COMPARISONS OF BEHAVIORAL AND EMOTIONAL-PROBLEMS AMONG CHILDREN OF JAMAICA AND THE UNITED-STATES - TEACHER REPORTS FOR AGES 6-11

Building on earlier research, which used a common standardized methodo logy, the present study compared behavior problems reported by teacher s for 359 Jamaican and 665 U.S. children aged 6-11. Most of the signif icant nationality differences reflected higher scores for Jamaican tha n U.S. children, although none of the differences accounted for more t han a small percentage of variance in scores. For those problems repor ted to be present, Jamaican teachers tended to score a larger proporti on as very true or often true than did U.S. teachers. In conjunction w ith previous findings, this suggests that a larger proportion of Jamai can children find school exceptionally stressful. Gender differences i n problem rates were similar to those found in several other cultures. Findings from this and other studies demonstrate considerable similar ity in the problems reported by teachers across diverse cultures.