Internalizing Behaviors (internalizing + behavior)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Relational Aggression and Adverse Psychosocial and Physical Health Symptoms Among Urban Adolescents

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 6 2009
Jessica Roberts Williams
ABSTRACT Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine relational aggression and its relationship with adverse psychosocial and physical health symptoms among urban, African American youth. Design and Sample: Quantitative, cross-sectional survey design. The sample consisted of 185 predominantly African American (95.1%) seventh-grade students (mean age: 13.0; female: 58%) attending 4 urban middle schools. Measures: The Children's Social Behavior Scale and Social Experience Questionnaire were used to measure relational aggression and relational victimization. The Pediatric Symptom Checklist was used to assess psychosocial difficulties, including internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and attention problems. Physical health symptoms were measured with questions about colds/flu, headaches, and stomach aches. Results: 2-way multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences in externalizing behavior, with perpetrators reporting higher levels than nonperpetrators. Victims reported more internalizing behavior than nonvictims; however, this was only significant for males. For females, significant negative effects on health outcomes were found, resulting from the interaction of perpetration and victimization. Conclusions: Findings suggest that relational aggression is a common occurrence among urban, minority adolescents and may result in adverse health outcomes. These results provide several avenues for future research and implications for healthcare practice. Intervention strategies are needed to prevent relational aggression and continual or subsequent adverse health symptoms. [source]


Developmental pathways of eating problems in adolescents

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 8 2008
Annie Aimé PhD
Abstract Objective: To examine the developmental eating trajectories of adolescents and identify psychological correlates and risk factors associated with those trajectories. Method: Seven hundred thirty-nine adolescents completed self-reported measures of eating problems, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, alcohol and drug use, peer victimization, and depression. Results: Five eating trajectories were obtained. The proportions of males and females were the same in the increasing eating problems trajectory. For both genders, internalizing and externalizing problems were identified as associated risk factors of an eating pathology and reporting at least some eating problems was associated with an increased likelihood of psychological problems. Other risk factors found only in boys were frequency of drug use, victimization, and depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Externalizing problems in girls and internalizing behaviors in boys with disordered eating should not be overlooked. Atypical eating behaviors in boys are of particular concern since it increases their risk of cooccurring psychopathology. © 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2008 [source]


Parenting Skills Training: An Effective Intervention for Internalizing Symptoms in Younger Children?

JOURNAL OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC NURSING, Issue 2 2005
Clin PsyD, Sam Cartwright-Hatton D Phil
PROBLEM:,A number of interventions are effective in treating older children with internalizing symptoms. However, little is known about the efficacy of psychological interventions in treating younger children. This study examined the impact on internalizing symptoms of a parenting skills training program. METHODS:,Forty-three parents took part in a parenting skills training program. Externalizing and internalizing behaviors were measured before and after treatment and after a 6-month period. FINDINGS:,Externalizing symptoms fell after treatment. Interestingly, internalizing scores fell to an approximately equivalent degree. CONCLUSIONS:,An intervention targeted towards parenting may be efficacious in the treatment of children's internalizing symptoms. [source]


Positive Marital Quality, Acculturative Stress, and Child Outcomes Among Mexican Americans

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 4 2009
Melinda S. Leidy
Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle-class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working-class first generation Mexican American families using observational and self-report data. This study examined the links between positive marital quality and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors 1 year later when the child was in sixth grade (N = 134 families). Positive marital quality was negatively correlated with child internalizing behaviors. Parent acculturative stress was found to mediate the relationship between positive marital quality and child internalizing behaviors in sixth grade. [source]


The Role of Socialization, Effortful Control, and Ego Resiliency in French Adolescents' Social Functioning

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 3 2010
Claire Hofer
The relations among effortful control, ego resiliency, socialization, and social functioning were examined with a sample of 182 French adolescents (14,20 years old). Adolescents, their parents, and/or teachers completed questionnaires on these constructs. Effortful control and ego resiliency were correlated with adolescents' social functioning, especially with low externalizing and internalizing behaviors and sometimes with high peer competence. Furthermore, aspects of socialization (parenting practices more than family expressiveness) were associated with adolescents' effortful control, ego resiliency, and social functioning. Effortful control and ego resiliency mediated the relations between parental socialization and adolescents' peer competence and internalizing problems. Furthermore, effortful control mediated the relations between socialization and adolescents' externalizing behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of cultural and developmental variation. [source]


African American Adolescent Girls in Impoverished Communities: Parenting Style and Adolescent Outcomes

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 2 2001
Laura D. Pittman
The relationship between parenting style and adolescent functioning was examined in a sample of 302 African American adolescent girls and their mothers who lived in impoverished neighborhoods. Although previous research has found that authoritative parenting, as compared with authoritarian, permissive, and disengaged parenting, is associated with positive adolescent outcomes in both European American, middle-class and large multiethnic school-based samples, these parenting categories have not been fully explored in African American families living at or near poverty level. Data were collected from adolescent girls and their self-identified mothers or mother figures using in-home interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Parenting style was found to be significantly related to adolescent outcome in multiple domains including externalizing and internalizing behaviors, academic achievement, work orientation, sexual experience, and pregnancy history. Specifically, teens whose mothers were disengaged (low on both parental warmth and supervision/monitoring) were found to have the most negative outcomes. [source]


