Teachers' Perceptions of Children's Behaviour Problems in Nursery Classes in Greece

Abstract

The extent and nature of behaviour problems exhibited by children 4 to 6 years old in nursery classes in Greece were investigated. A questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 225 nursery teachers with a 68.4 percent response rate. The results showed that an overall 14.3 percent of nursery school children were identified as exhibiting behaviour problems of various degrees of seriousness. Teachers perceived all three types of behaviour problems, namely conduct, emotional and developmentally related problems, as being of equal seriousness. Boys were perceived as exhibiting more specific items of conduct problems, while girls demonstrated more specific items of withdrawn problems. Both boys and girls were identified as exhibiting almost the same specific items within the developmentally related problems category. Teacher training was found to be an insignificant factor for conduct and emotional problems, but significant for developmentally related problems. In contrast, length of teaching experience was found to be a significant factor for conduct and emotional problems, but not for developmentally related problems. Whether teachers have children of their own seems to be a significant factor for emotional and developmentally related problems, but insignificant for conduct problems. Finally, teachers said that they worry about behaviour problems more than being disturbed by them.