Supervisors info:
Μυλωνάς Κωνσταντίνος, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ψυχολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Χατζηχρήστου Χρύση, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ψυχολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Πολυχρόνη Φωτεινή, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ψυχολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between psychosocial adjustment and its dimensions (social competence, emotional adequacy, academic competence, self-perception and behavioral problems), self-esteem, behavioral and emotional problems, in a normative sample of school-aged primary students. Furthermore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the concurrent validity of the dimensions of psychosocial adaptation, compared to psychometric tools of corresponding content.
More precisely the school constitutes the basic social frame, which corresponds with an all-around development of an individual. The cooperation and interaction of a child with its peers in the classroom can promote its emotional, intellectual and social development. These elements differentiate between the well and not so well adapted. Furthermore, psychosocial adaptation refers to social, emotional, schooling, self-esteem, and behavioral or non-behavioral skills. It displays various expressions of interpersonal and intrapersonal adaptation, such as the development of healthy interpersonal relationships and the understanding of personal skills and motivations, respectively.
Therefore, in this essay it was considered advisable to investigate the psychosocial adaptation, as it is an important factor in the development of learning difficulties. In particular, it has been established in previous research that psychosocial adaptation is related to the appearance of internal and external behavioral problems, thus it has been considered appropriate to study this relationship. In addition, a study of self-esteem in relation to psychosocial adaptation was also a worthwhile study, as it is an essential element of the individual's personality.
The participants were approximately 120 students attending the fifth and sixth grade. They were asked to complete a short version of 60 questions (D. Tsolakidis, Ph.D., undergoing doctoral dissertation) of the self-referral questionnaire that measures the psychosocial adaptation (Χατζηχρήστου, Πολυχρόνη, Μπεζεβέγκης, & Μυλωνάς, 2008), which from now on will be referred as ΣΕΕΨΠ , Rosenberg’s self-report questionnaire (1965), one for external behavioral problems (Renshaw & Cook, 2016) and one for internal problems (Anderson-Butcher, Amorose, Iachini, & Ball, 2013).
Regarding the psychometric part of the essay, factor analysis was performed using the principal component analysis of the ΣΕΕΨΠ, which indicated the existence of five factors. This finding is inconsistent with the original theoretical structure described by the questionnaires’ creators. Further on, according to the findings, it was shown that gender is linked to emotional adequacy, with girls reporting higher rates than boys.
In conclusion, the dimensions of psychosocial adaptation is related to self-esteem, internalized and externalized behavioral problems. However, a basic limitation of this research can be considered the size of the sample and the sampling method.