Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
DOI 10.1007/s10826-012-9646-5
ORIGINAL PAPER
Emotional Bonds with Parents, Emotion Regulation, and SchoolRelated Behavior Problems Among Elementary School Truants
HeeYoung Kim Timothy Page
Abstract Among juvenile status offenses, truancy represents the largest share of juvenile court caseloads. As a
marker of risk, truancy is important because of its associations with school disengagement, drop-out, and developmental trajectories that include various forms of
delinquency and anti-social behavior. Better understanding
of the developmental circumstances and needs of truant
children may point the way to more effective intervention
strategies. Much accumulated research has shown strong
associations between the emergence of juvenile delinquency and qualities of caregiving in parentchild relationships. Child-parent attachment in particular has been
identified as an important developmental foundation of
the child-parent relationship. We used a multi-informant
approach to examine associations between childrens selfreported perceptions of attachment security (using the
Security Scales), their emotion regulation (reported by
parents on the Emotion Regulation Checklist), and schoolrelated behavior problems (as reported by teachers with the
Child Behavior Checklist), among 74 elementary schoolaged truant children (mean age 9 years). Children and
families were recruited through a truancy intervention
program in a state in the deep South in the U.S. Data were
analyzed via hierarchical multiple regression. Parents
reports of their childrens emotion regulation predicted
behavior problems as reported by teachers. Childrens
own reports of their emotional bonds with parents were
H. Kim
Eulji University, Sungnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 461-713,
South Korea
T. Page (&)
Louisiana State University School of Social Work, 321 H.P.
Long Fieldhouse, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
e-mail: tpage2@lsu.edu
Introduction
Truancy is commonly defined as excessive unexcused
absences (Schultz 1987). Clinically, truancy has been categorized as a kind of conduct disordered behavior along the
same lines as stealing, lying, destructiveness, and cheating
(American Psychiatric Association 1998). As an early
childhood risk, school truancy is identified as part of a
developmenal pathway to more serious, later criminal
careers (Loeber and Farrington 1998a, b, Loeber and Farrington 2000. Chronic non-attendant school children often
miss opportunities to follow their school curricula, show
low academic achievement, and lose interest in school.
Consequently, these children are at risk for engagement in
delinquent behaviors such as school drop-out, substance
abuse, gang involvement, and criminal activities (Cullingford 1999; Balfanz et al. 2008; Garry 1996; Hallfors
et al. 2002; Huizinga et al. 2000). School truancy, therefore, should be considered an important marker of a childs
social adjustment and, specifically, risk for behavior
problems.
Although accurate nationwide data are not available
because of the absence of statutory requirements for documentation of truancy in school systems, the following
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Method
Participants
Not all children referred for school absence have the same
level of need in services. In order to identify truant children
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Measures
Child-Parent Emotional Bonds
The Security Scales (SS) (Kerns, et al. 1996) The Security
Scales is a childs self-report measure of parentchild
relationships that is based on attachment theory. The purpose of this scale is to assess childrens perceptions of a
particular attachment relationshipattachments to mother
and father are assessed separatelyfor children eight to
14 years of age. It contains 15 items that measure a childs
belief that a parent is responsive and available, open to
communication and a reliable source of help and comfort
when needed. Students respond using 4-point scales (from
least true to most true). Items are structured using a some
kidsother kids format. For example, for the statement
Some kids find it easy to trust their mom (dad) BUT other
kids are not sure if they can trust their mom (dad), children first indicate which leg of the statement is more true of
them, then they choose whether the phrase is really true
or sort of true. The two legs of the statements with two
levels each are combined to form one continuous 4-point
scale that reflects gradations of positive to negative characteristics about the relationship. Ratings are summed
across the 15 items to form a perceived attachment security
score ranging from 15 to 60, with higher scores indicating a
more secure relationship. Several studies have now evaluated the reliability and validity of the Security Scale. The
security scale has demonstrated adequate internal consistency of .74 or higher (Kerns et al. 1996; Kerns et al. 2000;
Lieberman et al. 1999; Verschueren and Marcoen 2002). In
the current study, the internal consistency coefficient of the
SS was .64. Previous studies have not involved groups of
high-risk children such as our participants, which may
account for this difference. Convergent validity of the SS
has been supported by the current study, which found
correlations with the Inventory of Parent and Peer
Attachment-Revised subscales (Gullone and Robinson
2005): Trust (r = .50); Communication (r = .44); and
Alienation (r = -.37).
