PSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN WITH SHORT STATURE - A PRELIMINARY-REPORT

Previous studies that have examined the psychosocial adjustment of chi ldren with short stature have often been flawed, for two main reasons: first, a lack of sample homogeneity and, secondly, the measures of ad justment used have been limited in terms of their sensitivity. This pa per examines psychological functioning in the following four broad are as: cognition, social behaviour, emotional adjustment and self-concept . A sample of children referred to growth clinics (mean height below - 2 SDS) and a comparison group, recruited from the referred childrens' classes at school, were assessed. Children were prepubertal (age range , 6-11 years) and had no organic cause for their short stature. Parent , teacher and peer reports were used in the assessment, which included sociometric measures in the classroom. The children with short statur e described themselves as equally well supported as the comparison chi ldren in terms of social support by parents, teachers, peers and frien ds. Peers reported the short children to be well accepted within their class. Compared with control children, there was a trend for short ch ildren to be described by their peers as socially better adjusted than average. Teacher and parental accounts revealed significant group dif ferences in terms of reported behaviour, with poorer attention and mor e thought problems among the children with short stature. Further anal ysis suggested, however, that their slightly lower IQ than children of normal height (95.8 +/- 18.7 (mean +/- SD) compared with 105 +/- 15.4 ) accounted for a greater proportion of the variance in these findings than short stature per se. There is little evidence to indicate that short prepubertal children are psychosocially maladjusted. Their acade mic performance was poorer than expected on the basis of their cogniti ve abilities. Reports of immature and impulsive behaviour may not be a pplicable to a sample of children not referred to a growth clinic.