Effects of anxious emotions on the behavioral problems of Chinese children with learning difficulties

• Published in: Quality & quantity Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 1147 - 1165
• Main Authors: Chen, I-Jun, Wu, Yu, Wei, Bing-Si
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.05.2017; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Anxiety; Anxiety disorders; Behavior; Children; Democracy; Disabled children; Economic development; Economic policy; Education; Elementary school students; Emotional disorders; Emotions; Families & family life; Fear & phobias; Learning; Learning disabilities; Learning disabled; Mental disorders; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Parenting; Parents & parenting; Self esteem; Social problems; Social research; Social Sciences; Sociodemographics; Students; Studies; Teachers; Teenagers; United States > US; China; Anxious emotions; Learning difficulties; Elementary school children; Behavioral Problems
• ISSN: 0033-5177; 1573-7845
• DOI: 10.1007/s11135-016-0322-5

Under the one-child policy and with the economic development, there has been an annual rise in both anxious emotions and behavioral problems among students with learning difficulties. In order to evaluate the relationship between anxious emotions and behavioral problems, this study adopted a quantitative approach to randomly select 6000 elementary school students in Jiangsu Province of China, then screened 714 anxious children with learning disabilities. The conclusions of this research were as follows: for children with learning difficulties, their anxious emotions and behavioral problems were above average, notably their social phobia and learning problems; behavioral problems of children with learning difficulties varied due to demographic variables, and there was a significant interaction effect of rearing styles and family atmospheres on children’s behavioral problems; separation anxiety, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, family atmosphere (harmony), rearing style (democracy), parental expectation (self-sufficiency) and somatization/panic disorder of children with learning difficulties could predict their behavioral problems. Based on the results, this study proposed a few suggestions for educators and future researchers.