[The assessment of social relations in 6 to 12-year-old children in a child and adolescent population in psychiatric consultation].

Starting from Schmiedeck's "personal sphere model" we tried to develop a similar procedure for children (age range 6 to 12 years). It should enable us to analyze the social relationships of a patient from his/her point of view. We examined 85 children of child/adolescent-psychiatric population with the presented method. It focuses upon drawings of the children and assessment of their relationships. The number of closely related persons and the frequency of interpersonal/social contacts allow to estimate the degree of embeddedness of the child into his/her social context. Importance and significance of indicated partners of interaction can be determined by the attachment the child expresses and receives. These assessments give information about the likes and dislikes for the related persons. The range of social experience extends equally for boys and girls as they grow older. At all age levels girls have more social contacts than boys. The sibling relations of the girls show more inconsistencies than those of the boys. Younger children have the tendency to name only the mother as family member. Neurotic and emotionally disturbed children express fewer wishes. Children with social behaviour disorders suffer less from the loss of a closely related person than children with emotional disturbances.