Children and adolescents with low social acceptance and low self-esteem are at a higher risk for multiple problems, including aggression, delinquency, and depression. If the underlying causes of...Show moreChildren and adolescents with low social acceptance and low self-esteem are at a higher risk for multiple problems, including aggression, delinquency, and depression. If the underlying causes of low social acceptance and low self-esteem are known, children with these problems can be helped with specific intervention programs. Executive functions, like inhibition, could be part of the possible underlying causes. The current study focuses on the relation between inhibition and self-esteem and whether either objective or subjective social acceptance influence this relation. This study will also assess whether there is a difference between objective social acceptance (OSA) and subjective social acceptance (SSA) and whether there is a relation between inhibition and either objective social acceptance or subjective social acceptance. The measures inhibition speed, inhibition accuracy, SSA, OSA and self-esteem measured for 130 children and adolescents (6 – 18 years) at risk for externalising problems were used to analyse these questions. The results showed that inhibition is not significantly related to self-esteem or SSA, but was related to lower OSA (p = .02). OSA does not moderate the relation between inhibition and self-esteem. However, SSA shows a trend of strengthening the relation between inhibition and self-esteem. Children with average SSA and better inhibition speed had lower self-esteem, similar to children with low SSA, children with worse inhibition speed had higher self- esteem, similar to children with high SSA (p = .08). For inhibition accuracy, children with a lower SSA had lower self-esteem when their inhibition was worse, while children with a high SSA had higher self-esteem when they had worse inhibition (p = .07). These results suggest that future social acceptance or self-esteem interventions should not focus on inhibition for children with externalising problems.Show less
Among adolescents with gender dysphoria (GD) there appears to be an overrepresentation of the comorbid diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while both diagnoses occur in (less than) 1% of the...Show moreAmong adolescents with gender dysphoria (GD) there appears to be an overrepresentation of the comorbid diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while both diagnoses occur in (less than) 1% of the population (De Vries et al., 2010). The combination of ASD and GD is associated with low self-esteem, which can result in psychological problems (Balleur-van Rijn et al., 2012). To date, no intervention exists to increase the level of self-esteem of adolescents with ASD and GD (Myers et al., 2011). The current study focuses on the effect of a peer discussion group on the degree of self-esteem of adolescents with ASD and GD. This was examined in 33 adolescents with both ASD and GD (mean 17;7 years), consisting of 19 gender variant boys and 15 gender variant girls. To assess the degree of self-esteem, the Competentie Belevingsschaal voor Adolescenten (CBSA) was used. The CBSA is a self-report questionnaire that uses 35 items to measure various components of the self-concept. This questionnaire will be administered prior to and after the peer discussion group. The effect of the peer discussion group was measured using multiple repeated measures ANOVAs. The results show that the peer discussion group has no effect on the overall level of self-esteem, as the difference in self-esteem between the pre- and post-measurement was not significant (F(1, 32) = .08, p = .77). Looking closer into the results, the peer discussion group was found to have a negative effect on self-esteem concerning physical appearance (F(1, 32) = 8.73, p = .006) and a positive effect on self-esteem concerning behavioral attitudes (F(1, 32) = 11.14, p = .002). Thus, in its current form, the peer discussion group does not appear to be an appropriate intervention to increase all domains of self-esteem of adolescents with ASD and GD.Show less
