Behavior Problems In Preschool Children Research Articles

The effect of lead exposure on behavior problems in preschool children.

Interpreting associations between lead exposure and child behavior problems is difficult because studies have not controlled for sociodemographic confounders or have used shed teeth to mark exposure. This study explored associations between blood lead and preschool behavior. Children from a smelter town and a non-lead-exposed town in Yugoslavia were followed up prospectively from pregnancy through age 3. The Child Behavior Checklist was used to assess behavior problems in 379 3-year-olds, controlling for sociodemographic factors and difficult infant temperament. Multiple regression revealed the expected significant associations between checklist subscales and sociodemographic factors, which explained 7% to 18% of the variance on the subscales. Concurrent blood lead explained a significant 1% to 4% of the variance on the Destructive and Withdrawn subscales. Earlier difficult temperament explained an additional 2% to 5% of the checklist variance. Scores on the Destructive subscale were consistently associated with blood lead. As blood lead increased from 10 to 20 micrograms/dL, subscale scores increased by approximately 0.5 points. Lead/behavior associations are significant but small compared with the effects of social factors.

Individual differences in emotion regulation and behavior problems in preschool children.

Emotion regulation (ER) was assessed during a negative mood induction in 79 preschoolers who varied in degree of behavior problems. Facial expressivity during the induction was used to identify 3 ER groups: inexpressive, modulated expressive, and highly expressive. Group differences in ER were significantly related to heart rate and skin conductance. Inexpressive preschoolers had the highest heart rate, lowest vagal tone, and smallest autonomic nervous system (ANS) change during the induction. Highly expressive preschoolers had the slowest heart rate, highest vagal tone, and largest ANS change. The inexpressive and highly expressive groups had more externalizing symptoms than the modulated group at preschool age and at follow-up at the end of 1st grade. Inexpressive preschoolers appeared to have more depressed and anxious symptoms at follow-up.

Pattern of preschool behavior problems in New Zealand, using the Behavior Check List.

The main aim of the study was to identify the pattern of behaviour problems in preschool children to enable early recognition and intervention. Three hundred and twenty children, in eight randomly selected preschool centres, aged between 2.5 and 5 years, were included in the study. Parents completed the Behaviour Check List (BCL),a screening measure for preschool behaviour problems. Dependency, temper tantrums, and being difficult to manage were the commonly rated symptoms when moderate-severe problems were examined. Developmental problems decreased with increasing age, while relationship problems and worries that were cognitively mediated worsened. There were no major differences in the patterns between boys and girls. On cross-cultural comparison, parents in New Zealand rated their children lower on the BCL compared to those in the UK. Factor analysis of the BCL yielded seven factors. The two main factors 'predominantly conduct' and 'predominantly emotional' consisted of a mixture of conduct (difficulty in managing, temper tantrums, sibling rivalry) and emotional (unhappy mood, worry, fears) problems. The other five factors were related to developmental problems. These results help clinicians identify the emerging pattern of preschool behaviour problems that change with increasing age and vary with differing cultures. Categorical presentation of preschool behaviour problems support the view that they should be included in a classification system.

Individual differences in emotion regulation and behavior problems in preschool children.

Individual differences in emotion regulation and behavior problems in preschool children.

Mental health of preschool children and their mothers in a mixed urban/rural population. II. Family and maternal factors and child behaviour.

The extent to which certain maternal, child and family characteristics are associated in families with a 3-year-old child were examined. A total population of families with a 3-year-old child and living in the New Forest were identified. Measures of child behaviour and the maternal GHQ-30 were obtained. Whereas behaviour problems were found to be significantly associated with all maternal and family factors (except social class), difficult temperament was only related to mother's recall of their own childhood as unhappy and overactivity was only significantly associated with maternal disturbance. The results are consistent with maternal disturbance and difficult temperament acting independently and additively to influence the development of behaviour problems in preschool children.

Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: A Review of Recent Research

Research on the prevalence, course, and correlates of behavior problems in preschool children was examined. Prospective epidemiological studies and follow-up studies of clinical/high risk samples indicate that serious externalizing problems identified early often persist. Negative, inconsistent parental behavior and high levels of family adversity are associated with the emergence of problems in early childhood and predict their persistence to school age. Studies are examined from a developmental perspective and integrated with research on optimal parent-child relationships. The severity of initial problems and family context are related to different developmental outcomes.

