Examination of developmental characteristics of school and psychosocial adjustment of preschool and school aged children according to the standardized test of Psychosocial Adjustment
Published:
Oct 15, 2020
Keywords:
School and psychosocial adjustment Preschool and school age Behavior problems At risk groups
Abstract
Empirical evidence shows that specific psychosocial factors are linked to the learning process, school achievement and, in general, with students’ adjustment in the school and the family. The aim of the present study is to examine school, social and emotional adjustment of children attending Kindergarten and Elementary School and to identify
groups who are at risk of psychosocial adjustment difficulties. In order to achieve this aim, the teacher rating scales for preschool and school children were used from the standardized Test of Psychosocial Adjustment (Hatzichristou, Polychroni, Besevegis, & Mylonas, 2008). The sample consisted of teacher ratings for 432 Kindergarten children and 800 Elementary School children collected from different parts of Greece. Results showed more positive psychosocial adjustment for the younger age group in Elementary School, especially for the subscales “academic skills” and “problem behavior” and their relative dimensions. Moreover, gender differences were found especially in terms of the dimensions of school and emotional adjustment, with girls scoring higher while the reverse was found for problem behavior. Finally, similar profiles were found for the preschool and school age groups who were at risk for school and psychosocial adjustment difficulties. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the risk and resilience factors of school and psychosocial adjustment of preschool and school aged children and have implications for the design and implementation of prevention and intervention programs in the school setting.
Article Details
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Χατζηχρήστου Χ., Πολυχρόνη Φ., Μπεζεβέγκης Η., & Μυλωνάς Κ. (2020). Examination of developmental characteristics of school and psychosocial adjustment of preschool and school aged children according to the standardized test of Psychosocial Adjustment. Psychology: The Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society, 18(4), 503–524. https://doi.org/10.12681/psy_hps.23737
- Issue
- Vol. 18 No. 4 (2011)
- Section
- SPECIAL SECTION
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The journal PSYCHOLOGY adopts a Platinum open-access policy. Submission, processing or publication costs are waived by the Hellenic Psychological Society. Papers published in the journal PSYCHOLOGY are licensed under a 'Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International' licence. The authors reserve the copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of its first publication. Third-party licensees are allowed to use the published paper immediately after publication as they wish, provided they retain the defined by the license copyright formalities, regarding the reference to its author(s) and its initial publication in the journal PSYCHOLOGY. Moreover, any adjusted work should be shared under the same reuse rights, so with the same CC license.
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