Psychology in the Schools 1982. 19, 281-286

SYNDROMES OF SOCIAL MALADAPTATION AMONG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BOYS AND GIRLS

PAUL A. MCDERMOTT’

University of Pennsylvania

The cross-sex comparability of child social maladaptation is assessed within pop- ulations of elementary school children. The randomly aggregated normative sample for the revised Bristol Social Adjustment Guides (BSAG) was partitioned into sub- samples of 1,305 boys and 1,222 girls ranging in age from 5 to 15 years. The children were observed by 900 classroom teachers and rated on the BSAG’s six core syndromes and two associated groupings of problem behavior. For each sex, scores on the various behavioral groupings were normalized and submitted to principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation of retained dimensions. A general two-factor model emerged, with one factor resembling a dimension of general overreaction and the other a dimension of general underreaction. Cross-sex equivalence of factor structures was confirmed via Kaiser’s analytic factor relations process. The BSAG’s core syn- dromes and nonsyndromic groupings were found to sustain similar functions across the sexes, although differential trends were noted in the prevalence of specific behavioral syndromes.

Recent social and public policy studies suggest a growing preference for behaviorally- vs. analytically-based definitions in the diagnosis and classification of childhood maladjustment. The trend is manifested poignantly by the rapid development of behavioral criteria for the identification of social and emotional disorders in the fields of special education (Miller & Epstein, 1979) and child psychiatry and psychology (Achenbach, 1980). Educators and clinicians are encouraged by the apparent advantage afforded through diagnostic systems keyed to observable and potentially alterable behaviors, requiring relatively unobtrusive summative evaluations by contextually- informed persons such as teachers in the schools and parents in the home.

Among the leading behavioral assessment systems, the Bristol Social Adjustment Guides (BSAG) (Stott, Marston, & Neill, 1975) remains the most widely used instru- ment in the United Kingdom and Canada, and it is seeing increased popularity in the United States. Interest in the BSAG stems largely from its checklist format, offering teachers an assortment of behavioral indicators describing bdth adequate and inadequate types of adjustment, and from its status as the only major behavior rating scale normed upon a stratified and completely random sample of school children (see McDermott, 1982, for comparative reviews of leading instrumentation).

The clinical and research utility of the BSAG has been supported through a variety of retrospective, concurrent, and predictive criterion validity investigations in developmental pediatrics (Davis, Butler, & Goldstein, 1972), special education (Hale, 198 l), child psychopathology (McDermott, 1980a; Stott, 1979; Stott, et al., 1975; Wilson, 1974), epidemiology (Stott, 1978), and criminology (Stott & Wilson, 1977). In addition, the nature of the principal dimensions underlying children’s social maladjust- ment as measured by the BSAG has been found consistent in the general population

‘The author wishes to thank Dcnis H. Stott, emeritus professor and department head in psychology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, for making the revised Bristol Social Adjustment Guides data available for this study.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Paul A. McDermott, Graduate School of Education CI, University of Pennsylvania, 3700 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104.

28 1

282 Psychology in the Schools, July, 1982, Vol. 19, No. 3.

(McDermott, 1980b), across each age level represented in the norm base (McDermott, 1981), and in samples of children referred for psychological services (Hale, 1978). However, the cross-sex generality of maladjustment never has been assessed. This is a serious issue, inasmuch as it is commonly assumed that the fundamental configuration of child problem behavior vis a vis the BSAG is comparable in populations of boys and girls, whereas other research (Edelbrock 8c Achenbach, 1980; McDermott, 1980a) has suggested that the prevalence of such problem behavior may vary as a function of sex.

This investigation was designed to test the cross-sex similarity of behavioral distur- bance dimensions as measured by the BSAG. In order to enhance the generalizability of the results, analyses were performed upon the entire standardization population of elementary school boys and girls selected for the revised BSAG.

METHOD Subjects

The sample consisted of 2,527 5- to 15-year-old children randomly drawn from the rosters of public and private elementary schools throughout urban and rural Ontario Province. This sample included 1,305 boys and 1,222 girls (the difference reflecting a natural gender prevalence in the schools) with nearly equivalent distributions of children and consistent sex ratios across the age levels. Instrumentation

The revised BSAG (Stott, 198 1) contains 110 brief verbal indicators of child social maladjustment and a complementary set of 43 healthy adjustment indicators from which classroom teachers may choose in describing a child’s typical functioning. Each indicator is phenomenologically focused, free of clinical terminology, and limited to behavior within some specific social context such as interactions with teachers, peers, or learning materials, thus reducing the tendency of respondent teachers to draw inferences about the significance or preponderance of behaviors or to base judgments upon assumptions regarding children’s thought processes or feelings.

