Predictors of risk for psychopathology in primary school children

Cilj ovoga istraživanja bio je ispitati odnos samoregulacije, socijalnih kompetencija, stilova suočavanja sa stresom i rizika za psihopatologiju kod djece osnovnoškolske dobi. Osim toga, procijenjena je mogućnost predviđanja rizika za razvoj psihopatologije na temelju prethodno navedenih varijabli. Istraživanje je provedeno na 320 učenika od petog do osmog razreda osnovnih škola sa područja grada Osijeka. Primijenjeni su: Check lista pedijatrijskih simptoma – forma za dijete (Jellinek i Murphy, 1988), Upitnik samoregulacije (Novak i Clayton, 2001), Upitnik socijalnih kompetencija – forma za dijete (Spence, 1995) i Upitnik stilova suočavanja sa stresom za djecu (Krapić, 2000). Djeca pokazuju nisku razinu rizika za psihopatologiju, umjereno razvijenu samoregulaciju, relativno visoke socijalne kompetencije te češću uporabu suočavanja usmjerenog na problem i emocije, a rjeđu izbjegavanja. Rezultati ukazuju na značajnu negativnu povezanost rizika za psihopatologiju sa samoregulacijom, socijalnim kompetencijama te sa suočavanjem usmjerenim na problem i emocije, a pozitivnu sa izbjegavanjem. Značajnim prediktorima rizika za psihopatologiju pokazali su se samoregulacija i socijalne kompetencije, a od stilova suočavanja sa stresom, samo stil usmjeren na izbjegavanje.The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between self-regulation, social competences, coping styles and risk for psychopathology in primary school aged children. The possibility of predicting the risk of developing psychopathology based on the aforementioned variables was also examined. The study was conducted on a sample of 320 pupils from the fifth to the eighth grade of primary schools from the city of Osijek. Instruments that were used are: Pediatric Symptom Checklist PSC-35 (Jellinek i Murphy, 1988), Questionnaire on self-regulation (Novak i Clayton, 2001), Social competence with peers questionnaire (Spence, 1995) and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Krapić, 2000). Children have shown a low level of risk for psychopathology, moderately developed self-regulation, relatively high social competences, the frequent use of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping and less frequent use of avoidance. The data show a significant negative correlation between risk for psychopathology and self-regulation, social competences, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping and positive correlation between risk for psychopathology and avoidance. Self-regulation and social competences appear to be predictors of risk for psychopathology. Also, the avoidance appears to be predictor of risk for psychopathology