Aurore Boulard

Social context in school: its relation to adolescents' depressive mood.

This study examined the impact of various school-related factors on adolescents depressive mood, including prosocial behavior, verbal aggression, and relationships with teachers. The data used in this study were collected in the context of a larger survey on victimization in secondary schools from the French Community of Belgium. Participants were 2896 secondary school students (1520 males; 1376 females) aged 12-18 years. Results showed that for both genders, the three strongest predictors of depressive mood were age, feeling of exclusion, and verbal aggression. This study focusing on school-related predictors of depressive mood confirmed the importance of the social context in school as a predictor of depression in both girls and boys.

Trouble du spectre de l’autisme et évaluation du stress perçu des parents et des professionnels : étude des propriétés psychométriques d’une adaptation francophone de l’Appraisal of Life Event Scale (ALES-vf)

INTRODUCTIONnAutism and related disorders are grouped into the category of «xa0Autism Spectrum Disorderxa0» (ASD) in the DSM-5. This appellation reflects the idea of a dimensional representation of autism that combines symptoms and characteristics that vary in severity and intensity. Despite common characteristics, there are varying degrees in intensity and in the onset of symptoms, ranging from a disability that can be very heavy with a total lack of communication and major disorders associated with the existence of a relative autonomy associated, sometimes, with extraordinary intellectual abilities. Parents are faced with several difficult situations, such as sleep disturbances, agitation, shouting, hetero violence, self-harm, learning difficulties, stereotyping, lack of social and emotional reciprocity, inappropriate behavior, etc. They can feel helpless and may experience stress related to these developmental and behavioral difficulties. The heterogeneity of symptoms, the presence of behavioral problems, the lack of reciprocity and autonomy also represent a challenge for practitioners in institutions and teachers at school. The objective of this research is to present the validation of a French translation of the Appraisal of Life Events Scale (ALES-vf) from Ferguson, Matthex and Cox, specifically adapted to the context of ASD. ALES was originally developed to operationalize the three dimensions of perceived stress (threat, loss and challenge) described by Lazarus and Folkman.nnnMETHODOLOGYnALES-vf was initially translated into French and adapted to the situation of parents of children with ASD. It was subsequently administered to 343 parents, 150 paramedical professionals involved with people with ASD, and 155 teachers from an ordinary school environment and from specialized schools, welcoming in their classroom at least one child with ASD.nnnRESULTSnAn exploratory factor analysis performed on data from 170 parents highlighted two exploratory models with four and three factors, slightly different from the original three-factor model of Ferguson and his collaborators. Confirmatory analyzes were conducted on data from 173 other parents to test two exploratory models and the original model of Ferguson. It has also been tested on data from 305 professionals (paramedical professionals and teachers) and on the whole sample (parents and professionals). The results suggest a better match of the original three-factor model. In addition, Cronbachs alpha coefficients and inter-item correlations showed a good internal consistency for these three factors. Finally, variance analysis and regressions were performed to test the effect of the nationality of the parents, the childs level of autonomy, the childs level of communication, and on the perceived stress by experienced professionals.nnnCONCLUSIONnALES-vf, after our adaptation has good psychometric properties for use not only with parents but also with professionals (teachers, educators, psychologists) working with children with ASD. Our analyses showed that the nationality of the parents does not significantly influence the subscales «xa0threatxa0» and «xa0challengexa0» of ALES-vf, which makes it usable in other Francophone countries. Specificities in the subscales were identified based on group membership (parents and professionals). For example parents get higher average scores on subscales «xa0lossxa0» and «xa0threatxa0» and a lower average score on the subscale «xa0challengexa0», compared to professionals. Finally, regarding the specifics found among professionals, the results show that the years of experience have an effect on perceived stress. Specifically, teachers and educators who have more experience perceive their work with children with ASD as a challenge. This is consistent with the results of studies showing that teachers who have had experience with children with ASD had less difficulty in their interventions.

Étude des propriétés psychométriques de l’échelle CES-D sur un échantillon d’adolescents francophones scolarisés

UNLABELLEDnThe aim of this paper is to study and validate the French version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale developed by Radloff (in 1977) in an adolescent sample. This scale was developed to measure levels of depressive symptomatology, with special emphasis on the affective components and depressed mood.nnnMETHODnThe data used in this study were collected in 11 schools. Our sample was composed of 1496 French-speaking, Belgian secondary school students aged 12 to 16 years. The questionnaire included demographic information such as age, gender, grade and family composition. The position of the CES-D scale has not changed and was placed in the last part of the self-administered questionnaire.nnnRESULTSnAfter an exploratory factor analysis, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis to test our factor model. We tested the model with four factors proposed by Radloff (in 1977) and also the model proposed by Chabrol (in 2002). Our results indicate a better match with Radloffs model in our sample, showing the relevance of using Radloffs model with four factors in adolescents. Although our analysis shows a clear gender difference with regard to depressive symptoms, the tested factor model remained stable regardless of the gender of the adolescent.

Quand l'enfant dit "Je"

Lanalyse statistique dun corpus constitue de 309 discours denfants a permis dobserver levolution de lutilisation des pronoms personnels « moi » et « je » et de mettre en evidence certaines variations dutilisation en fonction de lâge (entre 3 et 10 ans) et des conditions de production discursive. Trois situations ont ainsi ete etudiees : une situation ou lenfant joue avec ses pairs (scenario de groupe), une situation quotidienne familiale (scenario parents) et une situation ou lenfant commente ce quil dessine en presence dun observateur (scenario solitaire). Les resultats montrent que des linstant ou le « je » apparait, le moi auparavant utilise seul en tant que sujet se transforme en complement du sujet-je. En tant que complement du sujet, il permettrait de creer une mise a distance du sujet parlant qui se met en scene. Le sujet pourrait donc se regarder agir, faire ou etre en tant quobjet. Cette description suggere que la majorite des « moi » seraient utilises chez les plus jeunes pour lobjectivation du sujet, que ce soit grâce au couple « moi-je » ou sous forme de rappel en fin de phrase. (par ex. : « Je sais faire ca, moi »). La forme « moi-je » si frequente pourrait etre consideree comme la forme reflexive la plus claire de lavenement de la conscience de soi se manifestant au niveau du discours narratif autobiographique. Plus tard dans le discours de lenfant, le « je » se rencontre seul. Notre suggestion est quetant davantage conscient detre lauteur de ses actions, lenfant naurait plus systematiquement besoin du recours a lutilisation de « moi » pour attester son existence en tant quagent.

Exploratory Study of Depressed Adolescents’ Life Narratives

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the life stories of depressive adolescents and compare them with non-clinical adolescents’ life stories. Methods: For this purpose, we compared 20 life stories of hospitalized adolescents suffering from major depressive episode with 40 life stories of adolescents attending school divided into two groups: 20 non-depressed and 20 depressed adolescents. Results: Results showed that life stories differed as a function of psychopathology. Depressed hospitalized adolescents spoke about their disease and defined themselves by their depression. The depressed adolescents in school concentrated on schooling and school achievements, while the non-depressed group defined themselves by their family, friends and inclusion in a peer group. Conclusion: These analyses allowed us to highlight specific themes mentioned by each of the three groups of adolescents. Although life stories are personal and unique, analysis of such stories allows us to better understand the daily reality of depressive adolescents and the relationships between the life events they experience, daily stressors, depression and how they construct their personal history.