Feeling bad: exploring sources of distress among pre-adolescent children

Abstract

Previous studies of stress in childhood have used instruments containing items describing events/conditions thought by adults to be stressful for children. In interviews with 5th- and 6th-grade children, we asked them to describe circumstances that would make or had made them feel bad, nervous, or worried. After pretesting this children's list of items, we administered it to 2,480 5th graders. Subjects ranked how bad they would/did feel if each item happened and, also, how often each had occurred. Children also self-rated their mental health status. There were significant associations between children's ratings of mental health and "Feel Bad" scores. Girls rates most items significantly higher (more bad) than boys. While there were some sex and racial differences in ratings, the rank orders of items by different subgroups were highly correlated. Factor analysis revealed three dimensions, containing items related to: 1) anxieties surrounding conflict with parents; 2) self-image and peer-group relationship; and 3) geographic mobility. Only five or six of the 20 items represent discrete events (changing schools); the rest represent chronic role strains (being left out of a group, being pressured to get good grades). The consequences of these strains are yet to be determined.