Externalizing psychopathology in childhood: Self-perceptual accuracy, perceptions about others, and changes in problems over time

Nina Marie Kaiser, Purdue University

Abstract

The current project investigated a variety of relations between overly positive self-perceptions (“positive illusions,” Taylor, 1983) and behavioral and social problems in a large school-based sample of 3 rd and 4th grade children. Results generally supported an association between positive illusions and concurrent problems, particularly for positive illusions within the social and behavioral domains of competence. Findings were less supportive for a relation between current behavioral/social problems and positive illusions in the academic domain. Behavioral and social positive illusions did not significantly predict change in parent- and teacher-rated social problems over a two-month time period after controlling for initial externalizing severity. Post-hoc examination of the data, however, suggested that the time span covered by the project may have been too brief to obtain meaningful change in social problems. A third set of analyses suggested that positive illusions and children's perceptions of their peers serve as additive predictors of concurrent social problems. Finally, analyses investigating the relative utility of positive illusions scores in predicting externalizing symptoms suggested that discrepancies constructed using peer nomination data as competence criteria may be the most valuable in predicting concurrent symptoms, at least in the academic and social domains of competence.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Conger, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Developmental psychology|Psychotherapy

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