兒童行動目録(CBCL) 에 의한 國民學生의 行動問題 調查 —兒童의 行動問題 研究( III ) ᅳ

An Epidemiological Study of Behavior Problems in Korean Elemetany School Children by CBCL

This is an epidemiological study of emotional/behavior problems in Korean elementary school children (total 2,399 • 1,236 boys, 1,163 girls) by empolying Children’ s Behavior Check List (CBCL) developed by Achenbach and Edelbrock(1983), to which 3 problem items were added for this study. A test-retest reliability of CBCL was was assessed by computing the Spearman- Brown correlation and the average correlation among items was. 72. The interparent agreeement was also assessed and the average correlation between mother and father was. 62. The study subjects were drawn by stratified sampling from 5 schools in Korea ; 3 schools (A, B, C) from Seoul, one school(D) from a medium size city and one school (E ) from a rural town. School C is located in upper/middle-upper class residential area, School A and D in middle class, and School B and E in lower-middle/lower class. The present paper reports the prevalence of behavioral/emotional problems in relation to sex, grade, locality and socioeconomic variables. Some of the major findings were as follows * 1) The mean total problem score excluding 3 additional items was 27.28 and did not differ significanthy according to sex and locality (Seoul vs non-Seoul), However, the mean total problem scores were significanthy different from school to school. The lowest score was observed in children of School C(22.15), higher scores for School B (30.89) and E (30.64) and in-between scores for the School A(27.58) and D (25.47). Father’ s education also had significant effect on the total problem scores • 31.46 for elementary or less, 27.79 for middle and high school and 23.05 for college or more. As for to the grade, mean total score was lowest for the first graders(22.12)，increasing up until 4th grade(29.83), then decreasing for 5th graders(26.81) and then relatively high score for the 6th graders(29.81). 2) Examination of each 122 problem items revealed that prevalence rate ranged from 2.1% to 61.7% : less than 5% for 13 items, 5—10% for 18 items, 10~20% for 31 items, 20 ᅳ 30% for 25 items, 30—40% for 15 items, 40—50% for 13 items, more than 50% for 7 items.Although sex did not make any difference in total problem scores, examination of the prevalence of each item revealed that 47 problem items were significanthy different between sexes : 26 items were more prevalent in boys and 21 items in girls. The items more prevalent for boys were externalizing problems such as hyperkinetic, aggressive and other behaviors and 21 items, more prevalent for girls were internalizing problems such as emotional and psychosomatic problems. School grade had significant effect in 47 items, only 3 of which showed lower prevalence in the younger children and the prevalence of 39 items were higher in older children. Significant differences were observed in 83 items, and 94 items, respectively according to school and father* s education that could be considered to reflect socioeconomic status and it was reavealed that the lower the status, the higher the prevalence in most items. Items more common in upper class tend to be more anxiety-tension related( internalizing) and items more common in lower class tend to be more aggressive, hyperactive and other behavioval problems(externalizing). 3) Brief cross-cultural comparisons between the current study and other studies reported in the literature revealed major differences in several areas. The total problem score for Korean children was much higher than those of American and Dutch children, but lower than those of Canada and Chile. Although most of other studies reported higher total problem scores for boys, than for girls there was no sex difference in total problem score for Korean children. This was