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The Teddy Bears' Picnic : four-year-old children's personal constructs in relation to behavioural problems and to
1Psychology Department, St. Martin's Hospital, Canterbury, UK.
Insights
The Teddy Bears' Picnic (TBP) shows cross-test validity with the Preschool Behaviour Checklist, improving assessment of troubled children's behavior and mental health. Together, these tools offer a more powerful evaluation of child adjustment.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Assessing internal personal constructs in troubled children is crucial for understanding their mental health.
- The Teddy Bears' Picnic (TBP) is a tool designed to evaluate these constructs through play.
- Existing methods may not fully capture the nuances of young children's internal experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish cross-test validity for The Teddy Bears' Picnic (TBP).
- To determine if TBP and the Preschool Behaviour Checklist (PBC) can differentiate behavioral and adjustment levels in preschoolers.
- To assess the combined efficacy of TBP and PBC in evaluating child mental health.
Main Methods:
- The study involved administering The Teddy Bears' Picnic (TBP) and the Preschool Behaviour Checklist (PBC) to a cohort of preschoolers.
- Cross-test validity was examined by comparing TBP scores with PBC cut-off points.
- Teacher concern levels regarding child behavior and adjustment were used as a comparative measure.
Main Results:
- The TBP demonstrated the ability to discriminate between children above and below the PBC cut-off.
- Both TBP and PBC effectively distinguished varying levels of teacher concern about child behavior and adjustment.
- The combined use of TBP and PBC yielded a more powerful assessment than either test used in isolation.
Conclusions:
- The Teddy Bears' Picnic (TBP) possesses cross-test validity, particularly when used alongside the Preschool Behaviour Checklist (PBC).
- Children's internal perceptions, as expressed through pretense in TBP, are significantly related to their mental health status.
- The findings support the utility of TBP as a measure of internal constructs and its value in conjunction with behavioral checklists for comprehensive child assessment.
Abstract:
The study sought to establish cross-test validity for The Teddy Bears' Picnic (TBP), which assesses the internal personal constructs of the troubled child. After showing that the TBP could discriminate between 4-year-olds who were above and below cut-off on the Preschool Behaviour Checklist, the research demonstrated that both tests could distinguish levels of teacher concern about the behaviour and adjustment of the preschoolers in their care. When used in conjunction with one another, the two tests were more powerful than either used alone. The results suggested that children's internal perceptions of self and others, as revealed in pretense, are systematically related to their mental health status.