Citation

Prasad-Gaur A, Hughes JN, Cavell T. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 2001; 31(3): 215-231.

Affiliation

Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital (SEPH), 6501 N. Charles Street, P.O. Box 6815, Baltimore, MD 21285-6815, USA. prasadgaur@hotmail.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11196012

Abstract

The present study examined the tendency of aggressive children to generalize the positive bias in their perceptions of relatedness across different interpersonal relationships. Secondly, it examined the implications of distorted perceptions of relatedness for quality of aggressive children's future relationships. Subjects included 62 second and third grade children nominated and rated by teachers as aggressive. Self- and others' appraisals of relationship quality were gathered across four interpersonal domains (i.e., mother, teacher, mentor, and peer). Children's positively biased perceptions of social relatedness were concordant across adult relationship domains but not across the peer domain, suggesting that children's relationships with adults and peers represent somewhat distinct socialization contexts. As expected, children who inflate levels of social relatedness establish less close relationships with novel partners (mentors). The findings emphasize the need for clinicians to focus on mental representations while planning interventions with aggressive children.

Language: en