Psychopathological symptoms, social skills, and personality traits: a study with adolescents

The purpose of this study is two-fold: (a) to study the concomitant relationships between psychopathological symptoms, cooperation, social skills, and other personality traits; and (b) to identify the predictive variables of psychopathological symptoms. The sample consists of 322 adolescents aged 14 to 17 years old. This study uses correlational methodology. In order to assess psychopathological symptoms, cooperation, social skills, and personality traits, the following scales are used: the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1983), the Cooperativeness Scale (CS; Rigby, Cox, and Black, 1997), the MESSY social skills scale (Matson, Rotatori, and Helsel, 1983), and the TPT Personality Test (Corral, Pamos, Pere?a, and& Seisdedos, 2002). Pearson coefficients suggest that adolescents with many psychopathological symptoms have low levels of cooperative behaviors and social skills. They also score high in inappropriate assertiveness, impulsiveness, overconfidence, and jealousy-withdrawal and have low levels of emotional stability, sociability, and responsibility. Through multiple regression analyses, the following variables were identified as predictors of psychopathological symptoms: jealousy-withdrawal, low social integration, impulsiveness, and low self-concept. The role played by intervention programs promoting socio-emotional development to prevent psychopathological symptoms and enhance mental health is discussed.     

Social competency and social perceptivity in self and others

Males who self-reported heterosocial problems and whose role-play interactions were judged to be low on social competence were compared to a group of high socially competent males on their ability to judge their own and others' social competency. Results indicated that in comparison to the high-competent group, low-competent males showed less agreement with judges in rating their own and others' levels of competency. Using profile components of elevation, scatter, and pattern, more detailed analyses showed that the two groups differed primarily on scatter. The low-competent individuals had less scatter, suggesting that they have a discrimination deficiency. Implications of the results are discussed for the etiology and treatment of social incompetence and for future research.     

Role of social skills training in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

Background/Objective: Social skills training (SST) is frequently included in the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in both children and adolescents, although there is no empirical evidence to support it. Consequently, our objective is to study the role and effects of SST in the treatment of a sample of adolescents with SAD. Method: A total of 108 adolescents diagnosed with generalized social phobia were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions (with and without SST) and a control group waiting list (WLCG). The evaluation included self-report measures, observational tests and blind evaluators. Results: Both interventions significantly reduced the number of social situations feared/avoided with respect to the WLCG, which worsened. Likewise, both interventions were effective but the group with SST obtained better results in the post-test and follow-ups, as well as a lower dropout rate (6:1). Conclusions: The use of SST reduces the dropout rate of treated adolescents and increases the effectiveness of the Intervention Program for Adolescents with Social Phobia.     

Understanding the role of social support in trajectories of mental health symptoms for immigrant adolescents

This longitudinal study of 286, urban residing, first- and second-generation immigrant adolescents examined the degree to which acculturative stress is related to the developmental trajectories of mental health problems and the role of social support in this process. Participants were recruited when they entered 10th grade and two additional waves of data were gathered at 12-month intervals. Using individual growth curve modeling, the results show significant decline in internalizing mental health problems during the high school years. At the same time, greater exposure to acculturative stress predicted significantly more withdrawn/depressed, somatic, and anxious/depressed symptoms. Additionally, social support moderated the relation between acculturative stress and anxious/depressed symptoms. Gender and generation status differences were found only at baseline (10th grade).     

Correlates of adult and child perceptions of social competency

In this study, the relationship between two commonly used measures of social competency, peer ratings of perceived status and adult ratings of assertiveness, were examined. In Phase I, high and low sociometric status children were videotaped responding to a series of role-play scenes; performance on these scenes was then rated retrospectively by adults for overall assertiveness. In Phase II, a second group of children who were unfamiliar with the videotaped children observed the taped scenes and provided ratings of likability, intelligence, working together, and attractiveness. In general, results revealed that children and adults differed in their ratings of the videotaped children. Further, boys used different cues in their ratings than did girls. More specifically, the sociometric status of girls was related to perceived attractiveness, whereas the sociometric status of boys was more closely related to perceived intelligence. Such findings suggest that children and adults look for and use different cues in their judgments. Given these differences, it is concluded that child and adult ratings should not be used interchangeably in the assessment of, and evaluation of, social competency in children.Portions of this research were supported by a grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.     

