Département de Psychologie, LPCS, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France.
Introduction. Studies of the psychology of gifted children frequently refer to their relatively immature affective development in terms of their intellectual capacities and the relational difficulties they experience with regard to their peers, teachers, close acquaintances and sometimes their parents. From a psychopathological viewpoint, various types of problem have been observed such as depressive symptoms, motor instability coupled with hyperactivity, attentional deficits, impulsivity and a fall in self-esteem. Objective. In this study, we wished to verify the links between self-esteem and psychopathological symptoms in these children. Method. The total population studied consisted of 58 pupils taken from two teaching establishments in Dijon who were subdivided into two groups (gifted children and adolescents versus control children and adolescents). Of these 58 subjects who took part in the tests, 8 were eliminated either due to their results on the "lie" scale of the self-esteem scale (score greater than or equal to 5) or to their age. In effect, a high score on this scale implies that the subjects want to show themselves in a better light than is actually correct. It is then assumed that the subjects had sought the examiner's approval by presenting the best possible image of themselves; 23 gifted children, referred to as GC (10 girls, 13 boys) aged between 9 and 13 years (mean age=11 years 3 months or 135 months, standard deviation=14) took part in the study. The selection criteria required the subjects to possess an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) calculated using one of the Weschler tests (WPPSI or WISC III depending on age) greater than or equal to 130 (mean IQ=145.23, standard deviation=7.93); 20 were attending private schools and 3 were in the state education system. They were all attending special "GC" classes to which they had been admitted solely on the basis of an IQ test conducted by a psychologist. Their teachers had volunteered to take these classes and had received appropriate training. The pupils had no record of any neurological or physical antecedents, were all French-speaking, were not taking any toxic substances and had never consulted a psychologist or psychiatrist. They were all in advance by one to two years in terms of academic level. They were matched with the control subjects by real age and not mental age and as a function of their parents' socio-economic level. The mean age of this latter group was 11 years, 4 months (standard deviation=14 months; minimum=8 years 11 months, maximum=13 years 1 month) and the group consisted of 14 girls and 9 boys. It was similar to the target group in terms of age, gender, key childhood experiences, divorces, separations and the death or illness of close relations. They had never consulted a child psychologist or been hospitalized for related problems, were not following any psychotherapy, were neither behind nor advanced in terms of academic age and came from normal classes. Their mean Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was 106.04 (standard deviation=5.39). Children attending special classes (European, Franco-German, music, sport, etc.) were excluded in order to obtain as "standardized" a group as possible. The following tools were used: 1) The Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL), a self-questionnaire developed in 1978 by Achenbach in the USA, which is one of the most frequently used child psychopathology measuring tools both in research and in clinical practice. It is intended to provide a standardized description of emotional and/or behavioral problems as observed by parents in children aged between 4 and 16 years. A French version,"la liste des comportements pour les enfants", has been developed and used for a subsample of the boys aged between 6 and 11 years (Fombonne and Vermeersch, 1997). 2) Carré's "self-esteem inventory"(SEI) was created by Carré (1984) in order to test the level of self-esteem. This tool is designed to measure the subject's evaluation of himself or herself in the social, family, academic and general fields. A "lie" scale makes it possible to reject invalidated tests. 3) The EDICODE is an instrument designed to gather and quantify the speech produced by the subject during a semi-structured interview. It is rated by the interviewer and is therefore dependent on his or her subjective evaluation. It was constructed within a clinical research perspective (Pierrhumbert et al., 1999) and is based on the theory of attachment (Main and Goldwyn, 1985-1994). EDICODE consists of 21 items presented in the form of differential semantic scales. These items are then grouped into 5 factors or scales (containing non-redundant items) that cover the following dimensions: fluidity (associative richness, ease of access to memories, participation in the interview), coherence (the speech is "focused" and structured), appropriateness (appropriate relational distance, confidence in relations, capacity for emotional control), reflection (consideration of one's own mental state and that of others as well as of the influence of such states), authenticity (spontaneous, lively speech). Results. The comparison of 23gifted children (GC) and 23 controls matched on age, sex and school grade revealed that the scores for academic self-esteem, total self-esteem and lie-scale were significantly lower than those observed in the control group (p<0.006, p=0.03, p<0.0001 respectively) and that the depression scores were significantly higher in the gifted children (p=0.021). Significant correlations are only observed in the group of gifted