Abstract

The institutionalized children has been experienced emotional deprivation in early period, they could show the problematic emotional, behavioral characteristics. The authors studied the emotional/behavioral characteristics for 2 institutionalized elementary children's psychological evaluation by rating scale in a city. The DSM-IV clinical diagnosis applied by child psychiatrist. The psychiatrists and nurses evaluated institutionalized children by psychological evaluation by rating scale. Tools for the evaluation were Korean personality inventory for children, Kovac's children's depression inventory, state-trait anxiety inventory. Ultimately 64 institutionalized children, consisting of 26 boys (40.6%) and 38 girls (59.4%) and 138 normal control children participated. In the clinical evaluation between institutionalized children group and control group, institutionalized children were decreased ego strength, and increased hyperactivity, social withdrawal, autistic symptoms of KPI-C and trait anxiety of Spielberger Inventory. This result suggests that a lot of institutionalized children have complex emotional, behavioral, and attentional problems in addition to educational problems. (Korean J Str Res 2009;17:341∼348)

• Keywords: Institutionalized children, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), KPI-C (Korean version of persornality inventory for children)