Cognitive Vulnerability and Stress for Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Children and Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 272-284
Author(s):  
Isabella Soares Barreto ◽  
Maycoln Leoni Martins Teodoro ◽  
Priscilla Moreira Ohno ◽  
Mariana Verdolin Guilherme Froeseler

The present study investigated Beck’s cognitive diathesis-stress theory (1967, 1987) for the prediction of emotional and behavioral problems in childhood. The study included 218 participants aged 10 to 16 years (M = 12.38, SD = 1.16) who underwent two evaluations with an interval of 8.4 months between them. In the first evaluation, sample was divided according to the participants’ cognitive vulnerability (vulnerable, moderate, resilient) and in the second, by their experience of stressful events in recent months (low risk, moderate risk, high risk). The groups were compared by variation in the intensity of the symptoms over time. Results showed that high-risk cognitively vulnerable children had increased externalizing symptoms and children with moderate and high cognitive vulnerability had increased internalizing symptoms at Time 2. These results suggest the importance of considering dysfunctional cognitions and the existence of a certain level of stressful events for the development of psychopathology in childhood.

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Raquel Binsfeld Hess ◽  
Maycoln Leoni Martins Teodoro ◽  
Denise Falcke

AbstractThis study aimed to examine how emotional and behavioral problems of parents and children and the characteristics of family relationships can be predictors of internalizing symptoms manifested by children after one year. This was a quantitative research study, of the longitudinal type, with a one year interval between the first and second evaluation. Participants were 139 adolescents, and their parents, with ages ranged from 11 to 16 years (Mage = 12.90, SD = 1.07). The instruments used were: a Socio-Demographic Data Sheet, Youth Self-Report of 11 to 18 years old (YSR), Adult Self-Report of 18 to 59 years old (ASR), Familiogram (FG), the Family Climate Inventory (FCI) and Inventory of Stressful Events in Adolescence (ISEA). Results indicated that family relationships did not have a significant explanatory power in relation to internalizing symptoms of the adolescent after a year. Based on this study, it is possible to think that during adolescence, the power of the family to influence becomes more restricted in comparison with social and peer influence.


Author(s):  
Krista Liskola ◽  
Hanna Raaska ◽  
Helena Lapinleimu ◽  
Jari Lipsanen ◽  
Jari Sinkkonen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Even though child psychopathology assessment guidelines emphasize comprehensive multi-method, multimodal, and multi-informant methodologies, maternal-report symptom-rating scales often serve as the predominant source of information. Research has shown that parental mood symptomatology affects their reports of their offspring’s psychopathology. For example, the depression-distortion hypothesis suggests that maternal depression promotes a negative bias in mothers’ perceptions of their children’s behavioral and emotional problems. We investigated this difference of perception between adoptive mothers and internationally adopted children. Most previous studies suffer from the potential bias caused by the fact that parents and children share genetic risks. Methods Data were derived from the Finnish Adoption (FinAdo) survey study (a subsample of adopted children aged between 9 and 12 years, n = 222). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess emotional and behavioral problems and competences of the adopted children. The CBCL was filled in by the adopted children and the adoptive mothers, respectively. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the short version of the General Health Questionnaire. Results On average, mothers reported less total CBCL symptoms in their children than the children themselves (0.25 vs 0.38, p-value < 0.01 for difference). Mothers’ depressive symptoms moderated the discrepancy in reporting internalizing symptoms (β = − 0.14 and p-value 0.01 for interaction) and the total symptoms scores (β = − 0.22 and p-value < 0.001 for interaction) and externalizing symptoms in girls in the CBCL. Limitations The major limitation of our study is its cross-sectional design and the fact that we only collected data in the form of questionnaires. Conclusions The results of our research support the depression-distortion hypothesis concerning the association of maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms in girls in a sample without genetic bias


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akash Wasil ◽  
Katherine E. Venturo-Conerly ◽  
Sarah Gillespie ◽  
Tom L Osborn ◽  
John R. Weisz

Children and adolescents in non-western settings and low-resource environments may experience distinctive problems and psychiatric symptoms. Researchers and policymakers often aim to understand those problems and symptoms using standardized nomothetic assessment tools. These tools tend to be validated on western samples and may “miss” problems that are prevalent and important in non-western cultures. Brief, low-cost, idiographic assessment tools may help identify these concerns, usefully complementing traditional measurements. To examine this idea, we applied the Top Problems Assessment (Weisz et al., 2011) and two standardized measures of depression and anxiety to 100 adolescents from Kibera, a resource-poor urban settlement in Kenya. Data were collected from early June to July of 2018. The Top Problems Assessment asked students to identify their three most important problems. We then a) applied thematic analysis (Braun &amp; Clark, 2006) to identify the most frequently reported types of problems and b) analyzed the depressive and anxiety symptoms most frequently endorsed on the standardized measures. Standardized assessment revealed that worrying and difficulty concentrating were the most commonly reported symptoms. On the Top Problems Assessment, 61% of the sample reported a social problem, 38% a cognitive problem, and 35% an economic problem. By contrast, emotional and behavioral problems assessed via the standardized measures were reported as top problems by only 17% of the sample. The Top Problems Assessment yielded specific problems faced by Kenyan youth that may not have emerged through a routine assessment using standardized measures. Our findings are the first to demonstrate that the Top Problems Assessment can be used to identify locally relevant concerns that may be missed by commonly used standardized measures. Overall, our findings suggest that idiographic assessments like the Top Problems Assessment can produce culturally relevant information and usefully complement standardized measurement tools.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Pereira Da Cruz Benetti ◽  
Cristian Schwartz ◽  
Glaucia Roth Soares ◽  
Francis Macarena ◽  
Marco Pascoal Pattussi

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between measures of exposure to violence, stressful events, family socialization practices, and demographic characteristics in a group of adolescents from a Southern region of Brazil. Three hundred adolescents were investigated in a case-control study. The results showed that adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems had significant higher stressful events, violence exposure, and negative parental practices, compared with controls. However, exposure to violence was the most deteriorating condition associated with the adolescents’ clinical internalization and externalization behaviors. Findings suggest the benefit of targeting actions geared to strengthen the quality of family interactions as well as to implement preventive programs to reduce community violence impact and to enhance support in the community.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Douglas Tynan ◽  
Meredith Dreyer ◽  
Meredith Lutz Stehl

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