Social Competence and Behavioral Problems of Learning Disabled Boys Aged 12–-16

Abstract

Parents' reports on social competence and behavioral problems were obtained for 53 learning disabled boys 12--16 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 LD boys showed significantly lower levels of social competence and more behavior problems compared to normative samples of boys in the same age range. 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 total problems and “externalizing” and “internalizing” types of problems. The LD boys had high scores compared to normal boys on several CBCL scales reflecting immaturity, hostile-withdrawal, aggressiveness and hyperactivity. Compared to a sample of other clinically-referred boys, the LD boys showed similar profile types of behavior problems with the exception of a lower proportion exhibiting an uncommunicative-delinquent profile and a higher proportion with no profile type. No relationship was found between IQ scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children-Revised and social competence and behavior problem scores. Results of this study of 12--16 year-old boys are then compared to previously published findings for younger LD boys.