Perceptions of self, significant others, and teacher-child relationships in indiscriminately friendly children.
Indiscriminately friendly children feel unusually positive about themselves and their teachers, so verify these views with adult reports before planning treatment.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Vervoort et al. (2014) asked kids about themselves and their teachers.
They compared two groups: children who greet everyone (indiscriminate friendliness) and typical peers.
Kids filled out simple self-concept forms. Teachers rated the same relationships.
What they found
The overly friendly kids saw themselves as more capable and more trusting than controls.
They also said they depended more on their teacher.
At the same time, teachers noted more problem behavior in these children.
How this fits with other research
Kočovská et al. (2012) showed that adopted, maltreated children with the same friendly style often carry ADHD, PTSD, and lower IQ.
Eleonora’s team adds that, despite those risks, the children still feel good about themselves.
Kalyva (2010) found that kids with Asperger syndrome under-report their social problems; Eleonora’s kids over-report their strengths.
Together, the papers warn: self-report alone can mislead—check teacher and parent views too.
Why it matters
If you work with clingy, overly friendly students, do not assume low self-esteem.
High self-concept may mask real social risks.
Always pair child interviews with teacher and parent data before writing goals.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
OBJECTIVE: Despite increasing research on indiscriminate friendliness in children, almost no research exists on social-cognitive deficits that are supposed to underlie indiscriminately friendly behavior. In this study, we compared indiscriminately friendly children with controls regarding their perceptions of self, reliability trust in significant others, and perceptions of the teacher-child relationship. METHOD: Children's perceptions were compared in two samples: a sample of 33 likely cases for disinhibited reactive attachment disorder (RAD) from special education for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (75.76% boys, Mage=8.52, 96.9% Caucasian, 33.3% and 45.5% of their mothers completed primary or secondary education, respectively) was matched on sex, age, and socio-economic status with a sample of 33 controls from general education. Children participated individually in several interviews assessing global and social self-concept, reliability trust in significant others, teacher-child relationship perceptions, and vocabulary. Parents and teachers completed a screening questionnaire for RAD and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS: Likely disinhibited RAD-cases showed more indiscriminate friendliness and more problem behavior in general according to their parents and teachers than controls. Furthermore, likely RAD-cases reported a more positive global self-concept, more reliability trust in significant others, and more dependency in the teacher-child relationship than controls. CONCLUSIONS: The results are in line with clinical observations of indiscriminately friendly children and findings in clinical samples of maltreated or attachment disrupted children but contrast hypotheses from developmental attachment research. Further research is needed to explain the more positive perceptions of indiscriminately friendly children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.07.004