Epidemiology of behavioral and emotional problems among Thai and American children: teacher reports for ages 6-11

• Published in: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry Vol. 30; no. 3; p. 471
• Main Authors: Weisz, J R, Suwanlert, S, Chaiyasit, W, Weiss, B, Achenbach, T M, Trevathan, D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.05.1989
• Subjects: Affective Symptoms - epidemiology; Affective Symptoms - psychology; Child; Child Behavior Disorders - epidemiology; Child Behavior Disorders - psychology; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Gender Identity; Humans; Learning Disorders - epidemiology; Learning Disorders - psychology; Male; Thailand; United States; Thailand; United States
• ISSN: 0021-9630
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1989.tb00260.x

As a sequel to comparison between reports by parents, we compared behavioral/emotional problems of 6-11-yr-old Thai and American children reported by teachers. These revealed higher ratings for Thai than for American children on nearly all problems showing significant cross-national differences. Thai children were rated higher on both overcontrolled and undercontrolled behavior and had more overcontrolled than undercontrolled problems (p less than 0.0001). Boys were higher than girls on all 48 problems than showed significant sex differences. The findings underscore (1) the impact of culture on children's problems in the school setting and (2) the importance of surveying teacher as well as parent perspectives.