children. The correlation analyses reveal that the lower the general self-esteem, academic self-esteem and total self-esteem values had fallen, the higher the depression (r=- 0.59, r=- 0.67 and r=- 0.76 respectively), hyperactivity (r=- 0.47, r=- 0.82 et r=- 0.59) and total psychopathology (r=- 0.56, r=- 0.67 et r=- 0.75) scores were. Similarly, the lower the general and total self-esteem scores, the higher the aggression scores (r=- 0.56 and r=- 0.68 respectively). Academic self-esteem was the only value to be negatively correlated with communication disorders (r=- 0.79) and somatization symptoms (r=- 0.49). Finally, social self-esteem, family self-esteem and the lie scale were not correlated with any CBCL variable. The regression analyses indicate that academic self-esteem is the variable that explains the depression scores. Discussion. The gifted children in our study therefore manifested a lack of self-esteem, and in particular a lack of academic self-esteem, coupled with depressive symptoms. For Coopersmith (1984), self-esteem is a function of experienced events in the various sectors in question, while Gibello (1992) sees a link between inhibition or academic disinvestment and everything that may generate anxiety and/or depression in the subject. We can hypothesize that the difficulties experienced by these children derive, at least in part, from their specific characteristics, namely their internal and social dysschynchronism (Terrassier, 1981). Among its other effects, this dyssynchronism leads to a school life that is often difficult or even chaotic, resulting in a general level of self-esteem, and more particularly an academic self-esteem, that is lower than the mean. These considerations might then, in their turn, generate psychopathological symptoms such as depression or hyperactivity (Revol et al., 2002) which have repercussions that affect the effectiveness of the children's school work. This study suggests the need to verify whether similar results are observed in gifted children who do not attend special classes and children who have not yet been identified as gifted. Furthermore, our results indicate that these children are liable to a specific vulnerability in the emotional and behavioral domains that needs to be emphasized. They stress the need for early preventive measures to combat the emotional and behavioral difficulties experienced by gifted children and emphasize the importance of continuing to conduct this type of study in order to explain and specify the origin of these difficulties.
Other papers by authors:
Université de Bourgogne, Laboratoire de Psychologie Clinique et Sociale, Pôle AAFE, Esplanade Erasme, BP 26513, 21065 Dijon cedex.
RESULTS: This study, inspired by the attachment model and research in the field of social support, attempts to reveal the link between styles of attachment, social support and depressive vulnerability. AIM OF THE STUDY: It investigates current styles of attach-ment and the quality of social support perceived by 35 hospitalized, depressed subjects compared to 35 control subjects who exhibited no pathology. After giving their consent, each subject took part in an in-depth psychological investigation consisting of a recorded clinical interview and various clinical scales. METHOD: The study presents only the responses to the Perception of Relations questionnaire which distinguishes between four styles of attachment (secure, detached, preoccupied and disorganized) and the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6) which contains two dimensions: social availability and social satisfaction. The results were subjected to statistical analyses: a comparative analysis between the two groups and a correlational analysis between the dimensions of social support and the dimensions of style of attachment. On the one hand, the study reveals that the social network is perceived to be less available by depressed subjects, together with the absence of a current intimate relationship with other people, the absence of people to confide in, and a relationship between this absence and the large number of losses experienced by depressed subjects, in particular the loss of figures of attachment (father and mother). On the other hand, depressed subjects tend to exhibit a preoccupied, disorganized style of attachment which is characterized by negative models of the self. DISCUSSION: The discussion addresses the way these styles of attachment should be understood: do they represent the consequence of the depressive pathology or an older relational style?
Laboratoire de psychopathologie et de psychologie médicale, pôle AAFE, université de Bourgogne, esplanade Erasme, 21000 Dijon, France. Khadija.Chahraoui@u-bourgogne.fr
OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates the prevalence of alexithymia in multiple sclerosis and examines the links between alexithymia, depression and anxiety. METHOD: Sixty-one subjects aged between 18 and 60 years and suffering from multiple sclerosis took part in the study. The psychological assessment consisted of an interview with a psychologist and three questionnaires: the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). RESULTS: The prevalence of alexithymia was 42.5%, 34.4% for depression and 44.3% for anxiety (high and moderate level). The alexithymic subjects were more depressed and anxious. Results indicated positive correlations between anxiety (state and trait), depression and alexithymia scores. The various dimensions of alexithymia were found to be diversely correlated with anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS: Our results point out the importance of anxiety in multiple sclerosis and the specificity of alexithymia.
