The purpose of this study was to examine the stressors and coping strategies of school-age children and to explore the relatioship between stressful life events and health symptoms and the effects of coping and trait anxiety which is theoretically considered to mediate the relationship between stress and health symptom. The study subjcets consisted of 639 elementary school children in the fourth to sixth grade living in Seoul. Of the 639 subjects, 348 were boys and 291 were girls. The mean age was 11.35(SD=.86). The Feel Bad Scale (FBS), Schoolager's Coping Strategy Inventory (SCSI), Spielberger's Trait Anxiety Scale for Children(STAIC), and Health Symptom Questionnaire(HSQ) were adapted for this study. A pilot study was undertaken to ascertain the reliability and validity of the instruments. The Cronbach alphas of FBS, SCSI, STAIC and HSQ were from. 81 to .92. The Researcher and a research assistant visited the school and data were collected in the class using the questionnaire method after an explanation of the purpose and procedures was given to the children. Data collection was done during the period between Nov. 25 to Dec. 19,1995. Using the SAS statistical program, percentages, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used for data analysis. The result are as follows: 1. The mean score for the FBS was 204.79(range: 48-472) and there was a significant difference according to grade. The most severe stressors perceived by children were parental divorce and death or illness of family members. The most frequently experienced stressful life events were conflict with siblings and being home alone. 2. The mean score for the SCSI was 57.36(range: 9-118) and there was a significant difference according to grade. The most frequently used, and perceived as helpful, coping strategies were distraction and cognitive activities. 3. The mean score for the HSQ were 20.7(range: 0-8l) and there were significant differences according to grade and sex. The percentage of the children answering that they perceived their health state as not good was 3.9%. 4. The mean score for the STAIC was 33.76 and there were significant differences according to grade and sex. 5. There was a significant relationship between stressful life events and health symptoms(r=.53, p<.01). Also, Stressful life events were postively related with coping strategies(r=.39, p<.01). Trait anxiety was highly correlated with health symptoms(r=.72, p<.01). 6. To examine the multivariate effects of the variables to health symptoms, multiple regression was performed. Stressful life events, coping, trait anxiety, and health concerns were identified as significant variables. Explanation of the health symptoms by these variables was 56. 78%. The study revealed that stressful life events correlated with health symptoms in School-age children and coping and trait anxiety had mediating effects on this relationship. The implication for nursing is that there is a need to develop supportive interventions for high risk population to decrease health problems due to stress. Also, it is recommended that a study be conducted to explore protective factors for the prevention of health problems in children.
This cross-sectional study was designed to identify anger-expression types in late school-age children and investigate the relation between the identified anger-expression types and their health status.
One thousand twenty seven children in elementary school fifth and sixth grades were recruited from November to December, 2004. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, 2-test, ANOVA, Duncan's multiple comparison test, and Wilcoxon rank sum test.
Three anger-expression types in late school-age children were found; Anger-out/in, Anger-control, and Low anger-expression types. Children frequently using the anger-out/in type among the three types and with a higher state anger reported higher psychosomatic symptoms and depression. Children from a divorced or separated family reported higher state anger.
This study suggests that a specific anger management program needs to be developed for late school-age children with high state anger and frequently using the anger out/in expression type. For understanding the anger level and the anger expression types of Korean school-age children, further research needs to be done with large samples using a randomized sampling method.
This study is an examination of the paths in which the primary factors of anxiety, impulsiveness, knowledge of life safety practice, attitudes towards life safety practice, interpersonal support, and self-efficacy from Pender's Health Promotion Model influence the practice of life safety behavior in school-age children.
The sample consisted of 489 5th and 6th grade students recruited from five elementary schools in Seoul City and four provinces, South Korea. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling.
Attitudes towards life safety practice, interpersonal support, self-efficacy and impulsiveness directly influenced practice of life safety behavior. Anxiety did not have a direct influence on practice of life safety behavior, but indirectly affected it. In this modified model, 52.0% of the practice of life safety behavior was explained by the primary factors.
To facilitate the practice life safety behaviors in late childhood, a positive attitude towards life safety needs to be developed along with decreasing impulsiveness and enhancing self-efficacy.
The purpose of this study was to use meta-analysis to examine recent domestic articles related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in school-age children.
After reviewing 213 articles published between 1990 and 2009 from and cited in RISS, KISS, and DBpia, the researchers identified 24 studies with 440 research variables that had appropriate data for methodological study. SPSS 17.0 program was used. The outcome variables were divided into five types: Inattention, hyperactive impulsive, intrinsic, extrinsic, and academic ability variables.
Effects size of overall core symptoms was 0.47 which is moderate level in terms of Cohen criteria and effects size of overall negative variables related ADHD was 0.27 which is small level. The most dominant variable related to ADHD was obtained from hyperactive-impulsive (0.70). Also academic ability (0.45), inattention (0.37), and intrinsic variables (0.29) had a small effect whereas extrinsic variables (0.13) had little effect on descriptive ADHD study.
The results reveal that ADHD core symptoms have moderate effect size and peripheral negative variables related ADHD have small effect size. To improve the reliability of the meta-analysis results by minimizing publication bias, more intervention studies using appropriate study designs should be done.