Social-Cognitive Processing and Biases in Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities
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Date
2007-09
Authors
Livingstone, Megan
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between hostile
attribution bias and social-emotional functioning in children with nonverbal learning
disabilities (NLD). A subset of the data collected by Tanya Galway, a University of
Toronto doctoral student, was examined. Sixteen children with NLD and sixteen
normally achieving controls between the ages of 9 and 16 were given the Social Problem
Solving Measure (Galway, 2007) to examine hostile attribution bias, and parents and
teachers of the children completed the Achenbach System of Empirically Based
Assessment (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) to examine social-emotional functioning.
Children with NLD were rated higher than normally achieving peers, by both parent and
teacher informants, on the anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, internalizing,
aggressive and externalizing scales. Parents of children with NLD rated their children
higher than teachers on these scales. Children with NLD differed from normally
achieving peers on a measure of hostile attribution bias more frequently endorsing that a
story character was being mean. Group differences in hostile attribution bias were
accounted for by individual differences in depression and aggression, but not by
individual differences in anxiety.
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Keywords
Social learning , Patients , Nonverbal , Psychological aspects , Social perception , Attitudes , Toronto , Ontario , Children , Learning disabilities