title: Children's internal representations, empathy, and fantasy play: a validity study of the SCORS-Q.
abstract: The authors investigated relationships among internal representations, empathy, and affective and cognitive processes in fantasy play to test the validity of the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale Q-Sort (SCORS-Q; D. Westen, 1995) with children. Eighty-six 8-10-year-olds were administered 8 Thematic Apperception Test cards, a standardized play task, and a self-report empathy measure. Teachers rated children's empathy and helpfulness. As predicted, internal representations were related to empathy, helpfulness, and quality of fantasy play. Developmental differences on the SCORS-Q were consistent with object relations theory and with results from the original SCORS. The findings support the value of internal representations as a means of understanding children's interpersonal functioning and contribute to the validity of the SCORS-Q for use with children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48859, USA. larissa.n.niec@cmich.edu
authors.forename: Larissa N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Niec
authors.forename: Sandra W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Russ
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004645:Empathy; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011594:Psychometrics; D011779:Q-Sort; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013803:Thematic Apperception Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data