Behavioral problems of school children: impact of social vulnerability, chronic adversity, and maternal depression

Abstract

This study's objective was to identify the predictive effect of indicators concerning social vulnerability, chronic adversity, and maternal depression on behavioral problems among school-aged children, according to the perceptions of mothers and teachers, considering the presence or absence of difficulties in the contexts of family and school. A total of 85 pairs of mothers and school children were distributed into three groups according to the behavioral problems identified. A General Questionnaire, the PHQ-9, the Chronic Adversity Scale, and the (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) SDQ were applied to the mothers; the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices were applied to the children; and the SDQ was applied to the teachers. Data were analyzed with descriptive, predictive, and comparative statistical procedures (p ≤ 0.05). The results reveal the presence of cumulative risks for children with behavioral problems; mothers more frequently identified behavioral problems than teachers; and maternal depression was a predictor for behavioral problems. Such findings are relevant for devising mental health programs.

The effects of parental depression and anxiety on child behavior from 6 to 12 years old: a review

“…Although Martineli et al 39 have found the current maternal depression as a stronger predictor variable for the presence of internalizing and externalizing child behaviors, the cumulative and chronic adversities may contribute to behavioral problems. Some studies selected in this review support the association between maternal depression and children's internalizing behavior.…”

“…The results were analyzed according to the descriptors. The studies in this review predominantly elected maternal depression as the main impact factor on child behavior [28][29][30][31][32]34,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] . Both in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies there are an association between maternal and children behavioral problems in general.…”

Mediation analysis of social deficits between self-criticism and aggression in adolescents

“…The behavior of adolescents is a significant indicator of adaptation during this developmental stage (Martineli et al, 2018). However, some adolescents (between 6% to 66% [Kumar et al, 2016;Malhotra & Patra, 2014;Nair et al, 2017;Paul & Khan, 2019]) are not successful and may present numerous behavioral problems leading toward adverse consequences including poor school performance, high dropout rate, low self-esteem, loneliness, maladaptive coping and emotion regulation, poor adjustment, and quality of life (Agh et al, 2016;Kumar, 2019;Selamu & Singhe, 2018;Sutherland, 2018).…”

Depressão materna, afetos e práticas educativas maternas na predição de problemas comportamentais de crianças

“…Embora os professores geralmente também relatem sobre a presença de mais problemas comportamentais por parte de crianças que convivem com a depressão materna, eles tendem a relatar a presença de mais problemas externalizantes e menos problemas internalizantes, em comparação à avaliação dos pais (Martineli et al, 2018). Pode-se considerar que os dados sobre a maior exposição das crianças com sintomas emocionais à disciplina relaxada das mães, e das crianças com problemas de conduta ao abuso físico, são concordantes com a literatura, na qual alguns estudos mostram a associação entre práticas de pouco envolvimento ou baixo controle comportamental e a presença de sintomas internalizantes por parte das crianças (Nunes et al, 2013), e entre práticas de abuso ou punição física e a presença de sintomas externalizantes (Callender et al, 2012;Piché et al, 2011a (Martineli et al, 2018;De Los Reyes et al, 2015;Stivanin et al, 2008). Ainda assim, considerando os dados combinados, de avaliadores diferentes, identificou-se uma concordância no que se refere à influência das práticas negativas para o comportamento infantil, bem como da disciplina relaxada para os sintomas emocionais, e do abuso físico para os problemas de conduta, o que coloca em destaque tais variáveis.…”