Childs Emotion Regulation
Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) (Shields and Cicchetti 1997) The ERC is a scale that examines childrens
self-regulation as perceived by either their parents or
teachers; we used parent reports. It contains 24 items that
assess perceptions of childrens typical methods of managing emotional experiences, both positive and negative
aspects of emotion regulation, and requires approximately
10 min for completion. The ERC is composed of two
subscales: Lability/Negativity and Emotion Regulation.
Lability/Negativity includes 15 items that assess lack of
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Results
Descriptive statistics for the major variables are presented
in Table 1. The values for skewness and kurtosis indicated
that the distributions of variables are normal.
Relationships Among Observed Variables
Observed variables in this study were initially examined
with zero-order correlations (see Table 2). The security
scale was associated, negatively, with aggressive behavior
only (r = -.27, p \ .05). The measures of emotion dysregulation, behavior problems, and the RIS were significantly intercorrelated.
Multivariate Analyses of Behavior Problems
Data were entered in 3 blocks to predict behavior problems
at school: Gender and age were included in block 1 as
demographic controls; Block 2 included the SS and either
Lability/Negativity or the ERC. Interaction terms for security scale 9 lability/negativity or security scale 9 ERC
were entered in a third block.
Two of the three CBCL scales (rule-breaking and
aggressive behavior) were predicted by Lability/Negativity
(findings not presented).
ERC was significantly associated with aggressive
behavior only. The only significant interaction term was of
SS x ERC in relation to aggressive behavior. This model is
therefore presented in Table 3. Both the security scale and
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874
Security scale
(child
report)
44.16
SD
6.50
Range
2854
Skewness
-.69
Kurtosis
-.02
n of
items
15
Variable
.64
1. Security scale
1.00
2. ERC lability/
negativity
-.14
3. ERC composite
ERC lability/
negativity
32.43
8.02
1848
.12
-.75
15
.81
ERC
composite
(parent
report)
67.62
10.60
4191
-.003
-.36
24
.80
12.32
11.62
037
.62
-.92
20
.96
Social
problems
3.47
3.41
014
.96
.33
11
.76
Rule
breaking
behavior
6.03
4.48
018
.76
.01
10
.82
ERC in blocks 2 & 3 were significant predictors of childrens aggressive behavior problems. The overall model in
block 3 was statistically significant at the .01 level,
explaining 19 % of the variance in aggressive behavior.
Effect sizes for the main effects were in the medium range
(Cohens f2). Figure 1 illustrates the significant interaction
effect of the security scale and ERC (created using median
splits; b = 2.39, p \ .05). Children with low emotion
regulation, as measured with the ERC, had widely divergent scores for aggressive behavior problems, depending
on their self-reported emotional security with parents (SS).
Those with low security scale scores (below the median
score of 45) had the highest scores for aggressive behavior.
The lowest scores for aggressive behavior were found for
children with both high ERC and SS scores.
Discussion
The findings of initial bi-variate correlational analyses are
mostly consistent with previous studies as follows: Children who reported higher levels of security were less likely
to be aggressive. Children who had poorer emotion regulation were more likely to have behavior problems
(aggression, social problems, rule-breaking behavior) and
have higher truancy-related risks. Truancy risk was significantly associated with all three dimensions of behavior
problems.
The findings from the multivariate analyses indicate
that childrens emotional regulatory capacity is a significant predictor of aggressive behavior at school. Childrens
emotional bonds with their parents also predicted
aggressive behavior problems. The significant interaction
123
4. Aggressive
behavior
.16
1.00
-.66**
1.00
-.27*
.32**
-.28*
1.00
5. Social problems
-.12
.24*
-27*
.80**
6. Rule breaking
behavior
-.12
.40**
-25*
.81**
1.00
.65**
7. RIS I
-.19
.33**
-.37**
.44**
.30**
1.00
.44**
* p \ .05, ** p \ .01
of SS and ERC in predicting aggressive behavior indicates that the children at highest risk for aggressive
behavior problems are those with both low emotional
security and poor emotion regulation, and children at
lowest risk are those with both high security and high
emotion regulation.
