Behavioral/Emotional Problems of Preschoolers: Caregiver/Teacher Reports From 15 Societies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the society-related impacts (such as language and culture) of assessments by early childhood educators and teachers of behavioural and emotional challenges among 10,521 children at daycare facilities from 15 different countries. The purpose of this study is also to test respondent-alignment between parents and early childhood educators in these assessments.

The study shows that many of the participating countries had relatively even scores, despite language differences, cultural differences and other characteristics. There were small differences in age and gender across the countries. The ranking orders of the items studied in ”Caregiver–Teacher Report Form” were also similar across the countries. In all countries, the parent assessments were higher than the early childhood educator assessments. The countries were also very similar in their assessments of the problem areas which on average were assessed as high or low. The respondent alignment varied to a high degree across the children within each country. The researchers conclude that generally speaking the results across the 15 countries were very similar.

Assessments by early childhood educators from Denmark, Chile, China, Austria, Germany, Iceland, Iran, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and the US were included as data in the study. Assessments of 10,521 children aged 18 months to five years from the 15 participating countries were tested in the ”Caregiver–Teacher Report Form”. In order to examine respondent-alignment between parents and early childhood educators, a data set with parallel assessments was handed out to parents and early childhood educators in all countries except in Chile and Kosovo. Assessments of 7,380 children were selected for the study.

Rescorla, L.A. et al. (2012). Behavioral/Emotional Problems of Preschoolers: Caregiver/Teacher Reports From 15 Societies. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 20(2), 68–81.