School composition, family poverty and child behaviour

The Role of Primary School Composition in the Trajectories of Internalising and Externalising Problems across Childhood and Adolescence

There is little research on the role of school and its composition in explaining individual children’s psychological outcomes. This study examined for the first time the role of several primary-school compositional characteristics, and their interactions with individual level characteristics, in the development of two such outcomes, internalising and externalising problems, at ages 7, 11 and 14 years in 4794 children in England participating in the Millennium Cohort Study. Using hierarchical (multilevel) linear models, we found that, even after adjusting for individual and family characteristics, children in schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals had more externalising problems. In general, children with special educational needs, lower academic performance, more distressed mothers, and those in non-intact families had more internalising and externalising problems. Our results underline the importance of targeting schools with less affluent overall intakes, but also highlight the key role of individual and family characteristics in the development of their pupils’ psychological functioning.

A Study of Depression, Externalizing, and Internalizing Behaviors among Adolescents Living in Institutional Homes

Background:

Adolescence, a psychologically vulnerable stage of life, when coupled with stressful environment such as institutional homes, may result in high psychiatric morbidity. These psychiatric disorders including depression are detrimental to the psychological development in adolescents.

Aims and Objectives:

The objectives of the study were to describe and study the extent of depression in adolescent boys and girls living in institutional homes and to study the association between depression and externalizing and Internalizing behaviors among adolescents in institutional homes.

Materials and Methods:

This cross-sectional descriptive study was done on 150 adolescents staying in institutional homes in Visakhapatnam city. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data. Patient Health Questionnaire was used to screen for Depression. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to score for externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics and tests of association. P < 0.05 was taken as significant.

Results:

Clinical Depression was found in 19 (12.7%) out of 150 adolescents. Subclinical mild depression was found in 19.3% of the sample. Depression was found to be significantly associated with gender and academic performance. Externalizing and internalizing behaviors were positively correlated with depression while prosocial behavior was negatively correlated with depression.

Conclusion:

Depression has high prevalence in institutionalized adolescents. Those adolescents who show signs of externalizing or internalizing behaviors should be especially screened for depression. Further research should be done to collect more data in this regard and to focus on designing interventions for its prevention, screening, and treatment.

School poverty effects on trajectories of child behaviour: Do they depend on gender and ethnicity?

This study examined English school poverty effects on trajectories of child behaviour across ages 3, 5, 7 and 11, and the moderating roles of ethnicity and gender. School poverty predicted internalising and externalising problems concurrently, and internalising problems longitudinally. In poor schools, girls had a steeper incline in internalising problems, but made greater reductions in externalising problems. Ethnic differences were also found in the association between school poverty and child adjustment. Gender and ethnic background may influence how a child responds emotionally and behaviourally to the composition of peers at school.