Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and aggression in non-clinical children: relationships with self-report and performance-based measures of attention and effortful control.
This study investigated the relation between the regulative trait of effortful control, and in particular attention control, and psychopathological symptoms in a sample of 207 non-clinical children aged 8-12 years. For this purpose, children completed self-report scales for measuring regulative traits and various types of psychopathological symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression, and aggression) and were tested with a neuropsychological battery for measuring attention/effortful control capacity. Results indicated that self-report and performance-based measures of attention/effortful control were at best moderately correlated. Further, it was found that self-report indexes of attention/effortful control were clearly negatively related to psychopathological symptoms, which provides support for the notion that low regulation is associated with higher levels of psychopathology. Finally, the performance-based measure of attention/effortful control was not convincingly related to psychopathological symptoms.
Muris
Peter
P
Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, Suite T13-37, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. muris@fsw.eur.nl
van der Pennen
Els
E
Sigmond
Rianne
R
Mayer
Birgit
B
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires