Sex, Age, Behavior, and School Subject as Determinants of Report of Learning Problems

Abstract

College students were asked to establish priorities for assigning tutorial help to children failing in school. They were to rate the children on the basis of various combinations of sex, age, kind of behavior problem, and subject of school difficulty. The variables selected for top priority were boys, the older child, acting-out behavior, and difficulty in reading. Variables of lowest priority were girls, the younger child, withdrawn behavior, and difficulty in arithmetic. The child's sex interacted with type of behavior in such a way that withdrawn boys and acting-out girls — both deviations from the norm — were considered to need more help than children whose behavior conformed to the norm for their sex.