Behavior Symptoms in Children and Adjustment in Public School

Abstract

In general, psychiatrists disagree about the diagnostic significance of a mother's report of behavior symptoms in her child. This paper is a report of a test of the hypothesis that a significant relationship exists between a mother's report of symptoms and a school-determined estimate of general adjustment in the child, independent of sex and social class differences.

Life stress and maladaptation of children

“…(c) The failure of parent ratings of behavior problems to clearly differentiate school maladapting and random control children, while disconcerting, is not particularly surprising. Previous research has indicated that the relationship between teacher and parent ratings of children's behavior problems is rather weak for lower social class children (Glidewell, Gildea, Domke, & Kantor, 1959). One might speculate that differential values and biases of middle-class teachers (Rist, 1971) and lower class parents (Kohn, 1963) might contribute to differential judgments about adjustment problems of children.…”

Some Current Research Issues in American Child Psychiatry

“…The relationship between ratings of children by parents, teachers and professional workers has also been examined during the course of the St. Louis studies of the efficacy of services to pre vent the development of behavioral disorders in children. 40,41,42 The study of parental attitudes and practices in relation to child behavior is also undergoing important changes. It has become clear that the most widely used questionnaire measure, Schaefer and Bell's Parental Attitude Research Instrument,90 is strongly influenced by social class variables107 and does not dif ferentiate parents of clinic and non-clinic children.107 There has been increasing dissatisfaction with the use of self-rating ques tionnaires, and Schaefer91 and Bronfenbrenner22 have explored the use of children's reports for the rating of parental behavior.…”

Ascertaining deviant behavior in children.

“…Thanks are due to Blanche M. Cohen and Alice K. Weinstein for their help in data collection and analysis. social class (Eron, 1964), juvenile delinquency (Stott, 1960), school adjustment (Glidewell, Gildea, Domke, & Kantor, 1959), sex and age (Beller & Neubauer, 1962), and degree of sickness (Glidewell, Mensh, & Gildea, 1957).…”

“…) A few investigators approach the verity issue by examining various consistency measures. Some have calculated the consistency (or retest reliability) of behavior list endorsement over time (Dreger, 1964;Glidewell et al, 1959;Lapouse & Monk, 1959). Others have reported intersource agreement on endorsed items (Becker, 1960;Dreger, 1964;Glidewell et al, 1959;Lapouse & Monk, 1959;Levitt, 1959;Peterson, 1961).…”