Thesis--Universität Giessen.

A pertinent problem in child guidance settings is the apparent inability of a considerable number of parents to involve themselves in treatment. This results in seriously limiting the amount of help that can be given to the child, or results in the parents withdrawing from the agency leaving the problem untouched. It was therefore considered important to attempt to isolate resistance, as manifested by parents, to casework services during the intake study. Some of the causative factors in resistance are discussed in general terms, as background. A small group of cases (6) were then chosen for detailed examination. In all of these, a high degree of resistance was manifested. The defense mechanisms used to manifest resistance are described in general, and analysed in the specific cases. Skills and techniques which the social worker used to decrease initial resistance were then tabulated; and from these certain common denominators became evident. The findings indicate a need for some refinement of intake procedures. There is evidently need also for greater effort on the part of social workers to decrease initial resistance, since the capacity of parents to involve themselves in treatment appears to be dependent upon the favorable conditions created for them by the intake worker. Resistance is a complex phenomenon however, and demands further research. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

No description available.

To investigate the subjective experience of children diagnosed with anxiety disorders and the presenting complaints that children with anxiety disorders are referred with to a child and adolescent psychiatry unit.

by Shing Chi Yuen. / Thesis (M.S.Sc.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 49-56. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.V / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER I - --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / The influence of family --- p.1 / Coping responses --- p.7 / Hopelessness --- p.13 / Purpose of the Present Study --- p.18 / Chapter CHAPTER II - --- METHOD --- p.21 / Subjects --- p.21 / Instruments --- p.21 / Procedure --- p.25 / Chapter CHAPTER III - --- RESULTS --- p.26 / "Differences between child psychiatric patients and school children in family relations, hopelessness, and coping responses" --- p.26 / "Interrelationships among family relations, hopelessness, coping responses and emotional disturbance" --- p.29 / "Predictive power of family relations, hopelessness and coping responses in predicting emotional disturbance" --- p.33 / The mediating effect of coping responses --- p.38 / Chapter CHAPTER IV - --- Discussion --- p.41 / REFERENCES --- p.49 / APPENDICES --- p.57

This thesis contributes to the executive dysfunction account of autism by demonstrating that impairments in inhibitory control, an aspect of executive functioning, are partially responsible for deficits in the cooperative play of highfunctioning children with autism (HFA). As past research on whether inhibitory control is impaired in autism has been inconclusive, a meta-analysis of 42 empirical studies (57 effect sizes, total n = 2,256) was conducted, which provided clear evidence for impaired inhibition in HFA children. It was also found that the degree of impairment shown does not vary across measures of inhibition, which has important methodological implications for future research. Two experimental studies were carried out to directly test the link between inhibition and three components of cooperation: reciprocity, accepting the play partner's input, and fairness. In study one, HFA children in primary school and agematched typically-developing (TD) peers were tested on engaging in joint attention, theory of mind (ToM), measures of inhibition, and a cooperative drawing task. The groups did not differ on first-order ToM and joint attention, but HFA participants demonstrated poorer inhibitory control and less cooperative behaviour. Importantly, the degree of impairment in inhibitory control predicted reciprocity and accepting the play partner's input in HFA children. The second experimental study investigated whether poor inhibitory control can explain the well-established discrepancy between moral reasoning and actual sharing behaviour. A sample of HFA and TD children of primary school age completed a moral reasoning interview, inhibitory control tasks, and a Dictator Game. The results showed that while HFA children demonstrated age-typical levels of moral reasoning and sharing, inhibitory control emerged as the most important predictor of sharing behaviour, lending support to the hypothesis that the ability to suppress one's own desires is a prerequisite of acting considerately. The last study comprises a qualitative investigation of TD children's experience of engaging in cooperative play with their sibling who has a diagnosis of HFA. Six children between the ages of 5 and 11 were interviewed, and their reports analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Five themes emerged: poor emotion regulation, restricted interests, and no acceptance of the playmate's contributions reduced the hedonistic value of joint play for the participants, but these were mitigated by appreciation for the HFA sibling's creativity and adjustment to the HFA sibling's behavioural atypicalities. These results can inform the development of support programmes for TD siblings and social skills training for HFA children. Overall, the results of the studies included in this thesis provide evidence that deficits in inhibitory control moderate the relationship between relatively intact social knowledge and impaired social competence in HFA children. This refinement of the executive dysfunction account is a useful building block for an improved multiple-deficit model of the autism phenotype.

