Behavioral and emotional symptoms of post-institutionalized children in middle childhood

Abstract Mental health is complex, comprising both mental distress and well-being. This study used latent class analysis to identify common combinations of mental distress and well-being (‘mental health classes’) among schoolchildren aged 8–9 years (N = 3340). Thirteen items, measuring a range of conduct problems, emotional symptoms, and subjective well-being, were included in the analysis. Four mental health classes were identified: (1) complete mental health (n = 1895, 57%), (2) vulnerable (n = 434, 13%), (3) emotional symptoms but content (n = 606, 18%), and (4) conduct problems but content (n = 404, 12%). The classes were reliably identified across different datasets, and for males and females. Differential relations with covariates indicated that mental health classes were distinct and externally valid. The results supported the dual-factor model of mental health, suggesting that mental distress and subjective well-being are separate continua. Three of the four possible combinations of high and low distress and subjective well-being posited by the dual-factor model were found using this inductive statistical method. Importantly, our analysis also revealed two ‘symptomatic but content’ groups, differentiated by symptom domain (internalising/externalising). The covariate analyses between mental health classes and sociodemographic factors, prior academic attainment, school connectedness, and peer support, indicated that there are nuanced relations between those variables and particular constellations of mental distress and well-being. As one of the few dual-factor studies to focus on middle childhood, the current study adds important new evidence that contributes to our understanding of the complexities of mental health among schoolchildren.

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Emotional symptoms from kindergarten to middle childhood: associations with self- and other-oriented social skills

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry ◽

10.1007/s00787-010-0139-z ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 3-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Maureen Groeben ◽

Sonja Perren ◽

Stephanie Stadelmann ◽

Kai von Klitzing

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

Emotional Symptoms ◽

Self And Other

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Peer Victimization and Emotional Problems in Vietnamese Children: A Longitudinal Study

International Journal of Indian Psychology ◽

10.25215/0304.056 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Tuan Ba Vu ◽

Katja Petry ◽

Guy Bosmans

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Peer Victimization ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

Emotional Problems ◽

Primary Caregivers ◽

Emotional Symptoms ◽

Young Lives

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that peer victimization in middle childhood predicts emotional problems in adolescents. The sample consisted of 1,000 students administrated at age 8 (wave 1) who were followed for seven years (wave 2). The peer victimization measures included one item derived from Goodman’s Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (wave 1) and nine other items developed by Young Lives’ researchers (wave 2). The emotional problems measure used in both waves is SDQ’s Emotional Symptoms Subscale. Primary caregivers reported these measures at wave 1 and the children themselves reported at wave 2. Results revealed that current emotional problems significantly mediate the link between peer victimization and later emotional problems.

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Early childcare type predicts children’s emotional and behavioural trajectories into middle childhood. Data from the EDEN mother–child cohort study

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health ◽

10.1136/jech-2017-210393 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 72 (11) ◽

pp. 1033-1043 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ramchandar Gomajee ◽

Fabienne El-Khoury ◽

Sylvana Côté ◽

Judith van der Waerden ◽

Laura Pryor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conduct Problems ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

Socioeconomic Background ◽

Peer Relationship ◽

Emotional Symptoms ◽

High Quality ◽

Relationship Problems ◽

Early Childcare ◽

Prosocial Behaviours ◽

The Impact

BackgroundThe scientific literature on the impact of early childcare on children’s behavioural and emotional difficulties shows contrasting results. We studied this association in France, where childcare is of high quality and children enter preschool at the age of 3.Methods1428 children from the EDEN (Etude des Déterminants du développement et de la santé de l’ENfant) mother–child cohort set up in France (Nancy and Poitiers) were followed up since pregnancy to the age of 8 years. Group-based trajectory modelling was used to model their trajectories of behavioural and emotional symptoms (emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention, conduct problems, prosocial behaviours) ascertained by three measures (3, 5.5 and 8 years) of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Using propensity scores and inverse probability weights (IPWs) to account for selection and confounding factors, we compared children in a childminder’s care or in centre-based childcare (from birth to age 3) with those in informal childcare.ResultsCompared with children in informal childcare, those who attended centre-based childcare had a lower likelihood of having high levels of emotional symptoms (ORIPW-adjusted=0.35, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.71), peer relationship problems (ORIPW-adjusted=0.31, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.67) and low prosocial behaviours (ORIPW-adjusted=0.50, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.90). Those who were looked after by a childminder had a higher likelihood of following a high trajectory of conduct problems (ORIPW-adjusted=1.72, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.81). Attendance of centre-based childcare for more than 1 year was especially protective of high levels of emotional, peer-related difficulties and low prosocial behaviours. Girls and children from a favourable socioeconomic background reaped more benefits of childcare than boys and those from a less favourable background.ConclusionHigh-quality centre-based childcare may be linked to lower levels of emotional symptoms.

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Joining New Families: A Study of Adoption and Fostering in Middle Childhood. By D. Quinton, A. Rushton, C. Dance, & D. Mayes. Wiley, Chichester, 1998. pp. 266. £15.99 (pb).

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1017/s0021963099244174 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 40 (7) ◽

pp. 1141-1142

Author(s):

Maurice Place

Keyword(s):

Middle Childhood

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Yes I Can!

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000229 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 76-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Dries Vervecken ◽

Bettina Hannover

Keyword(s):

Middle Childhood ◽

Gender Stereotypes ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Vocational Interests ◽

Primary School Students ◽

School Students ◽

Employment Goals ◽

Linguistic Intervention ◽

Male Occupations ◽

Linguistic Backgrounds

Many countries face the problem of skill shortage in traditionally male occupations. Individuals’ development of vocational interests and employment goals starts as early as in middle childhood and is strongly influenced by perceptions of job accessibility (status and difficulty) and self-efficacy beliefs. In this study, we tested a linguistic intervention to strengthen children’s self-efficacy toward stereotypically male occupations. Two classroom experiments with 591 primary school students from two different linguistic backgrounds (Dutch or German) showed that the presentation of occupational titles in pair forms (e.g., Ingenieurinnen und Ingenieure, female and male engineers), rather than in generic masculine forms (Ingenieure, plural for engineers), boosted children’s self-efficacy with regard to traditionally male occupations, with the effect fully being mediated by perceptions that the jobs are not as difficult as gender stereotypes suggest. The discussion focuses on linguistic interventions as a means to increase children’s self-efficacy toward traditionally male occupations.

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Memorial Consequences of Environmental Context Change in Children and Adults

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000056 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (6) ◽

pp. 455-461 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Alp Aslan ◽

Anuscheh Samenieh ◽

Tobias Staudigl ◽

Karl-Heinz T. Bäuml

Keyword(s):

Elementary School ◽

Young Adults ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

First Graders ◽

Fourth Graders ◽

Environmental Context ◽

Context Change ◽

Context Dependent

Changing environmental context during encoding can influence episodic memory. This study examined the memorial consequences of environmental context change in children. Kindergartners, first and fourth graders, and young adults studied two lists of items, either in the same room (no context change) or in two different rooms (context change), and subsequently were tested on the two lists in the room in which the second list was encoded. As expected, in adults, the context change impaired recall of the first list and improved recall of the second. Whereas fourth graders showed the same pattern of results as adults, in both kindergartners and first graders no memorial effects of the context change arose. The results indicate that the two effects of environmental context change develop contemporaneously over middle childhood and reach maturity at the end of the elementary school days. The findings are discussed in light of both retrieval-based and encoding-based accounts of context-dependent memory.

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