Laboratoire de psychologie clinique et sociale, département de psychologie clinique et sociale (EA 3658)(Pr. K. Chahraoui), université de Bourgogne, pôle AAFE, BP 26513, 21065 Dijon cedex, France.
Aims.- To evaluate the improvement in the subjective quality of life and mental health after Aesthetic surgery on the basis of indices of patient satisfaction. Method.- The population consisted of 25 women who had requested cosmetic surgery (mean age: 34.76) including 19 for breast augmentation and 6 for abdominal plastic surgery. After giving their written consent, the subjects took part in a psychological evaluation conducted at two different times: the first at the time of the second medical consultation and the second 4 months after surgery. In each case, the psychological evaluation consisted of a clinical interview and two questionnaires: the subjective quality of life profile (SQLP) and the general health questionnaire (GHQ12). Results.- The results of the study revealed the benefits of cosmetic surgery for the patients' subjective quality of life. The subjects' mental health and quality of life improved on a number of dimensions: physical health, pain, physical appearance, social life and inner life. Improved physical health during the postoperative period was associated with the quality of the relations with the doctor whereas deterioration in health was associated with excessively high initial expectations concerning the relations with doctors and physical health.
MCU, Université de Bourgogne, Laboratoire de Psychologie Clinique et Sociale (LPCS), 36, rue Chabot Charny, 21000 Dijon.
The aim of this preliminary study is the analysis of the utterances of subjects suffering from Post-traumatic disorder. The study is based on the recent methods of discourse analysis developed in France by Ghiglione and Blanchet (1991, 1998). We have tried to know how victims of psychical trauma verbalize their different emotional reaction to the traumatic event. We expected to find discursive indicators characteristics of alexithymia when they speak about their emotion associated to traumatic event, that is to say an inhibition of the verbal expression of emotion, a factual, descriptive and objective discourse, a diminution of the personal engagement, difficulties to give explanations about the violent trauma. This study shows that the victims of psychical trauma don't present a lack of verbalization of their emotions but a dissociation in the expression of their emotions. The emotional words are more frequently associated to the symptoms than to the traumatic event that had been at the origin of the symptoms. This dissociation is similar to a particularity of alexithymia as it was described by Sifnéos (1996). The study also shows that the distribution of the discursive indicators in the different themes discussed by the subjects constitutes an interesting way of work needing then the application of experimental and comparative methods.
Université de Bourgogne, Ancienne Faculté, Dijon.
Many recent studies tend to show that life events play an important role in provoking, solving or maintaining psychic troubles. The proposed approach is interesting as far as it brings back into the model many psychosocial factors implied in psychic or somatic problems. We wanted to review the interest of the main theoretical and methodological approaches in that field and also to stress their drawbacks. One many improve the life events approach by taking into account the difficulties associated with that type of research and by avoiding an oversimplification of the relationship between life events and health. The links are complex, the impact of life events results from depressive mechanisms, adjustment strategies, social support, age, sex, personality, history, past experience and sociocultural representations. This complex picture compels clinicians to take a complementarist attitude when all the theories are scrutinized in order to understand the links between life events and health. From a methodological point of view, the most relevant approach seems to be the combination of standardized scales and semi-structured interviews allowing a contextual approach of events.
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Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo.
BACKGROUND: The development of oral motor control depends partially on motor and sensory experiences. AIM: To analyze the relationship between the duration of breastfeeding, artificial feeding and sucking habits, and of these parameters with the orofacial motor performance. METHOD: Participants of this study were one hundred and seventy-six children aged 6 to 12 years. All subjects were submitted to an orofacial myofunctional clinical examination, using a protocol with scores, and parents/care takers were interviewed in respect to the feeding and sucking habits of their children. Correlations were calculated using the Spearman Test. RESULTS: In the studied sample, the mean duration of breastfeeding was of 10.30 months (ranging from zero to 60 months), of artificial feeding was of 44.12 months (zero to 122 months) and of sucking habits was of 39.32 months (0 to 144 months). There was a negative correlation of breastfeeding duration with artificial feeding duration and sucking habits duration (p < 0001). The duration of the artificial feeding was positively correlated to the duration of sucking habits (p < 0001). The duration of breastfeeding was positively correlated with the mobility of the tongue and jaw (p = 0.05). There was a negative correlation of the duration of artificial feeding and the duration of sucking habits with the performance in mastication and swallowing, respectively, as well as with the duration of both types of sucking with the performance in the diadochokinesia test (p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: The duration of natural breastfeeding presented a positive effect over the mobility of the orofacial structures. Deleterious effects of the prolonged duration of artificial feeding and sucking habits in the oral motor control were confirmed.
