An Epidemiological Study of Emotional and Behaviour Difficulties: Relationships to Psychosocial Functioning

정서 및 행동장애의 실태 조사 및 심리사회적 기능과의 관계 연구

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of EBD (Emotional and Behaviour Difficulties) and to examine relationships of EBD to family and classroom psychosocial functioning. Two studies were carried out. The subjects were 840 children aged 7 to 12 for the first study and 448 children aged 12 for the second study. CBQ for children's behaviour, FACES III for family functioning and a short version of CES for classroom functioning were used. The prevalence of EBD was 9.4% by parents, 10.6% by teachers and 2.1% by both on the basis of Korean cut-off points. It was 13.7%, 20.8% and 4.3%, respectively, based on England points. More children were identified as EBD in boys, in one-child families and in lower academic group. EBD tended to be higher with lower levels of psychosocial functioning but classroom-control. The relationships were more consistent and high with children's rather than adults' perception, and with teachers' rather than mothers' ratings. The findings were discussed in terms of the scale validity, the concept of 'open systems' and differences in the validity of ratings.