The 110 indicators of maladaptive behavior are assigned in a mutually exclusive fashion to six core syndromes and two ussociatedgroupings of malbehavior. This was ac- complished through a series of nonparametric clustering strategies (described by Stott, et a\., 1975) which essentially formed phenotypically similar groups of items based upon their simultaneous variation in the general population. The six core syndromes include: (a) unforthcomingness-a collection of inordinately timid, reticent, and socially ineffec- tive behaviors; (b) withdrawal-behaviors indicating a desire to remain socially detached or to avoid interpersonal activities; (c) depression-an unwillingness or inability to re- spond to environmental stimuli, sometimes viewed as lethargy or apathy; (d) in- consequence-behavior carried out without prior consideration of possible conse- quences, impulsivity; (e) hostility-reactions directed to test and sometimes terminate relationships with authorities; and (f) peer maladaptiveness-referring to rather in- trusive, often aggressive, actions against the rights or values of age-mates.

The two associated groupings of malbehavior are: (a) nonsyndromic underreac- tion-a collection of generally restrained and constricted behaviors, too varied to con- stitute a homogeneous syndrome, but, nevertheless, confirmatory of specific syndromic- type maladjustment as manifested by unforthcomingness, withdrawal, or depression, and (b) nonsyndromic overreaction-representing varieties of acting-out and aggressive behavior, similarly too heterogeneous to be considered a specific syndrome, but support-

Syndromes of Social Maladaptation 283

ive of syndromic maladjustment as indicated through inconsequence, hostility, and peer maladaptation.

In addition, the BSAG provides two composite scales used for the initial determina- tion of a child’s overall adjustment level; hence, scores for the unforthcomingness, withdrawal, and depression syndromes, and the underreactive nonsyndromic grouping are combined to form an overall underreaction scale; whereas, scores for inconsequence, hostility, peer maladaptiveness, and the nonsyndromic overreactive grouping combine to yield an overreaction scale. Procedure

Each of 900 elementary teachers participating in the study observed and completed the BSAG rating on one, two, or three children (depending upon which children were selected in the random drawing). Children’s sex determined whether respondent teachers employed Boy or Girl forms of the BSAG, the respective forms presenting identical behaviors but applying appropriate gender referents, viz., “he,” “him,” “his,” or “she,” “her,” “hers.”

Ratings for the 110 indicators of maladjustment were compiled to yield scores for each of the six syndromes and two associated groupings. The sample was bifurcated into subsamples of boys and girls, and scores for each of the eight item groups were standard- ized by z-score transformations for each sex independently. This process equated the basic unit of measurement within each item grouping and across the sexes. Standard scores for groupings were thereafter intercorrelated and submitted to principal com- ponents factor analysis with retained factors rotated to an approximation of simple structure according to Kaiser’s (1958) varimax procedure. Retention of factors was based upon several criteria: i.e., (a) Each unrotated factor should have an eigenvalue > 1.0. (b) Unrotated factors should satisfy the minimum standard for Cattell’s (1966) scree test. (c) Each selected factor should account for at least 20% of the variance among the groupings. (d) Each rotated factor should possess at least two appreciable loadings, where those 2 .40 are deemed appreciable. (e) The obtained solution should make psy- chological sense in terms of parsimonious coverage of the data and compatibility with other behavior rating research.

To assess the comparability of resulting factor structures across the sexes, Kaiser’s analytic factor relations technique (Kaiser, Hunka, & Bianchini, 1971) was applied ac- cording to Veldman’s (1978) algorithm. Unlike more conventional methods of factor matching that require redefinition (via rotation) of the factor structures being compared, Kaiser’s analytic approach preserves the original structures by overlapping and reorient- ing them to draw out their similarities and differences. Relationships between the factors across structures are depicted by factor relations coeficients that can be interpreted in the same way as correlations. Coefficients 2 .95 are considered significant and indicative of nearly identical factor dimensions. Moreover, the factor relations process produces constancy coeficients reflecting the degree of similarity in function each syndrome and grouping shows across the sexes. The average constancy coefficient provides a summative index of the overall cross-sex comparability in maladaptive behavior.

RESULTS A N D DlscussloN

Two- through four-factor models were attempted for each sex and evaluated against the stated criteria. For both sexes, the two-factor model satisfied all criteria, whereas the three- and four-factor solutions failed the tests of minimum eigenvalue, scree, and ex-

284 Psychology in the Schools, July, 1982, Vol. 19, No. 3.

plained variance. Table 1 presents factor matrices and percentages of explained variance for the two-factor model for boys and girls. Both solutions accounted for exactly 60.1% of the variance among the behavioral groupings. The general two-factor model and respective percentages of explained variance are consistent with earlier findings for the BSAG’s aggregate standardization population (McDermott, 1980b) and independent factor analyses over age levels (McDermott, 1981).