Depressive symptoms in Swedish adolescents

This study examined the prevalence of self-reported depressive symptoms in a Swedish urban school sample (n=547) aged 13 to 18 years using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The data obtained were examined with respect to sex and age differences and compared with a clinical sample of adolescents hospitalized because of psychiatric disturbances. The results indicated a strong preponderance of depressive symptoms among girls in the school sample, in particular for the severe symptom level. Eight percent of subjects reported depressive symptoms sufficiently high to be classified as a moderate, and 2% as a severe, level of depression. Factor analysis yielded four factors representing dysphoric mood, social activity, relationship, and food-related dimensions. The BDI showed a high internal consistency, and test-retest reliability calculated for a 2-week and a 2-month interval revealed strong correlations. The means of total scores on the BDI for the clinical sample were significantly higher than for those in the school sample.     

The role of emotional maltreatment and looming cognitive style in the development of social anxiety symptoms in late adolescents

Background: Social looming constitutes a specific cognitive vulnerability that acts as a danger schema and biases the processing of threat-related information associated with the development of social anxiety disorder. This model characterizes early negative experiences as critical to the formation of looming cognitive style. Furthermore, research has found links between parental emotional abuse and peer victimization and social anxiety. Design: A three-wave longitudinal design was used to analyze the role of parents’ emotional abuse and peer victimization in the onset of social anxiety symptoms through the development of this cognitive style. Methods: The final sample was made up of 307 females and 243 males (M_age?=?16.97, SD_age?=?.81). Perceived parents’ emotional abuse and peer victimization by participants were measured at Time 1, social looming was measured at Time 1 and 2, and social anxiety symptoms were measured at Times 1, 2, and 3. Results: Parents’ emotional abuse and peer victimization were related to social anxiety cross-sectionally. Longitudinally, social looming acted as a mediator in the relationship between parents’ emotional abuse and social anxiety. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms through which emotional abuse and peer victimization impact social looming and contribute to social anxiety.     

Item response theory analyses of adult self-ratings of the ADHD symptoms in the Current Symptoms Scale

The graded response model, which is based on item response theory, was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of adult self-ratings (N = 852) of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity symptoms presented in the Current Symptoms Scale. This scale has four ordered response categories. The results for the discrimination parameters showed that all symptoms were generally good for discriminating their respective latent traits. For virtually all symptoms, their threshold values showed that they were especially good at representing the appropriate traits from around the mean trait level onward. The item information function values for most symptoms indicated reasonable reliability from approximately the mean trait level onward. All these findings are new and extend existing psychometric information for adult self-ratings of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in the Current Symptoms Scale.     

Ratings of social support by adolescents and adult informants: degree of correspondence and prediction of depressive symptoms

It has been suggested that the personality of the individual influences appraisal processes that determine ratings of both social support and mental health, thus leading to an association between these variables that reflects only their shared self-report bias. To test whether ratings of social support made by someone other than the target individual would significantly predict outcomes, 115 pregnant adolescent girls and 115 adults who knew the adolescents well both completed ratings of the adolescent's social support. Results showed a moderate level of agreement between adolescent and informant support ratings. Both self-report and informant total social support ratings predicted pregnancy depression scores. Only informant social support ratings were significant predictors of postpartum depression scores. The ability of informants' ratings of social support to predict the adjustment of the adolescents to a major life stress was viewed as evidence that the commonly found link between social support and mental health reflects more than self-report biases.     

Frequency and comorbidity of social phobia and social fears in adolescents.

This report presents findings on the frequency, comorbidity and psychosocial impairment of social phobia and social fears among 1035 adolescents, aged 12-17 years. The adolescents were randomly selected from 36 schools in the province of Bremen, Germany. Social phobia and other psychiatric disorders were coded based on DSM-IV criteria using the computerized Munich version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Seventeen (1.6%) of the adolescents met the DSM-IV criteria for social phobia sometimes in their life. More girls than boys received the diagnosis of social phobia and the frequency of the disorder increased with age. The lifetime frequency of social fears were much higher than that of social phobia. The most common types of feared social situations were fear of doing something in front of other people, followed by public speaking. Social phobia comorbid highly with depressive disorders, somatoform disorders and substance use disorders. Despite the high level of psychosocial impairment experienced by cases with social phobia and those with any social fears, only a small portion of them did receive professional help.     

