Assessing Irritability in Primary School-Aged Children: How to Test and Whom to Ask.

Autor/inn/en	Tayaranian Djeyhuni, Susann; Prehn-Kristensen, Alexander; Jauch-Chara, Kamila; Munz, Manuel
Titel	Assessing Irritability in Primary School-Aged Children: How to Test and Whom to Ask.
Quelle	In: Children : open access pediatrics journal, 12 (2025) 12, S. 1-12 PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2227-9067
DOI	10.3390/children12121583
URN	urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-109541-0
Schlagwörter	Frustration; Psychischer Faktor; Wohlbefinden; Kind; Schulforschung; Grundschule; Lehrer
Abstract	Background/Objectives: An increasing number of children and adolescents with mental health issues across many countries highlights the need for effective, accessible prevention strategies. Within the Research Domain Criteria framework, irritability - an emotional response to expected but blocked rewards - has been identified as an early indicator of declining mental well-being before the onset of mental disorders. Developing reliable yet resource-efficient methods to assess irritability is an important first step toward targeted prevention. Methods: We tested the German Version of a frustration Go/No-Go task enabling to deliberately induce frustration through expected but blocked rewards in N = 68 children aged eight to ten (mean age = 8.9 years, SD = 0.7; 36 females) and parallelly assessed irritability with the 7-item low cost Affective Reactivity Index (ARI) with ratings of parents, teachers and children. Results: The German Version of the frustration Go/No-Go task proved reliable and valid. Teacher ratings demonstrated the highest predictive validity for irritability among all informants. Conclusions: Both the 7-item ARI, rated by teachers, and the frustration Go/No-Go task are recommended for assessing irritability. In the future, irritability assessments should be implemented for all primary school-aged children. Based on the components that contribute to irritability, targeted prevention measures should be offered.
Erfasst von	GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Mannheim
Update	2026/3