UTILITY OF THE REPRESSIVE DEFENSE STYLE CONSTRUCT IN CHILDHOOD

Defined and tested repressive defense style to determine if this const ruct was applicable to children. Eighty-three 10- to 15-year-old child ren with asthma were categorized as repressors or nonrepressors using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Revised Children's M anifest Anxiety Scale, and the Anger Expression Scale. About one third of the children were classified as repressors. There was high concord ance (74% to 85%) between methods of classifying repressors using ange r or anxiety as the negative affect presumed to be repressed. In addit ion, a high concordance rate across time was found in a subsample. Sex differences on the Child Behavior Checklist-Parent Form were also fou nd to relate to repressor or non-repressor classification. These data suggest that the effects of repression on self-report data should be c onsidered in clinical research.