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Emotional well being in children and adolescents attending specialist schools for the performing arts

Smith, Jacqueline; (1997) Emotional well being in children and adolescents attending specialist schools for the performing arts. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

Three groups of children and adolescents aged between 11 and 16 were recruited for this study, dancers and musicians attending specialist schools for the performing arts and a third group of students from "non performing arts" schools. It was hypothesised that the dancers would have higher rates of eating disorder and eating disorder symptomatology than non dancers. It was also hypothesised that all of the dancers with a diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa would be classified as "neurotic perfectionists" as assessed by the Setting Conditions for Anorexia Nervosa Scale (SCANS; Slade and Dewey 1986) and that significantly more dancers would be classified as "neurotic perfectionists" than non dancers. It was further hypothesised that the musicians would have higher rates of non eating disorder diagnoses and symptoms than controls. Finally, it was predicted that the specialist students whose perceived performance expectations exceeded their perceived performance in the specialist subject would have a greater number of symptoms than individuals without this discrepancy. Two cases of Anorexia Nervosa were found in the dance group and no such cases were found in the non dancers. Similar rates of Bulimia Nervosa were found in both the dancers and non dancers. Chi-square analysis revealed that there was no association between group membership (dancer/non dancer) and an eating disorder diagnosis. There were also no significant differences between the dancers and non dancers in terms of eating disorder symptomatology. One of the two dancers with Anorexia Nervosa was classified as a "neurotic perfectionist". There were also more "neurotic perfectionists" in the dance group in comparison to the non dancers, although this was not statistically significant. The musicians did not have a greater number of non eating disorder diagnoses or symptoms than controls. Finally, the specialist subjects whose perceived performance expectations exceeded their perceived performance had significantly more symptoms than individuals without this discrepancy. However, perceived performance alone appeared to be the most important variable in terms of psychopathology. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Emotional well being in children and adolescents attending specialist schools for the performing arts
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Thesis digitised by ProQuest.
Keywords: Psychology; Education; Eating disorders
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10099356
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