Preschool children and behaviour problems - A prospective study

Toddler/child behaviour problems have received relatively Little previous a ttention. Prior studies have implicated a wide variety of factors in the ae tiology of child behaviour problems but many of these factors are correlate d and little is known about their independent contributions. Four broad cat egories of factors have been associated with child behaviour problems: (1) maternal social and economic characteristics; (2) maternal lifestyle; (3) m aternal mental state/child-rearing practices; and (4) maternal and child ph ysical health. The study took a sample of 5296 families from the Mater-Univ ersity of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) for whom 5-year prospective data are available. The major predictors of toddler behaviour problems were the mother's and child's health, and the mother's mental state, The mother 's sociostructural characteristics and lifestyle made little or no addition al contribution to the prediction models. It is, however, salutary to note that the majority of children who are classified as having high levels of t roublesome behaviour do not fall into any of the risk categories. A variety of explanations and interpretations of the data is considered.