Louis A. Chandler

The source of stress inventory

This paper presents the Source of Stress Inventory, an adaptation of Coddingtons Life Events of children, which was designed for use in schools and clinics as part of the intake/referral procedures for children with emotional adjustment problems. It provides a means of systematically examining the sources of psychological stress in the assessment process.

The incidence of stressful life events of elementary school-aged children

Certain events, commonly found in the life histories of children, have been characterized as potentially stressful (Rutter, 1981). There is some evidence to support the hypothesis that these events play a role in the etiology of various disorders, although the nature of that relationship is not clear (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974). Yet that relationship remains the subject of considerable interest, as can be seen by the number of studies on the influence of stressful life events on childrens emotional adjustment and school performance (Boike, Gesten, Cowen, Felner, & Francis, 1978; Felner, Ginter, Boike, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975; Gesten, Scher, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975; Gesten, Scher, & Cowen, 1978; Rolf & Garmezy, 1974; Sandler & Block, 1979; Siegel, 1981). Sandler and Ramsey (1980) have suggested that the role of life events as stressors can be understood to be a function of, among other things, the frequency of occurrence of events. For research and clinical assessment purposes, baseline data on the incidence of stressful life events of children seem to be necessary. In order to collect and organize baseline data, the relevant demographic variables must be identified. It was hypothesized that there might be two relevant demographic variables: age and socioeconomic status (SES). The purposes of this study were to (a) conduct a survey to gather baseline data on the incidence of stressful life events of children, and (b) examine the effects of age and SES on the number of events reported.

Assessing Behavioral Responses to Stress.

This paper advocates the use of a stress paradigm in the assessment of children with behavior disorders. The paradigm suggests that one element of an assessment should be the behavioral pattern that the child is likely to adopt in response to stress. The Stress Response Scale, designed to assess such behavioral patterns, is presented and discussed. In order to extend the scales clinical utility, it was necessary to obtain data on the behavioral patterns that might typically be expected to be found with children in general. Data are presented which describes the most frequently found patterns among a population of school-aged children.

The harvard group scale of hypnotic susceptibility and related instruments: Individual and group administrations

The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A), Tellegens Absorption Scale (TAS); Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES); and Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) were administered either individually or in groups. Eighty students from undergraduate Introduction to Psychology classes were randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 administration conditions with 40 students each. Although there was a general trend of differential item difficulty levels across the 2 administration conditions, a variety of results (descriptive characteristics, reliability, and validity) point to the similarity of behavioral and subjective responses to hypnosis in the 2 conditions. The TAS, DES, and PCI also produced similar results across both conditions of administration.

The Use of the Stress Response Scale in Diagnostic Assessment with Children

Childrens experience with stress provides a useful paradigm for the assessment of their emotional status. Such an assessment must be concerned with identifying the typical behavioral pattern a child is likely to adopt in response to stress. The Stress Response Scale has been developed to assess those response patterns. This study compared the behavior patterns of a group of children referred because of possible emotional disorders with their psychiatric diagnoses. It also examined the agreement between parents and teachers as to the type of response pattern likely to be shown by the child. The results suggested that the scale may be sensitive to selected psychiatric diagnostic categories commonly assigned to children from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

The need-threat analysis: A scoring system for the Children's Apperception Test.

The study of childhood stress provides a useful perspective for assessing childrens emotional status. Thematic projective techniques, like the Childrens Apperception Test (CAT), may be useful in exploring childrens perception of stress. For this purpose, a need-threat analysis is recommended to identify those underlying needs and threats that are likely to make a particular event or situation important, and hence potentially stressful, to an individual child. This paper introduces a scoring system for the CAT based on the analysis of thematic data in terms of five need-threat binaries, which serve as scoring categories. Preliminary data on reliability are presented.

Consultative Services in the Schools: A Model.

Abstract A model Child Evaluation Center was established in a regular public school to demonstrate alternative methods for providing psychoeducational services. In addition to its service/demonstration function, the center functioned as a psychoeducational field training clinic for the training of school psychologists. The center was successful in encouraging teachers to utilize consultative services, and, in the process, reducing the number of referrals for formal psychological evaluation.

Brief therapy: Ronny G

Because of evolving professional roles, limited resources, and administrative concerns, school psychologists have been exploring alternative methods of intervention. Brief therapy is an active, focused, incisive intervention especially useful with children typically seen by the school psychologist because of emotional adjustment problems. This paper illustrates the process of brief therapy with a parent and presents some implications for the school psychologist.

Behavioural Responses of Children to Stress: A Polish-American Cross-cultural Study

The behaviour a child adopts in response to stress may be viewed on a continuum ranging from adaptive, effective coping behaviours to extreme maladaptive efforts to meet stressful demands. In order to assess childrens behavioural responses to stress, a behaviour rating scale was developed-the Stress Response Scale (SRS). The purpose of this study was to gather SRS data on a population of Polish children, so that we might examine differences between them and their US counterparts, in terms of their overall rated adjustment, and the typical behavioural responses to stress they might manifest. The results showed that, in general, Polish children tend to be rated by their teachers as somewhat higher than their US counterparts, in terms of the overall magnitude of their behavioural maladjustment. This is especially true for children aged 7 to 12 years. However, although the overall level of maladjustment was higher among the Polish children, the samples were similar in terms of the specific stress response patterns with relatively similar distributions of Acting-out, Passive-Aggressive, Overactive, Repressed, and Dependent patterns being found in both samples.

An Extension of the Norms for the Stress Response Scale for Children

This article reports an attempt to develop experimental norms on the Stress Response Scale (SRS) for adolescents aged 15 to 18 years. The SRS is a 40-item behavior rating scale designed to measure the impact of stress on the childs behavioral adjustment and to provide scores for five subscales: Acting Out, Passive-Aggressive, Overactive, Dependent, and Repressed. Subjects (N = 167) were selected randomly from a central Texas high school, and ratings on the SRS for each child were provided by a parent along with demographic information. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis replicated three of the five SRS subscales, x2(474) = 1721.23, p < .05. Two of the scales (Repressed and Dependent) did not fit well with the older children although the overall GFI was .88, an indication of a fair fit. While the original factor structure was not replicated entirely, there was enough of a relationship to proceed with establishing experimental norms for the older age group. These norms have potential utility for both research and clinical purposes.