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Comeniuslaan 4, 6525 HP, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, n.meijs@pwo.ru.nl.
This study compared the effects of social intelligence and cognitive intelligence, as measured by academic achievement, on adolescent popularity in two school contexts. A distinction was made between sociometric popularity, a measure of acceptance, and perceived popularity, a measure of social dominance. Participants were 512, 14-15 year-old adolescents (56% girls, 44% boys) in vocational and college preparatory schools in Northwestern Europe. Perceived popularity was significantly related to social intelligence, but not to academic achievement, in both contexts. Sociometric popularity was predicted by an interaction between academic achievement and social intelligence, further qualified by school context. Whereas college bound students gained sociometric popularity by excelling both socially and academically, vocational students benefited from doing well either socially or academically, but not in combination. The implications of these findings were discussed.
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA, syurueger@aol.com.
The current study investigated gender differences in the relationship between sources of perceived support (parent, teacher, classmate, friend, school) and psychological and academic adjustment in a sample of 636 (49% male) middle school students. Longitudinal data were collected at two time points in the same school year. The study provided psychometric support for the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (Malecki et al., A working manual on the development of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (2000). Unpublished manuscript, Northern Illinois University, 2003) across gender, and demonstrated gender differences in perceptions of support in early adolescence. In addition, there were significant associations between all sources of support with depressive symptoms, anxiety, self-esteem, and academic adjustment, but fewer significant unique effects of each source. Parental support was a robust unique predictor of adjustment for both boys and girls, and classmates' support was a robust unique predictor for boys. These results illustrate the importance of examining gender differences in the social experience of adolescents with careful attention to measurement and analytic issues.
Institute for Educational Research, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 3, 9712TG, Groningen, The Netherlands, w.ahmed@rug.nl.
Although a bulk of literature shows that perceived social support (PSS) influences academic achievement, the mechanisms through which this effect operates received little empirical attention. The present study examined the multiple mediational effects of motivational beliefs (competence beliefs and subjective value) and emotions (anxiety and enjoyment) that may account for the empirical link between PSS (from parents, peers and teachers) and mathematics achievement. The participants of the study were 238 grade 7 students (average age = 13.2 years, girls = 54%, predominantly native Dutch middle class socioeconomic status). A bootstrap analysis (a relatively new technique for testing multiple mediation) revealed that the motivational beliefs and the emotions, jointly, partially mediated the effect of PSS on achievement. The proportion of the effects mediated, however, varied across the support sources from 55% to 75%. The findings lend support to the theoretical assumptions in the literature that supportive social relationships influence achievement through motivational and affective pathways.
Interparental conflict and academic achievement: an examination of mediating and moderating factors.
Department of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, sghazarian@jhmi.edu.
Using a risk and resiliency theoretical framework, the association between interparental conflict and academic achievement was examined. The sample consisted of 2,297 6th grade youth with a mean age of 11.92. Participants were mostly European American (81.8%) and 52% were girls. Results demonstrated that interparental conflict is a risk factor for lower academic achievement, suggesting that family interactions play a significant role in how youth perform in the academic setting. Youth self-blame acted as a significant mediator, providing some explanation for how interparental conflict affects academic achievement. Maternal acceptance and monitoring knowledge partially buffered the association between interparental conflict and youth self-blame. Additionally, the positive association between interparental conflict and perceived threat was stronger for youth who perceived relationships with mothers as more supportive, connected, and involved. Results from this study underscore the need for continued focus on the link between family and school environments with respect to youth developmental outcomes.
Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, eva_oberle@yahoo.de.
Past studies have investigated relationships between peer acceptance and peer-rated social behaviors. However, relatively little is known about the manner in which indices of well-being such as optimism and positive affect may predict peer acceptance above and beyond peer ratings of antisocial and prosocial behaviors. Early adolescence-roughly between the ages of 9 and 14-is a time in the life span in which individuals undergo a myriad of changes at many different levels, such as changes due to cognitive development, pubertal development, and social role redefinitions. The present study investigated the relationship of self-reported affective empathy, optimism, anxiety (trait measures), and positive affect (state measure) to peer-reported peer acceptance in 99 (43% girls) 4th and 5th grade early adolescents. Because our preliminary analyses revealed gender-specific patterns, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the predictors of peer acceptance separately for boys and for girls. Girls' acceptance of peers was significantly predicted by higher levels of empathy and optimism, and lower positive affect. For boys, higher positive affect, lower empathy, and lower anxiety significantly predicted peer acceptance. The results emphasize the importance of including indices of social and emotional well-being in addition to peer-ratings in understanding peer acceptance in early adolescence, and urge for more research on gender-specific peer acceptance.
