Abstract
Preadolescent emotionally disturbed, learning-disabled, and normal boys were compared on social perspective-taking and behavioral measures to examine possible contributions of social cognitive deficits to children's adjustment problems. Antisocial-prosocial and withdrawn-gregarious behavior dimensions were studied through subscales derived from teacher ratings. Results indicated that across all groups, high perspective-taking was associated with significantly less withdrawal than was low perspective-taking; within groups, this finding was significant only for the emotionally disturbed boys. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, antisocial behavior was not significantly related to perspective-taking across the sample. Among emotionally disturbed boys, relatively higher affective perspectivetaking was significantly correlated with higher antisocial behavior. This positive correlation for the emotionally disturbed group was significantly different from the nonsignificant negative correlation between antisocial behavior and perspective-taking among normals. Findings for learning-disabled boys were intermediate. between results for emotionally disturbed and normal boys on both perspectivetaking and behavioral measures, and the learning-disabled group generally did not differ significantly from either other group. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed
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Silvern, L. E.Social cognitive development and adjustment: No one-to-one relationship. Paper presented at the meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles, April 1976. (Available from the author, Psychology Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309).
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The authors acknowledge the invaluable assistance and cooperation of many teachers and principals in Jefferson County School District in Colorado, especially Ms. Norma Sobesky, coordinator of the program for Significantly Impaired Emotionally and Behaviorally Disturbed Children, and Ms. Beth Young, coordinator of the program for Perceptual and Communicative Disorders.
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Waterman, J.M., Sobesky, W.E., Silvern, L. et al. Social perspective-taking and adjustment in emotionally disturbed, learning-disabled, and normal children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 9, 133–148 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917863
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917863