Behavioural problems in pre-school children: An epidemiologic study at Swedish day-care centres

Behavioural symptoms in 350 children 2–6 years old, attending Swedish day-care centres were investigated with a Swedish translation of Richman's Pre-School Behaviour Checklist (PBCL). The checklist was completed by staff from 23 day-care centres in large and small cities and in rural areas. In all, 14% of the children had behavioural disturbances. Deviant behaviour was most prevalent among 3-year-olds (22%) and less pronounced among the oldest children. Twice as many boys (19%) as girls (9%) displayed disturbed behaviour. The factor “conduct/restlessness/aggression” was more frequent among boys and among younger children of both sexes. The factor “a social isolation/immaturity” was more common younger children of both sexes. The factor “social isolation/immaturity” was more common in the younger children, and no gender differences were found. The third factor, “emotional/miserable”, was equally common in both genders and at all ages. The most prevalent serious problem was difficulties in concentration, wh...

Predicting Behavior Problems and Social Competence in Children of Adolescent Mothers

Although research on the consequences of adolescent parenting for the children of adolescent mothers has focused on these children's increased risk for maladaptive outcomes (see reviews in Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1986; Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 1989; Osofsky, Hann, & Peebles, 1993), not all children of adolescent mothers suffer negative consequences. In the extensive 17-year study of 296 children of adolescent mothers in Baltimore (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987), 53% did experience negative academic outcomes: They repeated at least one grade. However, 26% of the sample were above average in class standing; Furstenberg et al. (1987) documented that three changes in an adolescent mother's family life positively affected her child's academic status: terminating welfare status, contracting a stable marriage, and advancing her own education. Similar results were recently reported by Barratt (1991). Although the academic performance of the Baltimore sample of children of adolescent mothers was strongly affected by mothers' economic, educational, and marital status, children's behavior problems were only influenced weakly by these same variables (Furstenberg et al., 1987). The absence of strong effects suggests that other family characteristics need to be examined as predictors of behavior problems in children of adolescent mothers. One clear candidate for a predictor of the behavior problems of children of adolescent mothers is maternal parenting practices. Parenting practices were not examined in the original Baltimore study but have subsequently been found to contribute to infant behaviors (Field, Widmayer, Adler, & de Cubas, 1990) and have been proposed to be potentially important predictors of later outcomes as well (Furstenberg et al., 1989). However, this proposal has yet to be tested systematically. The continuing lack of longitudinal research on the impact of adolescent parenting practices on children after infancy has led to repeated requests for such research (Brooks-Gunn & Chase-Lansdale, in press; Chase-Lansdale, Brooks-Gunn, & Paikoff, 1991; Furstenberg et al., 1989; Roosa, 1991). The current study is the first of a series of studies at sites in Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma designed to remedy the lack of such longitudinal research on adolescent mothers and their children by investigating the relationship between parenting practices of adolescent mothers from infancy through early childhood and their preschool children's behavior problems and positive socioemotional outcomes. This series of studies is grounded in a new conceptual framework of adolescent parenting that modifies attachment theory's emphasis on the primary importance of the mother-child relationship in predicting later child outcomes (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985; Sroufe, 1979, 1989) by adding the adolescent mother's own continuing development to the prediction of her child's later behavior. Thus, the first purpose of the current study is to remedy the lack of longitudinal research on the impact of parenting practices of adolescent mothers on their children and the second purpose is to test the proposed model of adolescent parenting. Attachment theory and research on attachment in adult mothers and their children emphasize the continuity from children's secure attachment in infancy to their social competence in childhood (Waters & Sroufe, 1983; Waters, Wippman, & Sroufe, 1979) and from children's insecure or disorganized attachment to their behavior problems in childhood (Greenberg, Speltz, Deklyen, & Endriga, 1991; Sroufe, 1989; Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). Some researchers argue that this continuity in children's adaptation may well be due to the stability of and low stress in the lives of their adult mothers (e.g., Lamb, 1987). Stability and low stress are not hallmarks of the lives of adolescent mothers. …

Predictors of Behavior Problems in Preschool Children of Inner-City Afro-American and Puerto Rican Adolescent Mothers

Predictors of Behavior Problems in Preschool Children of Inner-City Afro-American and Puerto Rican Adolescent Mothers

Predictors of Behavior Problems in Preschool Children of Inner-City Afro-American and Puerto Rican Adolescent Mothers

Maternal reports on the Child Behavior Checklist/2-3 (CBCL/2-3) were used to evaluate child, maternal, and environmental predictors of behavior problems in 83 preschool children of disadvantaged adolescent mothers. CBCL/2-3 scores correlated modestly with independent ratings of child difficult behaviors observed in videotaped mother-child play interactions. 13% of children had scores in the clinical range. Significant correlations were consistently found between CBCL/2-3 ratings and maternal depressive symptoms, social supports, and life stress--assessed 3 times during the first year postpartum. In hierarchical regression analyses, maternal depressive symptoms, residence with the adolescent's mother, and perceived emotional support from friends contributed most to the explained variance. A significant ethnicity x child gender interaction term also suggested that African American mothers of male children reported more behavioral problems. Findings evidence the heterogeneity of outcomes for children of disadvantaged adolescent mothers but also demonstrate how correlates of poverty negatively affect their socioemotional development.