TABLE 1 Varimax Rotated Principal Factor Matrices

for Social Maladaptation Among Boys and Girls

Syndrome or Grouping Boysa Girlsb

Factor I Factor I1 Factor I Factor I1

Underreaction Scale Unforthcomingness Withdrawal Depression Nonsyndromic Underreaction

Overreaction Scale Inconsequence Hostility Peer Maladaptiveness Nonsyndromic Overreaction

% common factor variance

% cumulative factor variance

-.22 .09 .26

-.05

-74

.65

.72

.82

34.6

34.6

.54

.55

.53

.79

-.05 .05

.oo

.08

25.5

60.1

-.20 .04 .28

-.02

.73

.69

.68

.71

327

32.7

.a

.57

.47

.9I

- .03 .03

-.03 .05

27.3

60.1 _ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ __

Note.-Factor loadings 2.40 are italicized. aN= 1,305. bN=1,222

Factor patterns were interpreted by examining the magnitude and sign of loadings. The first factor for each structure accounted for approximately one-third of the total variance with consistently high positive loadings for the three overreactive type syn- dromes and associated grouping; therefore, they were considered dimensions of general overreaction. The second factor for each sex accounted for about one-quarter of the total variance, and, inversely, loaded highly on each of the underreactive type groupings. Thus, they were named general underreaction.

Factor relations coefficients exceeding .99 were found between corresponding pairs of general overreaction and underreaction factors across the structures, thus demonstrating a high degree of similarity in the factors. Conversely, a coefficient of - .02 was discovered between boys’ Factor I and girls’ Factor 11, and a coefficient of .02 between boys’ Factor I1 and girls’ Factor I, thereby reflecting the expected cross-sex orthogonality of those vectors. In addition, constancy coefficients for all groupings were in excess of .993, the average coefficient being .998. These values support the contention that the various syndromes and associated behavioral groupings function similarly for both sexes, and confirm the claim of cross-sex comparability for the BSAG’s measures of social maladaptation.

Syndromes of Social Maladaptation 285

The discovery of two major behavior dimensions representing generally underreac- tive and overreactive forms of social maladjustment among boys and girls is compatible with other research in areas of child and adult psychopathology. Eysenck (1953) earlier pointed to the existence of distinctly “neurotic” vs. “extraverted” type reactions within populations of disturbed adults, and works by Peterson (1961) and Achenbach and Edelbrock (198 1) have revealed an analogous dichotomy of “internalizing (personality)” and “externalizing (conduct)” problems among school-age youngsters. This broad-band underreactive vs. overreactive behavior dichotomy seems to permeate most American and British empirical studies (see Kohn, 1977, for comprehensive reviews of such work) with apparent generality across age groups, diverse subpopulations, instrumentation, and methods of behavior observation. In conjunction with recent findings by Edelbrock and Achenbach (1 980) with exclusively clinical samples of children and adolescents, the pres- ent research with regular school children confirms that the broad-band dichotomy also has cross-sex generality.

Notwithstanding the comparability of the overall structures of social maladjustment across samples of boys and girls, evidence suggests differential trends in the cross-sex prevalence of specific behavioral syndromes. In order to illustrate this fact, the malad- justed segment of the BSAG norm base was separated from the rest of the cohort. This was accomplished by applying Stott’s (1981) criterion whereby those scoring above the 90th percentile on the BSAG’s over- or underreaction scales are identified as “significantly maladjusted.” It was found that boys predominate girls by an average of 2 to 1 to 1.5 to 1 on all maladjustment syndromes except unforthcomingness; on the latter syndrome, girls outnumber boys by about the same degree. Similar results were noted by Arnold, Barnebey, and Smeltzer (1981) for the prevalence of “shy-inept” types of behavior among regular school children. Moreover, sex-linked unforthcomingness ascends to the importance of an independent principal dimension of social maladaptation among preschool children (McDermott & Watkins, 1981) and other groups of children (McDermott, 1980a) undergoing social stresses such as those associated with school en- trance, pubescence, and environmental change.

The results confirm the cross-sex equivalence in the factor structure of child social maladaptation, and support, in general, the use of the BSAG’s overall under- and overreaction scales as primary indicators of maladjustment. Furthermore, the compo- nent .behavioral syndromes within such overall dimensions seem to maintain functionally similar roles across samples of elementary school boys and girls, although prevalence on specific syndromes of maladjustment may vary as a function of sex, age, and a variety of other conditions.

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