Prevalence of behavioral problems among preschool children of Dharwad district

Abstract

The prevalence of behavioral problems was studied on 334 preschool children (3-6 years) of both rural and urbanareas of Dharwad district. A multi stage random sampling method was employed where three talukas out of five wererandomly selected from Dharwad district and from these selected talukas, two villages each were selected. A total of tenanganwadi’s from five villages with 213 children and from six urban anganwadi’s from three cities of the selected talukaswith 121 children formed the sample. The ASEBA Child Behavior Checklist was administered to the class teachers. Theprevalence of behavioral problems revealed that, 47.0 per cent of preschoolers were in the borderline and 13.8 per cent werein the clinical range while only 39.2 per cent were in the normal category for behavioral problems. On internalizingbehavioral problems, 49.7 per cent of children were in clinical range and 30.2 per cent in borderline wherein 6.6 per cent wereemotionally reactive, 15.6 per cent anxious/depressed, 26.6 per cent with somatic complaints, 2.4 per cent withdrawnsymptoms. On externalizing behavioral problems, 26.0 per cent were in clinical range wherein 9.1 per cent had attentionproblems and 7.8 per cent aggressive behavior. There is need to address the behavioral problems among preschool childrenduring their early years through parent counseling intervention programmes