published_or_final_version / Statistics / Master / Master of Social Sciences

How does the social worker respond to the disturbed child in direct treatment when working in a psychiatric clinic? In other words, in the one-to-one relationship with a child, what techniques does the social worker apply in order to enhance the child's emotional well-being? On what body of knowledge does the social worker base his choice of technique in a given situation? The present study is undertaken to explore these questions, with reference to the special circumstances of the psychiatrically-oriented clinic. In Child Guidance Clinics (specifically, the Children's Clinic: Burnaby, B.C.), social workers are under the supervision off psychiatrists as well, as senior social workers. The other consideration in this complex picture is children are not "miniature adults" - they present practical and theoretical differences from the adult client. It is not, therefore, a simple matter of applying casework skills worked out for adults to the direct treatment of children in a psychiatric clinic. To determine the specific techniques applied by the social workers, one written recording was selected from the caseload of each of a group of social workers. In addition, one fully tape-recorded interview was available for analysis. Each recording followed two criteria: (a) the recording showed workers' responses as well as the child's activities; (b) the children are between the ages of six and ten. This age span includes children old enough to verbalize to the extent that enables some verbal communication between worker and child, and because such children are young enough to be representative of the problems unique to disturbed children. This sample of techniques was analyzed according to two frameworks: (1) the accepted social work body of knowledge and (2) the psychoanalytic viewpoint as set out by Melanie Klein, this latter approach being utilized because it represents the view that children can be psychoanalyzed on the same basic principles as adults. The general psychoanalytic structure is chosen because of the type of psychiatric supervision received by social workers referred to above. On the whole, the workers' responses are clearly identifiable. Almost all of these responses corresponded to the description of social work techniques; only a few (four) corresponded to psychoanalytic techniques. The social work body of knowledge (including the principles, values, knowledge of human behavior, the caseworker-client relationship) was in the main utilized by the workers in the recordings selected, in spite of the different considerations presented in working with children and in spite of the psychoanalytically-oriented supervision. It appears that this supervision or consultation is utilized to increase the worker's understanding of the child, rather than utilized to apply psychoanalytic techniques directly. There is still room for further study, however, on the nature of psychiatric consultation. From such a small sample, the conclusions reached cannot be considered applicable to the clinic as a whole. Also, since the techniques analyzed were each applied in one interview out of a series of interviews, the benefit to the child of the worker's activities is not part of the assessment of this study. Preliminary analysis of this kind however is essential before these further studies can be properly undertaken. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Psychotherapeutic work with children started in 1905, when Dr. Sigmund Freud undertook the first child analysis. The third decade of the twentieth century near the beginnings of the work of Melanie Klein and Anna Freud in Europe, and the growing strength of the child guidance movement in this country.

This study was designed to assess the reliability of "The Psychiatric Rating Scale for Diagnostic Classification of Children and Adolescents" as an instrument for determining diagnoses congruent with DSM-III criteria. In Phase I graduate students from a University doctoral program in psychology independently rated case vignettes and completed the 64-item rating scale to arrive at Axis I or II diagnoses consistent with DSM-III classifications for Disorders Usually First Evident in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence. Subsequent correlations to determine individual scale reliability yielded significantly positive correlations. Clinicians practicing in three diverse metropolitan mental health settings acted as raters in Phase II of the study. Paired raters jointly interviewed a total of 54 child or adolescent patients and independently completed the rating scale to arrive at Axis I or II diagnoses. These diagnoses were subsequently correlated with diagnoses previously obtained by traditional psychometric methods. Phase II interrater agreement was 92 percent for Axis I and II combined, with a .96 correlation. Rating scale diagnoses when correlated with traditional psychometic diagnoses yielded an overall rate of agreement on Axis I of 95 percent for Rater 1 and 90 percent for Rater 2 and correlations of .96 and .95 respectively. Clinicians were asked to rate a case vignette having previously been given an erroneous diagnosis. This attempt to assess rater expectancy effects yielded an agreement rate of 100 percent for the correct diagnosis. These results supported both major hypotheses of the study at a minimum of the .001 level of significance. They also confirmed a prior belief concerning limited intrusion upon rating scale reliability from rater expectancies. As a reliable and objective method of eliciting, structuring, and evaluating patient information, the rating scale could aide in reducing interdisciplinary interview variability and time expenditures among clinicians while providing an appropriate foundation for entry into treatment.