Pierre Charlebois

The discriminant validity of the stroop color and word test: Toward a cost‐effective strategy to distinguish subgroups of disruptive preadolescents

The purpose of this study was to verify the discriminant validity of the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) in screening between subgroups of disruptive children. Sixteen disruptive boys with symptoms of attention deficit (AD) were compared to a group of 16 disruptive boys without attention deficit (DIS) and to 16 controls (CO). A stepwise discriminant function analysis indicated that the AD group was significantly distinct (had a lower score) in comparison to the DIS and CO on the color-word score. The AD group also showed more hesitations on the color-word card than did controls. Implications for assessment of disruptive children with the SCWT in elementary schools are discussed.

Situational consistency in behavioral patterns of aggressive boys: methodological considerations on observational measures

The issue of situational consistency is of great interest for early intervention with aggressive boys, but efforts to show behavior stability across settings have been unsuccessful to date, due principally to methodological problems. It is argued here that a more appropriate matching of response form, interaction partner, and situations should increase the situation consistency of observed behavior. The results support this proposition in that, more crosssetting behavior consistency was found in the pairing of situations where aggressive boys (age 6–7 years) were interacting with an adult female (mother/child versus baby-sitter/child) than in the pairing of situations where the boys were interacting with an adult male (mother/child versus father/child) or with the teacher in a nondyadic situation (classroom). The implications of using an extreme group are also discussed.

Stratégies cognitives et processus d'autorégulation chez des familles en situation de résolution de problèmes logiques

The family is a fundamental learning environment for many basic skills such as the ability to solve everyday domestic problems. A lack of competence in this type of problem solving would expose the individual to more frustration and possibly create the conditions for greater aggression. Forty-two low SES families, each including an aggressive boy, were invited to the laboratory for a problem-solving session on two occasions, at an interval of two years. Subjects were asked to find four preset combinations of colours by systematic permutations of four colours using a computer. Three types of cognitive performance were examined: resolution strategies, autoregulation strategies and the success rate in finding the solution. Results showed that most of the families were consistent in their use of anon-systematic strategy. Although some improvement in planning is observed during the second testing, no other improvement in autoregulation strategies was observed. In general, families had a better rate of success in finding the solution in the second session. The low cognitive level of these families and its stability are discussed.

Perception of boys’ mother-son social interactions: Disruptive boys’ behaviors and involvement in learning tasks

This study focused on the relationship between social perception and children’s involvement in learning tasks. The interaction between disruptive boys’ (n=32) perception of the competence attributed to them by their mother, the mother’s behavior (verbal and physical intrusion) and the child’s involvement in learning tasks was observed in a laboratory setting. Boys were asked to solve easy and difficult tasks on a personnal computer under the supervision of their mother. Observations of mother-child interactions showed that disruptive boys with a negative perception of the competence attributed to them by their mother, were less involved in the difficult task than boys who had a positive perception. Mothers of the boys with a negative perception showed more verbal intrusions in the easy task and more physical intrusions in the difficult task than the mothers of boys with a positive perception. Mothers’ verbal intrusion, physical intrusion and boys’ involvement in the task discriminated 75% of the boys with a negative social perception. These results seem to indicate that disruptive boys do not constitute an homogeneous group and that a significant variation in their involvement in a learning task is related to their perception of the competence attributed to them by their mother.RésuméLa prise en compte des phénomènes socioperceptifs reliés aux interactions mère-enfant semble essentielle à l’étude de l’engagement des enfants dans les tâches d’apprentissage. Cependant, peu d’études portant sur l’engagement des enfants turbulents (agressivité, hyperactivité, déficit de l’attention) ont étudié l’importance de ces phénomènes socioperceptifs. La présente étude consiste à décrire l’association entre la perception que 32 garçons turbulents (8–9 ans) ont de l’attribution de compétence accordée par leur mère, les comportements d’intrusion verbale et d’intrusion physique manifestés par les mères ainsi que l’engagement des enfants en fonction du niveau de difficulté de la tâche d’apprentissage. L’observation systématique des interactions mère-enfant dans des tâches d’apprentissage a montré que les enfants ayant une perception sociale négative avaient des mères qui émettaient plus de comportements d’intrusion verbale (à la tâche facile), plus d’intrusion physique (à la tâche difficile), et étaient moins engagés (à la tâche difficile) que les enfants ayant une perception sociale positive. De plus, l’analyse de la fonction discriminante a montré que la présence élevée d’intrusion verbale (à la tâche facile) et d’intrusion physique (à la tâche difficile) et un faible niveau d’engagement des enfants (à la tâche difficile) prédisent (dans 75% des cas) une perception sociale négative des enfants. Les résultats montrent que les enfants turbulents ne constituent pas un groupe homogène mais en son sein certains s’engagent moins dans les tâches d’apprentissage que d’autres. Et tout porte à croire que la perception sociale des enfants est associée à cette varation intra-groupe.