Social Competence and Behavioral Problems of Learning Disabled Boys Aged 6-11

Abstract

Parents' reports on social competence and behavioral problems were obtained for 123 learning disabled boys aged 6–11 who were referred for a psychoeducational assessment at the Center for Disorders of Communication at the University of Vermont. One parent of each boy completed the Child Behavior Checklist developed by Achenbach and Edelbrock (1983). On average, the parents of LD boys reported significantly lower levels of social competence and more behavior problems than normative samples of parents. On the social competence scales, the LD boys were significantly lower than the normative samples in their participation in activities, their social involvement and school performance. On the behavior problem scales, the LD boys had significantly higher scores for both “externalizing” and “internalizing” types of problems, including problems related to depression, uncommunicativeness, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, social withdrawal, hyperactivity, aggressivness and “delinquency.” Compared to a sample of other clinically-referred boys, a significantly larger proportion of LD boys showed a hyperactive profile pattern, and smaller proportions showed profile patterns indicative of depressed-social withdrawal-aggressive behavior and delinquency. There were significant, but low, positive correlations between IQ scores on the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and social competence scores and negative correlations between IQ scores and behavior problem scores.