Psychology Department, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia, stanfordsarah@hotmail.com.
Assessing self-harm through brief multiple choice items is simple and less invasive than more detailed methods of assessment. However, there is currently little validation for brief methods of self-harm assessment. This study evaluates the extent to which adolescents' perceptions of self-harm agree with definitions in the literature, and what level of question detail produces optimal concordance rates. Two hundred and thirty-three (69% female) first year university students aged 17-21 completed a self-harm coding task; we created three levels of question detail and randomly allocated participants to three study groups: brief, low detail, and high detail. The present findings suggest that that adolescents' perceptions of self-harm are generally concordant with a consensus definition of self-harm. Low level of detail in the question produced greatest accuracy in responses; adolescents who demonstrated adequate task understanding were able to correctly identify 94% of examples of self-harm behaviour and 86% of examples of behaviour that were not self-harm. We identified lower concordance rates for eating disordered behaviour and recreational petrol sniffing. This indicates that adolescents perceive these behaviours to be self-harm, in contrast to the reference definition we utilised. Overall, this study provides support for using a brief assessment of self-harm where minimal detail regarding self-harm behaviour is required.
Department of Paediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PR China.
The aim of this study was to determine the association between blood pressure and the frequency of structured physical training activity in Chinese adolescents. A total of 9558 students aged 11-18 years underwent anthropometric and blood pressure measurements in a cross-sectional growth study. Structured physical training activity was assessed by two simple self-administered questions and parents were asked to complete a questionnaire providing demographic information. Ninety per cent of eligible students participated in the study, of which 94% provided data on physical training frequency for final analysis. Of the boys, 22.6% and of the girls, 14.5% were physically active with extracurricular school exercise at least twice a week. Over half of the students did not regularly exercise except during physical education classes at school. Blood pressure had a positive correlation with body mass index (BMI). Both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were substantially decreased with increased training frequency (P<0.05). Logistic regression adjusting for age, family history of hypertension, BMI and sleep duration showed that exercising two or more times a week had a negative relation with hypertension (odds ratio: 0.63, 95%CI 0.47-0.85). In conclusion, structured physical training activity of two or more times a week has a beneficial effect on blood pressure in Hong Kong children aged 11-18 years.Journal of Human Hypertension advance online publication, 21 January 2010; doi:10.1038/jhh.2009.117.
1 Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands.
This survey has compared attitudes towards (endocardial) lead extraction, among European electrophysiology centres, with special attention paid to 'redundant leads'. The main findings of this survey are:(i) most of the centres performing lead extractions do so in low volume even though the number of implants may be high.(ii) Approaches to the practice of lead extraction are based largely on clinical experience and individual sentiment but not on a rigorous evidence based.(iii) Traction alone or in combination with extraction tools (but not laser) are commonly used for extraction.(iv) The perception of need for involvement of cardio-thoracic surgeon varies.
Private practice, Tel Aviv.
The purpose of this study was to assess the short-term psychosocial impact of dental aesthetic improvement in adult subjects. Sixty-nine adult patients (61 females and 8 males, aged 21-59 years) requesting aesthetic dental improvement were prospectively and randomly recruited for the study in a private orthodontic office. A general interview included patient motivation and expectations from treatment. After clinical examination, discussion of the mode of treatment and the expected outcome, the patients were requested to complete the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ) with several additions. The duration of their treatment was 6-14 months, and the main goals were tooth alignment, crowding alleviation, or space closure. After removal of the appliances, they completed an identical PIDAQ. Each patient served as his/her own control. Assessment of the impact of aesthetic improvement was based on the responses to the same questions relating to the patients' perceived dental aesthetics before and after treatment, their self-esteem, and changes in their social behaviour resulting from the treatment. The data were analysed using Cohen's and Pearson's correlation analyses and chi-square and Student's t-tests. A statistically significant improvement (P < 0.001) was found for all four factors: dental self-confidence (DSC), social impact (SI), psychological impact (PI), and aesthetic concern (AC). The reliability of the questionnaire, using Cronbach's alpha, was between 0.709 and 0.947. The degree of significance was not related to age, marital status, education, or gender. Dental aesthetics generated a significant improvement in adult patients' quality of life for the period examined (up to 6 months post-treatment).