Session Information
09 SES 04 B, Attitudes and Behaviors Affecting Student Performance
Paper Session
Contribution
Disruptive behaviour is a composite of negativistic externalizing behaviours that co-occur, appear in childhood, and are likely to persist over time (Hinshaw, 1992b). Characteristics of disruptive behaviour are impulsivity, inattention, over-activity, defiance, and tendency to antisocial acts.
Childhood disruptive behaviour has continuously been associated with poor educational and social outcomes over the life course. Childhood disruptive behaviour associats with lower reading ability (Heiervang, Stevenson, Lund, & Hugdahl, 2001), poor school achievement (Hinshaw, 1992a; Hinshaw, 1992b), and underachievement, i.e. achievement that is below one’s actual capacities (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Asendorpf, Denissen, & van Aken, 2008). Disruptive behaviour also associates with higher school drop-out rates (Alexander et al., 1997; Asendorpf et al., 2008), and lower college attendance rates (Hinshaw, 1992b).
Altogether, disruptive behaviour seems to have an extensive influence on several educational and social outcomes. Disruptive behaviour not only evokes educational difficulties and educational exclusion but also social drop-out in terms of alcohol abuse and long-term unemployment. Early interference is highly important, as the long-term consequences of disruptive behaviour constitute high-priced major public health and safety issues. From the point of view of intervention, it is of importance to identify the age from which the influence of disruptive behaviour sets in, i.e. whether the preschool years or even the toddler age is determinant for later school outcomes.
In regard to the prevalence of externalizing disorders, gender differences are observed in both epidemiological and clinical studies. Girls and boys show rather equivalent rates before school age (Boylan, Vaillancourt, Boyle, & Szatmari, 2007), but after age six, however, the prevalence is reported to be 2 to 4 fold higher among boys (Boylan et al., 2007; Rucklidge, 2010).
Gender differences are true with the associations between behavioural problems, and academic difficulties, too. It has been shown that the association between disruptive behaviour and poor school achievement is stronger among boys than among girls (Trzesniewski, Moffitt, Caspi, Taylor, & Maughan, 2006).
To date, there is lack of studies that have examined an association of disruptive behaviour with school achievement at an early age, i.e. before school entry. Even though the association between hyperactivity, with or without formal diagnoses of ADHD, and poor school achievement is well established (Loe & Feldman, 2007), it has been emphasized (e.g. (Greenfield Spira & Fischel, 2005), that studies examining the association between preschool hyperactivity and later school achievement are lacking. It also has been pointed out (Loe & Feldman, 2007), that there is a need for studies examining these associations in representative samples including children with hyperactivity characteristic but without a formal diagnosis of ADHD.
Our hypothesis were: 1) disruptive behaviour predicts school achievement over the comprehensive school from toddler age on, 2) there are gender differences within these associations, and 3) hyperactivity is a stronger predictor of school performance than aggression and low cooperativeness.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Horsey, C. S. (1997). From first grade forward: Early foundations of high school dropout. Sociology of Education, 70(2), 87-107. Asendorpf, J. B., Denissen, J. J., & van Aken, M. A. (2008). Inhibited and aggressive preschool children at 23 years of age: Personality and social transitions into adulthood. Dev Psychol., 44(4), 997-1011. Boylan, K., Vaillancourt, T., Boyle, M., & Szatmari, P. (2007). Comorbidity of internalizing disorders in children with oppositional defiant disorder. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 16(8), 484-494. Greenfield Spira, E., & Fischel, J. E. (2005). The impact of preschool inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity on social and academic development: A review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46(7), 755-773. Heiervang, E., Stevenson, J., Lund, A., & Hugdahl, K. (2001). Behaviour problems in children with dyslexia. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 55(4), 251-256. Hinshaw, S. (1992a). Academic underachievement, attention deficits, and aggression: Comorbidity and implications for intervention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60(6), 893-903. Hinshaw, S. (1992b). Externalizing behavior problems and academic underachievement in childhood and adolescence: Causal relationships and underlying mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 111(1), 108-26. Loe, I. M., & Feldman, H. M. (2007). Academic and educational outcomes of children with ADHD. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32(6), 643-654. Rucklidge, J. J. (2010). Gender differences in attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder. Psychiatr Clin North Am, 33(2), 357-373. Trzesniewski, K. H., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Taylor, A., & Maughan, B. (2006). Revisiting the association between reading achievement and antisocial behavior: New evidence of an environmental explanation from a twin study. Child Development, 77(1), 72-88.
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