Item response theory analyses of adolescent self-ratings of the ADHD symptoms in the Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale

The graded response model (GRM) was used to evaluate the item response theory properties of the ADHD inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in the Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale-Self Report (DBRS-SR). This measure was completed by 363 adolescents, between 12 and 17 years of age. The findings showed that all symptoms were generally good for discriminating their respective latent traits. For most symptoms, their threshold values suggested that they were good at representing the appropriate traits from the mean trait levels, and their information values began to increase substantially from around −1 SD from the mean. These findings indicate good psychometric properties for the DBRS-SR. The practical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Loneliness and social dissatisfaction in Turkish adolescents

The present study is an investigation of the relationships of sociometric status, gender, and academic achievement to loneliness levels of Turkish adolescents. Participants were 370 secondary school students (186 girls and 184 boys). Data on loneliness and social dissatisfaction levels of students were collected with the Turkish version of S. R. Asher and V. A. Wheeler's (1985) Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Scale. Sociometric data were gathered by using a rating scale and a positive nomination measure devised by S. R. Asher and K. A. Dodge (1986) in which participants were classified into one of four groups (popular, rejected, neglected, and controversial). The scores obtained from these measures were treated by a method similar to that of J. D. Coie, K. A. Dodge, and H. Coppotelli's (1982) standard score approach. Results revealed that sociometric status was significantly related to loneliness and social dissatisfaction as a function of peer relations. Members of the rejected group reported significantly higher levels of loneliness and social dissatisfaction than did members of the controversial, popular, and neglected groups. The controversial group was also significantly different from the popular group in loneliness level. No significant gender differences were found. Results also revealed a significant negative relationship between achievement scores and loneliness, indicating that as the level of loneliness increased, academic achievement decreased.     

Ethnicities and social adjustment in Canadian adolescents

Canada is a complex plural society made of groups with multiple ethnic and linguistic origins. It is uncertain whether government support for multiculturalism is reflected in retention of ethnic identities in the majority of the population in the face of both acculturative social forces and publicly expressed political arguments against multiculturalism. The degree to which ethnic identity or identities are retained in young people is explored through secondary analysis of data gathered on some 2,100 Alberta adolescents, with analysis of various kinds of social adjustment that may be linked to expressed ethnic origins or ancestries. Nearly half of the adolescents retained a single ethnic allegiance, with the remainder expressing multiple ethnic identities. Many non-random patterns were found in terms of association of declared ethnic allegiance and variables such as home language; religious affiliation and observance; scholastic achievement; sexual behaviour; alcohol and drug use; family structure; and parental education family discord, and selfesteem. Three groups (South Asian, Chinese, and Spanish and Portuguese) emerged as having strong family systems, conservative social habits and high achievement aspirations. Correlation of variables across ethnic groupings indicated a coherent pattern, with students of German, Polish, and Italian ancestry forming a group; Dutch and Ukrainian-ancestry students another; French, Scots, and Irish-ancestry a further group; and Scandinavian and English-ancestry students another group. The results are promising enough for us to propose that further research on comlex ethnic identities and social behaviours in youth should be undertaken.     

Decoding deficits and social competency: A continuous rating approach

Males who self-reported heterosocial difficulties and whose performance in a role-played interaction was judged to be of low social competence were compared to high-competent males on a continuous rating task. The rating task required that subjects make continual, ongoing social competency ratings of their own and six other males' performance in a role-play situation. The continuous measurement of performance provided a profile of ratings that was compared on frequency, latency-to-first ratings, profile elevation or level, scatter, and patterning. Low-competent males had longer latencies-to-first ratings than high-competent males and less scatter in their continuous ratings than did the high-competent group. The reduced scatter effect for continuous ratings replicates previous work done with global ratings and suggests that the low-competent group may not be able to discriminate among social stimuli as well as the high-competent group. The research also suggests that the continuous rating methodology may hold promise as a tool to investigate social perception processes.     

Career practitioners' conceptions of competency for social media in career services

This article reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into career practitioners' understanding of competency for social media in career services. Sixteen Danish and Finnish practitioners with experience using social media in career services were interviewed in focus groups. Competency for social media in career services was conceived as (i) an ability to use social media for delivering information, (ii) an ability to use social media for delivering career services, (iii) an ability to utilise social media for collaborative career exploration and (iv) an ability to utilise social media for co-careering. The findings can be used to develop pre-service and in-service training of career practitioners and support for the deepening of their competency, using the critical aspects that were identified.