Comparisons of Behavioral and Emotional Problems among Children of Jamaica and the United States

Abstract

Building on earlier research, which used a common standardized methodology, the present study compared behavior problems reported by teachers for 359 Jamaican and 665 U.S. children aged 6-11. Most of the significant nationality differences reflected higher scores for Jamaican than U.S. children, although none of the differences accounted for more than a small percentage of variance in scores. For those problems reported to be present, Jamaican teachers tended to score a larger proportion as very true or often true than did U.S. teachers. In conjunction with previous findings, this suggests that a larger proportion of Jamaican children find school exceptionally stressful. Gender differences in problem rates were similar to those found in several other cultures. Findings from this and other studies demonstrate considerable similarity in the problems reported by teachers across diverse cultures.