Basic Skills, Early Problematic Behaviour and Social Maladjustment

Abstract

Summary The focus of this study is on the role of basic skills (defined as the summed results of national achievement test scores in Swedish and mathematics) in boys’ social developmental process. With reference to a holistic model for individual functioning and development, the aim of the investigation was obtained by studying the relationships between basic skilb and early problematic behaviour at the age of 10, on the one hand, and later social maladjustment, manifest in the presence in official registers for alcohol problems, crime and psychiatric disorders, on the other. Based on data concerning basic skills and six teacher‐rated behaviours (aggressive behaviour, motor restlessness, shyness, disharmony, concentration difficulties, and overambi‐tion), boys with similar profiles across the seven factors were grouped together using cluster analysis. Six clusters were deemed an optimal solution. Register data for alcohol problems, crime and psychiatric diagnoses were available with no attrition. For each of the clusters, the percentage of boys who appeared in any of the records was reported. The results strongly corroborate holistic assumptions that low levels of basic skills at an early age per se is not a precursor of later maladjustment. Even when occurring in conjunction with shyness, the results did not point to an increased risk of negative social development. It is only when low basic skill levels form clusters along with other problematic behaviours that the risk increases. This, is most obvious when low basic skills is present in profiles which are also characterised by aggressiveness, motor restlessness, disharmony and concentration difficulties. Among the boys belonging to the most ‘problematic cluster’ at age 10, no less than 90% were found in at least one of the civic records through young adulthood.