We expected that emotion regulation and school-related
behavior problems would be negatively associated. The
findings supported this prediction; multivariate analysis
found that childrens emotional dysregulation was a significant predictor of behavior problems. These findings are
also consistent with previous studies that have indicated
negative relationships between emotion regulation and
aggressive behaviors (Batum and Yagmurlu 2007; Eisenberg et al. 2000, 2001; Graziano et al. 2007).
Contrary to expectations, and unlike previous studies
(Contreras et al. 2000; Kerns et al. 2007, 2000), childparent emotional bonds (attachment security) were not
significantly associated with childrens emotion regulation
in the current study, as indicated in zero-order correlations.
The significant association of the interaction of the Security
Scales and the Emotion Regulation composite with childrens aggression, however, indicates moderating influences involving emotional security and emotion regulation.
Children with low scores on both of these measures were at
much greater risk for problems with aggression.
While previous studies examining childrens attachment
security have shown that secure children tend to have better
adjustments at school (Granot and Mayseless 2001), results
from the present study are somewhat mixed, with a significant association of the Security Scales with one measure, aggressive behavior, and no association of security
scales and our measure of truancy-related risk.
There are several possible reasons for discrepancies
between our findings and those of previous studies. To our
knowledge, this is the first study that examines the influence of childrens perception of attachment security and
emotion regulation together on childrens school-related
875
Table 3 Hierarchical regression analysis predicting aggressive behavior with CBCL-TRF (N = 74; df for final model 1, 68)
Variable
Model 1
Model 2
SE (B)
-2.63
2.83
.20
.83
f2
Model 3
SE (B)
SE (B)
-.11
-1.01
2.75
-.04
-1.35
2.69
.03
-.31
.81
-.04
-.22
.79
-.03
SS
-.41
.21
-.23*
-3.07
1.28
-1.71*
ERC
-.27
.13
-.24*
-2.06
.87
-1.88*
.14
.04
.02
-2.39*
.09
B
Gender
Age
SS x ERC
b
-.06
R2(adj.)
.01
.13
.19
F for change in R2
.44
2.66*
3.12**
.15
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01
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876
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emotional security with attachment figures. Because antisocial behavior and poor emotion regulation have deep
roots in the childs experience with emotional security in
the family, school policies that focus exclusively on punishment of childrens bad behavior are likely to be inadequate. These children and their families need to be
provided with opportunities to obtain services that can help
them to learn to achieve emotion regulation skills.
According to Grosss emotion regulation strategies model
(2007), for example, an intervention that focuses on cognitive change related to emotion, including better understanding of the link between specific social contexts and
ones personal goals, is one of the ways to teach children to
manage their emotion. In the United States, evidencebased, school-based prevention programs focusing on early
school childrens emotional competence skills exist, such
as the PATHS curriculum (Greenberg et al. 1995), the
Second Step program (Cooke et al. 2007), and Making
Choices (Fraser et al. 2000), each of which has been
developed and evaluated with respect to effectiveness to
prevent disruptive behavior problems. Designing and providing an intervention program to promote childrens
emotion regulation may be necessary to reduce truancy risk
and other school related problem behaviors.
Parents can influence their childrens emotional regulatory capacities both directly and indirectly through
positive modeling of emotional expression and behavior,
and even-handed discussion of emotion-related topics
(Zeman et al. 2006). Positive parental socialization effects
are only possible, however, when parents possess their own
abilities to regulate emotion (Thompson and Meyer 2007;
Zeman et al. 2006). An intervention program targeting
childrens emotion regulation should, therefore, also target
the development of parents awareness of characteristics of
their own emotional expression and acknowledge the effect
of parents emotional responsiveness on their childs
emotional and behavioral well-being (Zeman et al. 2006).
In order to further expand understanding of the emotional
and behavioral characteristics of elementary school-aged
truant children, future research should include comparisons
with non-truant children, especially as these might illuminate path differences toward school disengagement. We also
believe that it is important to include multiple measures of
attachment security to provide a broader assessment of the
construct and to avoid an over-reliance on a single method.
There are also other variables that may contribute to childrens school-related behavior problems that this study was
not able to include in the analyses. For example, Graziano
et al. (2007) found that the quality of the studentteacher
relationship mediated the association between childrens
emotion regulation and academic success. Finally, larger
samples would provide more statistical power, which could
provide opportunities for more detailed analyses. Continued
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