Interactions between a self-evaluation of mental health, internal/external control and scholastic adaptation in 6-to 8-year-old children

In the ecosystem of the child, various components are interaction. This research proposes to highlight the link between mental health and school adaptation in the child from 6 to 8 years of age, and this through the various interactions of certain factors of influence. Indeed, the child is apprehended here as an active agent of his development in relation to the globality of dimensions of his environment. The factors studied are variables relating to the child : mental health and school adaptation, as well as psychological control. The socioemotional variables represented in the research are parental educational practices (PEP) and the sociocultural medium (MSC). They are anal zed on the basis of questionnaires for the children, parents and teachers. We can note the influences of mental health, sociocultural medium and PEP on school adaptation. Moreover, we can say that MSC and PEP are dependant. The family structuring also affects the type of disorders. It appears that : Children in good mental health have good school adaptation and vice versa. Among those who have bad mental health, those who have exteriorized disorders also have good scolastic adaptation. Children who receive a flexibly or rigidly structured education tend to develop interiorized disorders when they are in bad mental health. Those which receive a weakly structured education tend to develop exteriorized disorders. Being in the upper or middle class allows for good school adaptation. A flexible education also permits such adaptation.In the upper classes students are more likely to receive a flexible education. The questionnaire of mental health <<Dominique>> on CD-Rom which we tested Seems to its to be an interesting tool making it possible to take into account various dimensions of the child in his ecosystem and in a global vision of his development.