International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 11, Issue 11 (November 2024), Pages: 219-230

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 Original Research Paper

Self-perception in early childhood: A comparative study of children with and without alexithymia

 Author(s): 

 Waleed Fathy Abdulkader *, Alaa Ahmed Elgendy, Khalaf Alfadeed

 Affiliation(s):

 Department of Education, College of Sciences and Arts, Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia

 Full text

  Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9742-1474

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2024.11.023

 Abstract

This study examines differences in self-perception between children with alexithymia and their typically developing peers (TDP). It explores specific aspects of self-perception and compares self-perception profiles while considering gender and education. A total of 122 children from kindergartens and schools participated in the study, including 81 typically developing children and 41 with alexithymia. The study used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI) as assessment tools. The findings showed that alexithymia had a greater impact on self-perception than demographic factors like gender or education. Children with alexithymia had significantly lower self-perception in areas such as academic competence, motivation, social skills, and peer acceptance compared to their typically developing peers. The study highlights how alexithymia affects children's self-perception and calls for targeted interventions to support their well-being and social integration. It also suggests the need for further research into how educational environments influence children's self-perception.

 © 2024 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Self-perception differences, Alexithymia in children, Academic competence, Social integration, Peer acceptance

 Article history

 Received 26 June 2024, Received in revised form 10 October 2024, Accepted 9 November 2024

 Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the approval and the support of this research study by grant no. SCAR-2023-12-2385 from the Deanship of Scientific Research at Northern Border University in Arar, KSA.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

Informed consent was obtained from the guardians of all participants, and confidentiality was ensured throughout the research.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Abdulkader WF, Elgendy AA, and Alfadeed K (2024). Self-perception in early childhood: A comparative study of children with and without alexithymia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 11(11): 219-230

 Permanent Link to this page

 Figures

 Fig. 1 

 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 

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