Dimensions of problem behavior in first grade children

Abstract

Recognizing the need for an objective, reliable and economic method for assessing behaviors indicative of maladjustment, Pimm and McClure (1966) empirically constructed a checklist of 100 observable behaviors deriving from teacher descriptions of maladaptive classroom behavior. Items of the checklist were then related to age, sex, I&, and to clinical assessments of behavior disorder. This paper reports a further analysis of the checklist in a search for homogeneous clusters of items which might be said to represent basic dimensions of problem behavior. PROCEDURE SubjectsSs for the original stud were 1,445 school children in the Ottawa Public Schools. These children were complete samples of a i the grade one classes in 23 schools in one geographic half of the city. As problem behaviors were infrequent for the sample as a whole, Ss for the current study were those 484 males and 343 females for whom a minimum of three items on the checklist had been marked as being present by their teachers. This reduction in Ss was a necessary first step in reducing the item pool to those items present in at least 10% of the cases. MethodFrequency counts were obtained for the 827 remaining Ss on each of the 100 items of the checklist; 36 items met the 10% frequency criterion. Intercorrelations of the items were then obtained and subjected to a principal axis factor analysis with communalities estimated by use of the highest correlation in the column. Factorization was terminated when the eigenvalues fell below unity; a varimax rotation was subsequently performed on the factors extracted. RESULTSRotated factor loadings are presented in Table 1 for those 31 of the 36 variables which had at least one loading of .25 or greater. The four factors extracted accounted for 71% of the communality.Factor one appears to represent a cluster of behaviors that would be considered troublesome by first-grade teachers, but would be characteristic of the classroom behavior of nursery school or even many kindergarten children. None of the behavioral items appears particularly pathological and we have interpreted this factor as reflecting simply behavioral immaturity. The second factor loads primarily a group of items involving verbal behavior with smaller loadings on three variables involving motor activity. This factor may well represent poor control of impulses to activity, but in view of the larger loadings for the verbal items we have labeled it verbal overactivity. Factor three clearly involves behavior contrary to most social and moral standards and seems a clear representation of the frequently found (Peterson, 1961;Quay & Quay, 1965; Quay, Morse, & Cutler, 1966) conduct problem dimension. Although the loadings are small, Factor four seems obviously to reflect the anxious-withdrawal or personality problem constellation also found in the prior analyses cited above.

Dimensions of problem behavior in the early grades.

“…2 Requests for reprints should be sent to T. E, Dielman, Laboratory of Personality and Group Analysis, S29 Psychology Building, Champaign, Illinois 61820. consisted of such variables as preoccupation, short attention span, lack of interest, inattentiveness, laziness, irresponsibility, and daydreaming. Pimm, Quay, and Werry (1967) analyzed data from teachers' checklists on 827 public school children in Canada, and identified the three factors discussed above, as well as a fourth factor termed Verbal Overactivity. The fourth factor was composed of such variables as interrupts others, corrects others, comments aloud, gets out of seat, and wanders around classroom.…”

Scaling Behavioral Attributes of Children Using Multiple Teacher Judgments of Pupil Characteristics

“…The factors were identified as conduct problems, unsocialized aggression, inadequacy, immaturity, and personality problems or neuroticism. Pimm, Quay and Werry (1967) analyzed teacher ratings of 100 observable traits derived from teacher descriptions of maladjusted classroom behavior. A factor analysis of those items checked as present in 10 per cent or more of their first grade pupils yielded four factors identified as behavior immaturity, verbal overactivity, conduct problems, and anxious, withdrawing behavior.…”