A large body of research has examined if early psychopathology symptoms predict continued social difficulties into adolescence; however, few studies have examined whether early social competence predict which children will develop and maintain psychopathology symptoms across childhood and adolescence. Utilizing the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development dataset, this study included a multi-method assessment of social competence in preschoolers and examined whether these social competency measures predicted internalizing and externalizing psychopathology symptom trajectories throughout childhood and adolescence. Additionally, it examined whether social competency measures predicted narrowband measures of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, and psychopathy in 3rd - 9th grade. Exploratory factory analyses could not identify underlying factors among the social competency measures; as such, these were examined individually. Two to four classes were identified using Growth Mixture Modeling for parent- and teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing trajectories. Generally, children who had worse preschool social competence were more likely to be in the various moderate and high psychopathology symptom trajectory classes. Some measures of social competency were predictive of parent and teacher-reported ADHD and ODD and self-reported psychopathy, with differing relations for males and females; no measures were predictive of self-reported depression. This study has important implications with regard to early identification of and intervention for at-risk youth. Identifying these youth during the preschool years can result in improved developmental trajectories and significantly decreased societal costs. / M.S. / A large amount of research has looked to see if early atypical mental or behavioral symptoms (known as psychopathology symptoms) predict continued social difficulties into adolescence; however, only a few studies have looked at whether early social skills and performance (social competence) predict which children will develop and continue to show psychopathology symptoms across childhood and adolescence. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development dataset, this study included multiple ways to assess social competence in preschoolers and wanted to see if these measures predicted psychopathology symptoms over time as the child grows up. Additionally, it looked to see whether social competency measures predicted symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, and psychopathy in 3rd - 9th grade. Generally, after running analyses on the data, children who had worse preschool social competence were more likely to have moderate and high psychopathology symptoms over time. Some measures of social competency were shown to be related to parent and teacher-reported ADHD and ODD and self-reported psychopathy, with different connections for males and females; no measures were connected to self-reported depression. This study has important possibilities when looking at early recognition of and treatment for at-risk youth. Finding these youth during the preschool years can lead to better paths over time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/104031 |
| Date | 12 May 2021 |
| Creators | Swanson, Courtney |
| Contributors | Psychology, Breaux, Rosanna, McDonnell, Christina, Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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