Body weight, social competence, and cognitive functioning in survivors of childhood brain tumors,

PEDIATRIC BLOOD & CANCER, Issue 3 2010
Fiona Schulte PhD
Abstract Background The purpose of the following article was to examine: (a) body mass index (BMI) in survivors of childhood brain tumors; (b) the association of BMI with social competence and cognitive functioning; and (c) congruency in reporting of survivors' social competence by the survivors, parents, and teachers. Procedure Fifty-four survivors of childhood brain tumors (32 males) 8,18 years participated. BMI-for-age percentiles and BMI Z -scores (SDS) were calculated and survivors were categorized as underweight, normal, overweight, or obese, using established criteria. Informants completed measures of social competence and internalizing behaviors. Survivors also completed a test of self-perception and cognitive functioning (IQ). Results Survivors were more underweight (15% vs. 4%), and less overweight (17% vs. 31%) than population norms (,2,=,38.62, P,<,0.001). Parents perceived lower social competence in survivors that were underweight, had lower verbal IQ, and higher internalizing behaviors (P,<,0.05). A significant interaction between BMI-for-age and IQ on self-perception of close friendships suggested that survivors with lower weight and lower IQ perceived having fewer close friendships (P,<,0.05). Congruency among the three informants was moderate. Conclusions Survivors of childhood brain tumors are at increased risk for underweight. Underweight status is related to lower parent reported social competence and survivors' self-perception of fewer close friendships in the presence of low IQ. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55:532,539. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Modifying socially withdrawn behavior: A playground intervention for students with internalizing behaviors

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 8 2007
Michelle R. Marchant
There is little research regarding interventions for children with internalizing behaviors in schools, both within classrooms and in nonclassroom environments. In response to this need, a nonclassroom treatment package, consisting of (a) social skills instruction, (b) mediated self-management, and (c) a reinforcement system, was implemented to modify the socially withdrawn behavior of 3 elementary students. The effects of this treatment package were evaluated on the school playground,during recess,by recording both the number of communicative acts and the total time spent engaged in appropriate peer play for each target student. All target students showed marked improvement in their playground, social interaction. Future research should be conducted with similar populations, using variations of the described methods in other school settings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 779,794, 2007. [source]


Relational Aggression and Adverse Psychosocial and Physical Health Symptoms Among Urban Adolescents

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 6 2009
Jessica Roberts Williams
ABSTRACT Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine relational aggression and its relationship with adverse psychosocial and physical health symptoms among urban, African American youth. Design and Sample: Quantitative, cross-sectional survey design. The sample consisted of 185 predominantly African American (95.1%) seventh-grade students (mean age: 13.0; female: 58%) attending 4 urban middle schools. Measures: The Children's Social Behavior Scale and Social Experience Questionnaire were used to measure relational aggression and relational victimization. The Pediatric Symptom Checklist was used to assess psychosocial difficulties, including internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and attention problems. Physical health symptoms were measured with questions about colds/flu, headaches, and stomach aches. Results: 2-way multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences in externalizing behavior, with perpetrators reporting higher levels than nonperpetrators. Victims reported more internalizing behavior than nonvictims; however, this was only significant for males. For females, significant negative effects on health outcomes were found, resulting from the interaction of perpetration and victimization. Conclusions: Findings suggest that relational aggression is a common occurrence among urban, minority adolescents and may result in adverse health outcomes. These results provide several avenues for future research and implications for healthcare practice. Intervention strategies are needed to prevent relational aggression and continual or subsequent adverse health symptoms. [source]


Childhood problem behaviors and injury risk over the life course

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 12 2009
Markus Jokela
Background:, Childhood externalizing and internalizing behaviors have been associated with injury risk in childhood and adolescence, but it is unknown whether this association continues to hold in adulthood. We examined whether externalizing and internalizing behaviors expressed in childhood predict injuries in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Methods:, The participants were from the 1958 British birth cohort (n = 11,537). Problem behaviors were assessed by teachers at ages 7 and 11. Injuries were reported by the participants' parents (at ages 7, 11, 16) and by the participants (at ages 23, 33, 42, and 46). Data on injury severity were available at ages 23 and 33, and on types of injuries at ages 23, 33, and 42. Measures of childhood family environment included father's social class, family size, and family difficulties. Adult psychological distress, treated as a potential mediating factor, was assessed at ages 23, 33, and 42. Results:, Externalizing behavior predicted increased injury risk: one SD increase in externalizing score was associated with 10,19% increase in the rate of injuries in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. In contrast, internalizing behavior decreased injury rate by 3,9% in adolescence and adulthood. Externalizing behavior was associated with various types of injuries, including injuries in traffic, at home, at work, and from violent assaults, while internalizing behavior predicted decreased injury risk particularly in sports, in traffic, and at home. These associations were largely independent of childhood family environment and adult psychological distress. Conclusions:, The findings suggest that childhood problem behaviors predict injury risk over the life course from childhood to midlife, with externalizing behaviors increasing and internalizing behaviors decreasing this risk. [source]