence of parental and sibling responsiveness and support were investigated. The sample of 73 Caucasian participants ranging in age from 8 years 0 months to 11 years 2 months (39 first-born children and 34 third-born children) responded to the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (P-H), the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ), and the Parent Perception Inventory (PPI). Each P-H was analyzed with a stepwise multiple regression, with gender, PPI, and SRQ as independent variables. Separate analyses were completed for first-born and third-born children. Children's perceptions of the influence of parental and sibling responsiveness and support differed by birth order. For first-born children, second-born sibling warmth was a stronger predictor of self-perceptions than maternal warmth and responsiveness. Mothers' influence on first-born children's self-perceptions was mainly indirect but positive; fathers' influence was direct but negative. On the other hand,...

A study of self-actualization and self-concept in intellectually gifted students

The self-actualization and self-concept of 368 intellectually gifted students in grades 4 through 12 from a rural school district in a southern state were investigated using the Reflections of Self by Youth (ROSY; Schatz & Buckmaster, 1981), the Maslowian Scale (Falk, Bard, Duffy, Grieco, & Markus, 1988), and the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (Piers & Harris, 1969). School level and gender had significant effects on the ROSY. The mean for students at the high school level was higher than at either the elementary or junior high school level. The mean for girls was higher than for boys. A significant interaction between school level and gender was observed only on the Psychological subscale of the Maslowian Scale. The ROSY and Self-actualization subscale and Total score of the Maslowian Scale were significantly related to the Piers-Harris. The ROSY and the Maslowian Scale were found to share a significant relationship (r = .51).

Art Therapy with Learning-Blocked, Depressed Children

This study is a follow up on the work of Plante and his associates in the 1970s on depressed children in an urban setting. It differs from their studies in that the author used spontaneous art therapy with middle class children in a public, elementary school setting with reflection/journaling time and feedback available to the child. This study shows that a spontaneous art therapy program in which depressed children can express their feelings and needs and develop or enhance their self-esteem and creativity is a key to unblocking the energy used to deny or repress their pain around the traumatic experience which has blocked their learning process and damaged their self-esteem. Spontaneous art enabled the children to name their pain regarding bereavement, sexual abuse or other traumatic incidents. Children in the art therapy program rate higher in self-esteem on such instruments as the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale and more favourably on the Conners' Ratine Scales.

The relationship between preabuse factors and psychological symptomatology in sexually abused girls

This study investigated the relationship between preabuse factors and psychological symptomatology in sexually abused girls. Ninety-four sexually abused girls, 89 clinical controls, and 75 normal controls comprised the subject population. All subjects were ages 6–12. Preabuse information was obtained with the Developmental, Psychiatric, and Medical History (DPM). Symptom measures included the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL parent version). Results indicated that the sexually abused and clinical control groups had significantly more prior developmental and psychiatric problems and significantly more past Stressors on the DPM than the normal control group. In addition, in examining the sexually abused group only, prior developmental and psychiatric problems were clearly associated with increased behavioral and emotional problems (CBCL), self-reported depressive symptoms (CDI), and lower self-esteem (Piers-Harris). Parallel results were found in the clinical control group, although correlations were higher in the sexual abuse group. Findings are interpreted to support the notion that there are a multitude of variables that may affect the psychological adjustment of sexually abused children, including preabuse and post-abuse factors and the trauma of the abusive experience itself.