Comportamiento, sintomatología emocional y retraso escolar¿Existe relación?

Resum

Objectives: emotional and behavioural disorders can interfere with children's performance at school. In this study the differences between the psychological characteristics of children with an educational delay and children without an educational delay are assessed. Materials and methods: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is administered to 73 randomly chosen 9-year-old children who attend a primary school. The SDQ detects psychological and psychiatric disturbances in childhood and is made up of 5 scales: prosocial behaviour, hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, conduct problems and peer relationship problems. The SDQ scores of children with and without an educational delay are compared. Results: differences are found in the scores when considering the variables of educational delay and gender. There are significant differences between the scores of males with and without an educational delay in the scales of prosocial behaviour and behavioural problems (more symptoms are present in males with an educational delay). Differences are found between the scores of females with and without an educational delay in the scales of hyperactivity, emotional symptoms and behavioural problems (more symptoms are present in females with an educational delay). Conclusions: there is a link between the educational delay and the presence of emotional symptomatology and behavioural problems in the series studied.