ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to examine the prevalence and stability in the emotional and behavioural problems of elementary school children. This research was carried out using the 8th, 10th, and 12th Panel study data by Korea Institute of Child Care and Education(KICCE). The subjects of this research were first grade 1,577 children, third grade 1,461 children, and fifth grade 1,227 children. Emotional and behavioral problems were measured by the Korean version of CBCL 6-18(Oh & Kim, 2010). The results of this research were as follows: First, the prevalences of the emotional and behavioral problems were 4.4%(boys 3.1%, girls 5.8%) in the first grade, 3.8%(boys 3.5%, girls 4.1%) in the third grade, and 3.2%(boys 2.9%, girls 3.5%) in the fifth grade. The prevalences were decreased according to the grade, and the girls’ prevalences were higher than the boys’. Second, the stabilities of problems were 23.7%(boys 19.0%, girls 26.3%) from the first to the third grade, 31.8%(boys 36.8%, girls 28.0%) from the third to the fifth grade, and 29.6%(boys 50.0%, girls 21.1%) from the first to the fifth grade. As a whole, about 30% of elementary school children who showed emotional and behavioral problems persisted their problems. This study aids to understand the emotional and behavioral problems of elementary school children, and to develop strategies to prevent and intervene the problems.

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