Developmental competencies, temperament, parenting practices and
psychosocial adversities in internalizing disorders
Abstract
Research on the etiology of internalizing disorders has focused on
biological and environmental factors, however, the role of developmental
competencies has not been explored much. The aim of the current report
is to understand the developmental competencies, temperament, parenting
practices and psychosocial adversities in internalizing disorders. The
relationship of each of these domains with functional impairment was
also explored. The developmental competencies considered in this study
include interpersonal competence, emotion regulation, executive
functioning, adaptive behaviour and self-concept. The sample consisted
of 30 children and adolescents with internalizing disorders belonging to
the age group of six to 18, and one of their parents. Descriptive
statistics and correlational analyses were used to analyse the data. The
findings revealed that positive parenting shares an inverse relationship
with functional impairment; other variables were not found to be related
to impairment. On comparison with non-clinical samples in previous
studies, interpersonal competence and self-concept were found to be at
lower levels in the current sample. A model of a bidirectional
relationship between individual and environmental factors together
contributing to internalizing disorders has been proposed. The study
will be continued on a larger scale on a clinical group and control
group to test the significance of this model.