Study of Behavioral Problems in Preschool Children

Title: Study of Behavioral Problems in Preschool Children

Authors: Bheemreddy Raghu Nandan Reddy, J.M. Pawar, C D Aundhakar, Lekha Mishra, Pankaj Goyal

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v4i12.56

Abstract

Background: Behavior problems among children are a deviation from the accepted pattern of behavior on the part of the children when they are exposed to an inconsistent social and cultural environment. But these are not to be equated with the presence of psychiatric illness in the child as these are only the symptoms or reactions to emotional and environmental stress. The study is carried out to evaluate behavioral problems in preschool children.

Methodology: This descriptive cross sectional study was carried out on 350 preschool children aged 3 to 6 years. In the field area 6 anganwadi schools, 6 english medium nursery schools and 5 marathi medium nursery schools were used and by simple random sampling 20 preschool children from each centre were selected.

Results: 24% of children in our study had behavior problems. The prevalence is more among children in 3.1-4 yrs of age group (47.14%). The prevalence of behavior problems was higher among boys (63.1%).The prevalence of behavioral problems was higher in children belonging to Class II & Class III socio economic status (54.7%). The prevalence of behavior problem was higher in children belonging to a nuclear family (69.04%).

Conclusion: Symptoms like temper tantrums, fights & bites, destructive nature, management problems hyperkinesis and distractibility were more common in boys. On the other hand being over-sensitive, having fearful reactions and attention seeking was more common in girls in our study.

Keywords: Behavioral problems, Preschool children, Socioeconomic class.

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Corresponding Author

Bheemreddy Raghu Nandan Reddy

Department of Pediatrics, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Karad, Maharashtra

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