Behavior problems in preschool children: a pilot study.

Behavior problems in 20 preschool children (13 boys, 7 girls) referred to a diagnostic nursery were assessed using parents' ratings. The patterns of behavior problems reported in 4- and 5-yr.-olds parallel those noted for older clinic-referred children (i.e., internalizing difficulties in girls, externalizing difficulties in boys). The most salient behavior problems for 3-yr.-olds involved aggression. Correlations between children's behavior problems and an index of parents' experienced stress were moderate (.44 to .64).

Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Correspondence Among Parent and Teacher Ratings and Behavior Observations

Investigated 45 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years—ranging widely in degree and type of problem behavior—via parent ratings, teacher ratings, and objective observations of social behavior in play groups. The goal was to ascertain cross-informant correspondence for preschool-aged children, with a separate examination of internalizing versus externalizing, behavior patterns. Regarding internalizing behavior, parent ratings (but not teacher ratings) independently predicted observed isolation and withdrawal. As for externalizing behavior, however, teacher ratings were far more strongly associated with play group observations than were parent reports; only the teacher information independently predicted observed noncompliance and aggression. These differential patterns of cross-informant convergence across internalizing versus externalizing domains are discussed in light of the need for accurate identification of behavioral/emotional risk in preschoolers.

Nightmares, life events and behaviour problems in preschool children.

A postal survey was carried out to identify nursery school children with frequent nightmares in an English city. Of the 22 children reported as suffering from frequent nightmares, 14 came from families who were willing to be interviewed further. A control group with no nightmares, matched for age and sex, was selected from the returns. The mothers of the children in the two groups were interviewed using the Preschool Behaviour Checklist and a life events scale. The results showed that neither life events nor behaviour problems were more prevalent in the frequent nightmares group.

Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues

Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues

Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article ArticleNo AccessBehavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental IssuesSTUART M. FINCHSTUART M. FINCHSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Apr 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.148.10.1391AboutSections ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail "Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues." American Journal of Psychiatry, 148(10), pp. 1391–1392 Access content To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access. Institutional Login Sign in via OpenAthens Purchase Save for later Item saved, go to cart PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry $35.00 Add to cart PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry Checkout Please login/register if you wish to pair your device and check access availability. Not a subscriber? Subscribe Now / Learn More PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5 library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development. Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.). FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 148Issue 10 October 1991Pages 1391-1392 Metrics History Published online 1 April 2006 Published in print 1 October 1991

Behavior problems in preschool children: clinical and developmental issues

While the developmental relevance of young children's behavior problems is now generally recognized, there has been a marked paucity of information on the topic. Filling a gap in the literature, this volume focuses exclusively on children from toddlerhood through the preschool period. Integrating theory with clinical and developmental research with theoretical issues, and presenting a wealth of illustrative case material, it provides a clinically rich and highly readable account of this significant stage in the behavioral development of children.

Parental Self-Assessment and Behavioral Problems of Preschool Children

Parents of preschool children undergoing psychiatric evaluation were included in the evaluation process through a parents' group, and their attitudes regarding child-rearing behaviors were measured on five factors. Comparisons of parental attitudes on the five factors, demographic variables, and diagnoses of their children revealed several significant findings, including differences between mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their parenting ability between caucasian and non-caucasian parents as well as differences based on the child's diagnosis.

Behavioural problems in pre-school children

Behavioural problems in pre-school children

Resolving behaviour problems in preschool children: evaluation of a workshop for health visitors.

Workshops on helping parents resolve behaviour problems in their preschool child were provided for all health visitors from one health district in Bristol, UK. An emphasis was placed upon engaging the parents as behaviour change agents, whilst providing a constructional approach to the treatment of this type of problem. The course was evaluated 3 months later. Results are discussed in terms of usefulness of course content as perceived by the health visitors, reported alterations to their health visiting practice and implications for future liaison between clinical psychologists and health visitors.

Language Disorders and Behavioral Problems in Preschool Children

Preschoolers who present with resistant behavioral problems may have an accompanying language disorder. This paper describes a representative case of a child whose behavioral problem improved subsequent to identification of a language disorder, modification in parents' expectations and responses, and involvement in early education. Possible relationships among behavioral and language disorders, attentional and activity problems, and otitis media are discussed, and recommendations for early diagnosis and remediation are presented.