Children's Behavior Symptoms and Their Relationships to School Adjustment, Sex, and Social Class.

This report summarizes the relationships between mothers' reports of their children's symptoms and 1) teachers' ratings of emotional adjustment of the children, 2) sex of the children, and 3) social class of the families. Significant associations were found most frequently between symptoms and gener...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Social Issues Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 8 - 16
Autores principales: Mensh, Ivan N., Kantor, Mildred B., Domke, Herbert R., Gildea, Margaret C.-L., Glidewell, John C.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Mar1959
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This report summarizes the relationships between mothers' reports of their children's symptoms and 1) teachers' ratings of emotional adjustment of the children, 2) sex of the children, and 3) social class of the families. Significant associations were found most frequently between symptoms and general psychological adjustment. The analyses supported the predicted relationship between symptoms and level of emotional adjustment, with higher prevalence rates reported by mothers of poorly adjusted children. In previous work (Glidewell, a. at., 1957b) the number of symptoms reported by the mother for her child was found to be positively related to the child's adjustment. Differences related to adjustment were also found in the occurrence of individual symptoms. The symptoms which appeared significantly more often in the disturbed boys were sleeping trouble, trouble getting along with other children, nervousness, unusual fears, and stealing. Those symptoms which appeared significantly more often in the disturbed girls were sleeping trouble, lying, and making a fuss about going to school. However, when controlled for sex and social class, the present analysis on a larger sample shows that the symptom complex most likely to differentiate between disturbance groups is trouble getting along with other children. Consistent sex differences were not found. However, the prevalence rates of the symptoms of withdrawn behavior, thumbsucking, and unusual fears all were higher for lower-class girls than for boys at this class level. Sex differences in symptom prevalence were not observed in the other two social classes. The significant social class findings were associated primarily with upper-class boys who were rated less well adjusted than their fellow pupils. The symptoms which were especially likely to be reported by their mothers were acting out behavior with adults, both acting out and with- drawn behavior in interactions with other children, stealing, destructiveness, sleep disturbance, speech difficulty, unusual fears, temper tantrums, daydreaming, and general nervousness. In conclusion, the present study supports previous findings concerning the significance of symptom reporting by mothers, i.e., the number of symptoms reported by mothers is related to the adjustment of their children. The present study points out the relative significance of certain symptoms which are more important than others with respect to teachers' ratings of adjustment.