This study investigated the peer relationship patterns of male and female children and their relationships with parental attachment and interparental conflicts. Participants were 266 children attending elementary school. They were asked to complete Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale(CPIC), Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment(IPPA), and Children's Interpersonal Pattern Scale. Cluster analyses yielded three clusters for each male and female groups based on interpersonal patterns. With male children, the result indicated three clusters defined as intimate, hostile, and undifferentiated-conflicting. Female children were also categorized into three clusters named as proactive, competitive, and undifferentiated-avoidant. The MANOVA and post-hoc tests were performed to investigate the differences in parental attachment and interparental conflicts among the three cluster groups. The results showed that both male intimate and female proactive groups reported lower interparental conflicts and greater parental attachment than the other two groups. In contrast, the hostile group for boys and the competitive group for girls showed the greatest interparental conflicts and the lowest parental attachment. The characteristics of parental factors for the undifferentiated groups differed across gender. The female undifferentiated group showed lower parental attachment and greater interparental conflicts, similar to the competitive group. However, the male undifferentiated group showed greater parental attachment and greater interparetnal conflicts. The male and female undifferentiated groups were also distinctive from each other, in that the male undifferntiated group showed externalizing and offensive attitude toward the peers, but the female group displayed internalizing and avoidant interpersonal patterns. Based on these findings, the implications and the limitations of the study were discussed.
The purpose of this article is to provide researchers and practitioners m school psychology and its related fields with a comprehensive review of a neuropsychological term, executive function, with regard to its current conceptualization, its relationship with various learning and behavior problems in childhood and adolescence, and major approaches to assessment and intervention for executive function difficulties. Up-to-date research findings and current trends and issues in the study of executive function are presented and discussed as relevant to the field of school psychology. Throughout the review, it is emphasized that executive function is a useful conceptual framework that school psychologists can utilize to understand, evaluate, and intervene with various educational and psychological problems encountered in school settings. Finally, implications for research and practice in school psychology and its related disciplines are discussed.
This research investigates the relations between children's peer status and mind reading abilities in preadolescence. Based on sociometric methods(Coie & Dodge, 1983), 241 12-year-olds(1l5 girls; 126 boys; mean age 12-2) were divided into 5 groups: the popular, controversial, average, neglected and the rejected group. The mind reading abilities were measured by two kinds of tasks: the thoughts reading tasks and the emotions reading tasks. The theory of mind tasks such as Faux pas, white lie, and irony were used as the thoughts reading tasks. Reading the emotional states through eyes or facial expressions was used as the emotions reading tasks. Girls performed significantly better than boys on the thoughts reading and the emotions reading tasks. In the girls group, the thoughts reading and emotions reading scores differed among five peer status, but in the boys group the thoughts reading scores were not differed. However the mind reading scores which were the means of the thoughts reading and the emotions reading differed among peer status in both the girls and boys groups. More specifically, the mind reading performances of the popular group were higher than those of the rejected group. Overall, the results indicated that the popular children's mind reading abilities were higher than those of the rejected children. In addition, girls' mind reading abilities were higher than those boys. These findings suggest that the midreading abilities are important for the peer relations and higher in girls than in boys. These results support the Baron-Cohen(2003)'s arguments that girls have a better understanding of other people's mental states.
This study was carried out to identify main variables and mediating process that influence binge eating among adolescents. The study aimed at providing information that helps adolescent girls grow up healthy, mentally and physically, by examining through self-esteem how academic stress, a presumptive main variable of binge eating disorder, affects binge eating among adolescent girls who are most vulnerable to eating disorder. The subjects of the study included a total of 581 students who were in the first or second year at an academic Women's High School in Kyonggi-province. As for tools employed here, binge eating scale, the scale of academic stress and self-esteem scale were used. The outcome of the study was summarized as follows. First, self-esteem was found to be significantly negatively related to binge eating disorder, proving that high school girls are more likely to have binge eating disorder as they have lower self-esteem. Second, study-related stress was found to be significantly negatively related to self-esteem, proving that high school girls have lower self-esteem as they have more study-related stress. Third, study-related stress was found to influence high school girls' binge eating through self-esteem. Self-esteem was found to serve as a partial intermediary between study-related stress and binge eating disorder. That is, high school girls are more likely to have binge eating disorder as they have more study-related stress. In addition, as they have more study-related stress, their self-esteem declines, and as their self-esteem decreases they are more likely to have binge eating disorder.Therefore, it will lead to a more effective instruction and the establishment of more appropriate treatment strategy in resolving the lots of problems of adolescents suffering from eating disorder to examine study-related stress, the biggest stress factor of adolescents in Korea, and the self-esteem which means the overall assessment of oneself.In conclusion, this study has confirmed that adolescents' self-esteem has an intermediary effect on the relationship between study-related stress and binge eating disorder. It also suggests that a strategy and various programs that enhance adolescents' self-esteem during the treatment of binge eating disorder should be developed.
The present study tried to explore the knowledge of sex among mentally retarded students, and to compare their knowledge of sex according to school level, gender, and extent of mental retardation. Total one hundred thirty seven mentally retarded elementary, middle, and high school students were examined on their knowledge of sex, specifically on three areas and thirteen sub-areas. Results showed that according to the school level, knowledge of sex were different, such that the higher-level-school students had more knowledge of sex. According to gender, however, knowledge of sex was similar between male and female groups. Last, students also showed different extent of knowledge of sex according to their extent of mental retardation. Specifically, mild-retarded group had more knowledge of sex than severe-retarded group, except on the area of culture and ethics on sex. Necessity of sex education for mentally retarded students and specific contents and methods of the education were discussed.
Generally, anger expression mode is thought to develop as people grow older. This study examined whether anger expression mode is associated with age and trait anger level. The results were then compared to identify the differences between age groups. 453 students from Elementary School(ES), Middle School(MS), High School(HS) and University(U))were surveyed using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Frequency analyses and MANOVA were used to compare the groups. There were no significant differences of anger expression mode between age groups in high level-anger group and low level-anger group. But in moderate-anger group, it was found that there were more frequencies of anger-control. Also, it was found as the age of groups get older the more frequencies of anger-control appeared. In US, high level-anger group frequencies of anger-control were higher than anger-out and the same as anger-in. The results suggest that the age and trait anger level were related to anger expression mode. It also implies that as the ages increases most people get to use anger-control generally. However, if the anger level is too high or low then this general tendency might not be accompanied by its development. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed, along with directions for future research.
The present study examined the relationship of the sense of social connectedness, autonomy to college adjustment and subjective well-being among college students. The sense of social connectedness and autonomy were assumed as one of fundamental human needs, which seemed more important during college life. In testing the structural model, the variable of interpersonal problem was assumed to become mediator in relation of the sense of social connectedness and autonomy to college adjustment and subjective well-being. That is, those who with a high sense of social connectedness and autonomy would experience lower interpersonal problems than their counterparts, which effect in a higher degree of college adjustment and subjective well-being. As expected, the sense of social connectedness and autonomy showed significant positive effects on the college adjustment and subjective well-being. Also, the interpersonal problem played a partial mediator role in explaining the relationship between the sense of social connectedness and subjective well-being. The present study implied the importance of the sense of social connectedness and autonomy to develop intervention programs for successful adjustment in college.