Social desirability response tendencies in psychiatric inpatient children

P. Alex Mabe, Frank A. Treiber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined the substantive features of children's social desirability (SD) tendencies that could influence the nature and severity of psychopathology. Examinations of substantive features of SD responding in an inpatient child psychiatry unit (N = 76) suggested that higher scores on the Children's Social Desirability questionnaire were associated strongly with (1) lower mental age; (2) higher scores on self‐reported social competence; (3) lower scores on self‐reported anger; and (4) lower scores on parent‐reported externalization behavioral disturbance. Results were interpreted as suggesting that SD responding for child inpatients may reflect a mixed picture of negative features of cognitive and social immaturity that could affect adversely their ability to judge their own and others' social behavior and of positive features of less external behavioral disturbance and more prosocial attitudes and behaviors.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)194-201
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Clinical Psychology
Volume45
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1989

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Clinical Psychology

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