Kids Connections, Problems and Coping

The Kids connections, problems and coping scales were developed for the VicChamps project and have most regularly been used with children 8-12 years of age. However we have recently developed an adolescent version of the Connections and Problems measures. While psychometric information is currently not available regarding the measures the following provides a brief outline of the development the measures.

So far we have used them to evaluate projects involving children whose parents have a mental illness in Victoria and NSW Australia. We have also recently collected a large normative data set (n=700) that will be used for normative and psychometric purposes.

To the best of our knowledge there are no similar connectedness nor problems measures available for this age group. In addition, the nine item coping measure is a brief measure of problem and emotion focused coping and social support. The scales are freely available for student or research purposes. To obtain them please contact the authors.

Kids Connections and Problems

Kids Coping

Kids Connections and Kids Problems: Description of Instrument Methodology

The Kids Connections and Kids Problems measures aim to measure the day to day positive and negative relationships of older children. Closely related to the concept of attachment is the broader and more inclusive term, ‘connectedness’, which according to Lee, Draper and Lee (2001) encompasses an individual’s various caring and supportive relationships. Masten and colleagues (1988) found that social and emotional connections with others were a significant moderator on the effects of a variety of disadvantages, including parental mental illness. For instance, Rutter (1979) showed that a positive relationship with at least one parent, especially during infancy and early childhood, is a protective factor for children’s psychological health. Howes (1999) argues that children have the potential to form many different kinds of relationships, while Harrison (2003) emphasizes the role of child care workers and teachers in a child’s social network. As well, siblings within families which experience disadvantage also have the potential to provide support to each other (Widmer & Weiss, 2000). In a series of interviews with young people, Fudge and Mason (2004) found that positive peer relations and having someone to talk to on a regular basis was an important coping mechanism. Overall, such research indicates that if or when the primary adult is not able to appropriately support the child, meaningful social and emotional connections, from within and outside of the family, might be effectively made elsewhere. As a consequence, we devised a measure that attempted to tap into all of the possible relationships that might exist for 8-12 year old children (see Figure 1 Maybery, Ling & Szakacs, 2002, p.33).

Within and Outside the family Connections

Within the problems and connections measures we believe an important practical distinction might be within family and external to family relationships. In terms of within family, this is often focused upon the parent-child relationship and …is characterised by the quality of the emotional bond between parent and child and by the degree to which this bond is both mutual and sustained over time (Lezin, Rolleri, Bean & Taylor, 2004). A high degree of connectedness between parent and child is related to spending time and communicating together and having respect for each other and optimism to the future (Lezin et al., 2004). It is thought that high levels of parent-child connectedness “… may buffer young people from the many challenges and risks they face in today's world” (Lezin et al., 2004, p.viii). In a comprehensive review of the literature in this area Lezin et al highlight the following components of parent-child connectedness:

• attachment/bonding
• warmth/caring
• cohesion (closeness and conflict)
• support/involvement
• the communication
• monitoring/control
• autonomy granting
• maternal/paternal characteristics (p.ix).

In terms of outside of the family relationships we relied upon the concept of social connectedness for theoretical support. “Social connectedness is considered an attribute of the self that reflects cognitions of enduring interpersonal closeness with the social world in toto” (Lee, Draper & Lee, 2001, p. 310). Social connectedness emphasises the independent self in relation to others and consequently is different than belonging and loneliness (Lee et al., 2001). It is thought that the quality of our social connections develops early in life and remains constant throughout life (Lee et al., 2001). The concept is closely related to attachment and is thought to extend from the early parent-child relationship.

Positive versus Negative Connections

In addition to making a distinction between within and outside the family in terms of relationships we also made a positive (Kids Connections measure) and negative (Kids Problems measure) affective distinction that relationships might have upon children. We did so as considerable research now suggests that people have two relatively independent systems in relation to affective life experiences; one for negative events impacting on negative mood, and one for positive events and their impact on positive mood (Hart, 1992; Headey & Wearing, 1989; 1992; Zautra & Reich, 1983). When positive and negative mood are measured as independent constructs positive relationship events have been found to generally only impact on positive and not negative mood (Maybery, 2004), whereas negative relationship events tend to only impact on negative mood (Maybery, 2003a). Given the increasing support for dual affectivity dimensions it was thought important to develop measures that reflected the key positive relationships for children (Kids connections) and the key negative relationships for children (Kids problems). Table 2 below outlines the connections and problems measures and illustrates examples according to within family and outside family dimensions.

Table 1: Types of Kids Connections and Problems within and outside of the family.

Also included on the Kids connections measure is a number of initial questions about friendships and utilisation of relationships by the children. Considering the ages of the target audience (ie 8-12) these questions are designed to be as behavioural as possible. The questions are as follows:

Some people have a lot of friends others have few. Think about your friends now. How many friends do you have?

In the last month, how many times have you done the following:

- gone to a friend’s house to play?
- had a friend over to play?

If you had a problem, how many of your friends (including adults) would be able to help you with that problem?

Kids Coping: Description of Instrument Methodology

Coping has been an important development in the stress field (Headey & Wearing, 1992) and is intricately linked, within Lazarus and Folkman’s cognitive appraisal model, to the secondary appraisal process (Bakal, 1992). The central question asked by an individual during secondary appraisal is, ‘what can I do in relation to this stressor’? (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Coping actions have been defined as:

...constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p.141).

The definition of coping has three important features. It is process oriented, refers to a specific context, and is defined without reference to its outcomes (Folkman, Chesney, Mckusick, Ironson, Johnson & Coates, 1991). Researcher categorisation of coping actions has generally not resulted in clear-cut classifications (Trenberth, Dewe & Walkey, 1996). Although not capturing the response complexity, many dichotomize coping as either emotion (EFC) or problem-focused (PFC; Folkman, et al., 1991; Frederikson & Dewe, 1995) this being the best general method for classifying strategies (Trenberth et al., 1996).

Problem-focused activities are regarded as efforts to change the environment or oneself in relation to it, and emotion-focused coping generally involves strategies that better manage the individual’s emotional response to the stressor (Bakal, 1992; Folkman, et al., 1991).

Problem-focused forms of coping include cognitive problem-solving and decision making, interpersonal conflict resolution, information gathering, advice seeking, time management, and goal setting as well as problem-oriented behaviours such as joining a weight control program...(Folkman, et al., 1991, p.243).

Emotion-focused actions include efforts to minimise the impact of the problem or using such things as exercise or relaxation (Folkman, et al., 1991).

A third important coping strategy is social support. Social support has been shown to contribute significantly to mental health and well being. Kemper has suggested that social relations serve as a mediator that allows individuals to adapt to their environments (1993). There are numerous reports that people with good social support are in better health than those who have less support (see Cohen & Wills 1985 for review).

Consequently, the Kids Coping scale is designed to have three clear factors representing problem focused coping, emotion focused coping and social support. The measure was designed to be a brief (nine item) general measure of activities important for this age group. The items were designed to reflect distinct cognitive and behavioural coping actions. However the development of the measure was a trade-off between brevity of the overall measure, an attempt to capture both cognitive and behavioural coping strategies within categories and, from a measurement perspective, to attempt to ensure that a clear three factor would emerge. The measure can be adapted to be a situation-specific coping measure.

The following table outlines the coping items as they reflect type of coping category (emotion, problem focused and social support) and the cognitive or behavioural domain they represent.

Table: Types of cognitive and behavioural coping items.