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The self-concepts of children entering day psychiatric treatment

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Abstract

Self-concepts of 68 school-aged children beginning day treatment were described and compared with groups of normal and clinic referred children studied by others. The expectation that day treatment children would have significantly lower self-concept scores than normal and clinic referred children was not met. In fact, a trend in the opposite direction emerged. 75 percent of children beginning day treatment expressed primarily positive views about how they valued themselves. Those with psychoneurotic disorders had significantly higher self-concept scores than did those with personality disorders and a modest but significant inverse relationship was found between self-concept and severity of disturbance. Social class was significantly related to ratings of self-worth and accounted for 42 percent of the variance. Sex, race and IQ did not influence self-concept ratings. Treatment implications, measurement issues and suggestions for future research are discussed.

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The authors wish to thank Carol Lee for her excellent secretarial skills.

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Zimet, S.G., Farley, G.K. The self-concepts of children entering day psychiatric treatment. Child Psych Hum Dev 15, 142–150 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706170

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