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SOCIAL PLAY BEHAVIOR IN NORMAL AND BEHAVIORALLY DISTURBED BOYS
Abstract
The play behavior of 24 behaviorally disturbed and 24 normal white male children between the ages of 6 and 11 was examined. Behaviorally disturbed children were defined as those referred to and treated at Nebraska Psychiatric Institute for emotional and interpersonal relationship problems and who scored more than one standard deviation above the normal population on the Externalizing Scale of the Child Behavior Profile (Achenback, 1978). The normal group consisted of children who had never been referred to or treated by any mental health professionals and scored within the average range on the Child Behavior Profile. Each child was observed for a total of 240 minutes playing with a single unfamiliar peer who was matched for age and emotional functioning. The observations took place during four, 60-minute sessions, one per week for four weeks for each pair of children; and each dyad remained the same throughout the four sessions. The behavior of both children during each session was videotaped and then later recorded from the videotape with a Datamyte onto magnetic tapes for computer analyses. The results indicated total play interactions as a poor discriminator between normal and behaviorally disturbed boys at the younger age levels. However, such interactions were a more powerful discriminator for older boys. In addition, proximity to peers and adults, as well as specific play behaviors, were noted as powerful discriminators between the two groups. The results also demonstrated that behaviorally disturbed boys were much more likely to respond to physically aggressive gestures from peers with aggression and activity, whereas normal boys were more likely to respond asynchronously to such gestures and inhibit their aggressive and active responses. Finally, this study noted that normal children increased the frequency of social vocalization and close proximity to peers over the four sessions, whereas behaviorally disturbed children did not. These results were discussed in relationship to criteria for social competence in children and the development of social skills training programs for behaviorally disturbed boys. Future research in the area of social development also was discussed.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
GARD, GARY CARL, "SOCIAL PLAY BEHAVIOR IN NORMAL AND BEHAVIORALLY DISTURBED BOYS" (1982). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8227012.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8227012