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Hard-to-manage preschool boys: symptomatic behavior across contexts and time
S B Campbell1, E W Pierce, C L March
1Clinical Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
Insights
Preschool boys with active, inattentive, and impulsive behaviors show differences in activity, inattention, and impulsivity across settings. These externalizing problems demonstrate some stability into early school years.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Externalizing problems in preschool boys, including hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity, can impact development.
- Early identification and understanding of these behaviors are crucial for intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare preschool boys exhibiting symptoms of hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity with a control group.
- To examine the persistence of these behaviors over a two-year period.
Main Methods:
- Observational measures of symptom-related behaviors were used across home, laboratory, and preschool settings.
- A longitudinal design tracked boys from age 4 to age 6.
Main Results:
- Boys identified with problem behaviors differed significantly from comparison boys in activity/inattention, noncompliance, and impulsivity across all observed settings.
- At follow-up, differences in activity and impulsivity persisted in laboratory settings, indicating some stability of these behaviors.
Conclusions:
- The findings highlight distinct behavioral patterns in preschool boys with externalizing problems.
- These behaviors show a degree of persistence, suggesting potential for long-term developmental trajectories.
Abstract:
Preschool boys identified by their parents and/or teachers as active, inattentive, and impulsive (N = 69) at age 4 were compared with boys without problems (N = 43) on observational measures of symptom-related behaviors, obtained across contexts (home, laboratory, and preschool). Problem boys differed from comparison boys on measures of activity/inattention, noncompliance, and impulsivity obtained in the 3 settings. At a 2-year follow-up, when they were 6 years old, problem boys continued to differ from comparison boys on laboratory measures of activity and impulsivity; there also was some stability in these symptomatic behaviors. Implications of these findings for the emergence and persistence of externalizing problems in preschool boys are addressed.