title: Perceptions of self, significant others, and teacher-child relationships in indiscriminately friendly children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite increasing research on indiscriminate friendliness in children, almost no research exists on social-cognitive deficits that are supposed to underlie indiscriminately friendly behavior. In this study, we compared indiscriminately friendly children with controls regarding their perceptions of self, reliability trust in significant others, and perceptions of the teacher-child relationship.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children's perceptions were compared in two samples: a sample of 33 likely cases for disinhibited reactive attachment disorder (RAD) from special education for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (75.76% boys, Mage=8.52, 96.9% Caucasian, 33.3% and 45.5% of their mothers completed primary or secondary education, respectively) was matched on sex, age, and socio-economic status with a sample of 33 controls from general education. Children participated individually in several interviews assessing global and social self-concept, reliability trust in significant others, teacher-child relationship perceptions, and vocabulary. Parents and teachers completed a screening questionnaire for RAD and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Likely disinhibited RAD-cases showed more indiscriminate friendliness and more problem behavior in general according to their parents and teachers than controls. Furthermore, likely RAD-cases reported a more positive global self-concept, more reliability trust in significant others, and more dependency in the teacher-child relationship than controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results are in line with clinical observations of indiscriminately friendly children and findings in clinical samples of maltreated or attachment disrupted children but contrast hypotheses from developmental attachment research. Further research is needed to explain the more positive perceptions of indiscriminately friendly children.
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven - School Psychology and Child and Adolescent Development (SCAD), Tiensestraat 102, Box 3717, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: noortje.vervoort@ppw.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vervoort
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven - Parenting and Special Education, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 32, Box 3765, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bosmans
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven - School Psychology and Child and Adolescent Development (SCAD), Tiensestraat 102, Box 3717, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doumen
authors.affiliation: University of Glasgow - Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow G3 8SJ, Scotland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Minnis
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven - School Psychology and Child and Adolescent Development (SCAD), Tiensestraat 102, Box 3717, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Verschueren
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Child perceptions; Indiscriminate friendliness; Perceptions of self; Reliability trust; Teacher–child relationship perceptions