The mental health problems of the elementary schoolers are very important in the point that those problems do not only manifest in this period but sustain until adolescent and adulthood, which is related with various social-cultural problems. Although...
The mental health problems of the elementary schoolers are very important in the point that those problems do not only manifest in this period but sustain until adolescent and adulthood, which is related with various social-cultural problems. Although, studies of the early detection and treatment of the psychological problems of the elementary schoolers were a thriving area, existing studies didn't integrated the information and report results based on diverse sources and the subjects were limited to abnormal children and psychiatric samples. The parent rating form, children report form, and teacher rating form of Korean Parent Report of Children were measured to the elementary schoolers and the differences of the problem areas and the derived profile types according to the rater were found and implications of the results were discussed
The parent rating form, children report form, and teacher rating form of KPRC were administrated to 4~6 grade elementary schoolers(N=572) who were while in 12 school located in Kyeong-nam and their parents and teachers. The form which had omitted personal information or items more than 5% were excluded and the data of 540 students and their parents and teachers were analyzed. To investigate the rating agreement, Pearson correlation score were calculated between 12 scale scores, except L and ICN. Oneway MANOVA and Scheffe post comparison were performed on F, ERS, and 10 clinical scales to review the differences between the problem area the raters perceived. The profile types of elementary schoolers were derived by cluster analysis on the 10 clinical scale scores of each raters. Hierarchical cluster analysis, Ward method were carried out to determine the appropriate number of the cluster of the 10 clinical scale scores and the mean and standard deviation were reckoned. Final cluster number was determine by K-means, the non-hierarchial cluster analysis.
The results and implications are as follow: First, the parent-children inter-rater agreement was higher than the inter-rater agreement of teacher-children and teacher-parent. VDL and HPR scale revealed no differences between the raters. F, PDL, and FAM scale were perceived as the problem area to children, teacher, and parent, in which the children rated each scale most highly. ERS, VDL, ANX, DEP, DLQ, HPR, and PSY scale showed no differences between the children and teacher but the children and teacher rated these scales higher than parent. SOM scale was rated highest by the children but it didn't reveal significant differences between the teacher and parent. These results suggest that for an integrative and comprehensive evaluation, the psychological diagnosis and assessment of the children must consider the various information based on diverse sources.
Second, derived cluster profiles from the results of parent rating, children report, and teacher rating show following characteristics: ⑴ the cluster profiles of the parent ratings are the very normal profile, the normal profile which reveals somewhat depression and complaints resulted from the associates, the acting-out profile, and the general complaints profile, ⑵ the cluster profiles of the children reports are the normal profile, the normal but depressive profile, the affective-psychological complaints profile, the high general complaints profile, and the acting-out profile, ⑶ the cluster profiles of the teacher ratings are the normal profile, the normal but somatic complaining profile, the normal but depressive and having problems with friends, the acting-out profile, the general complaints profile. The profiles derived from each rating or reports show common profile like the very normal profile, the normal but moderate depressive and anxious profile which shows somatization, interpersonal withdrawal, somatic complaints, the acting-out profile that is related with delinquency or hyperactivity that are found from ADHD, the general complaints profile that all clinical scales are relatively elevated. The profile complaining for depression and the interpersonal withdrawal, somatic complaints occupied 15%, 19.8%, 19.42% in the profile rate of parent, children, and teacher, respectively. The profile indicating low frustration tolerance and behavioral problems hold 13.1%, 8.8%, 5.2% from the profile rated of teacher, children, and parent, respectively. The finding that problems related with affective matter like anxiety, depression, somatization and acting-out occur relatively high suggest the need of early detection and preventive and therapeutic endeavor to improve the mental health of the early childhood, adolescent, and adulthood.
Although, this study derived the profiles by cluster analysis, the characteristics of the children who were identified by the profiles have not been confirmed by an interview. Further study should explore the children showing abnormal profiles through interview and precise diagnose.