Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 26;7(9):112.
doi: 10.3390/children7090112.

Associations between Learning and Behavioral Difficulties in Second-Grade Children

Emanuela Castro  1 , Maria Cotov  1 , Paola Brovedani  1 , Gabrielle Coppola  2 , Tania Meoni  3 , Marina Papini  1 , Tania Terlizzi  3 , Chiara Vernucci  1 , Chiara Pecini  4 , Pietro Muratori  1
Affiliations

Associations between Learning and Behavioral Difficulties in Second-Grade Children

Emanuela Castro et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Learning and behavioral difficulties often emerge during the first years of primary school and are one of the most important issues of concern for families and schools. The study was aimed at investigating the co-occurrence of difficulties between academic learning and emotional-behavioral control in typically developing school children and the moderating role of sex. A sample of 640 second-grade school children participated in the study. This study used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to measure the emotional and behavioral difficulties and a battery of objective and standardized tests to evaluate the learning skills in children. In this sample 7% to 16% of children performed below the normal range in reading and/or arithmetic tests. Mixed models showed that children's hyperactive behaviors were positively related to both reading and math difficulties, and emotional problems correlated negatively with reading accuracy. The more children displayed behavioral difficulties, the more they were exposed to the risk of worsening reading and math performance, especially for girls. The result that among different emotional-behavioral problems within the school setting, hyperactivity behaviors and emotional difficulties are related to learning difficulties with a moderate effect of sex, needs to be taken into account in screening and prevention programs for learning difficulties in order to not disregard the complexity of the associated profiles.

Keywords: emotional problems; hyperactivity; mathematical skills; reading skills; screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All the other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interaction hyperactivity (x-axis) by sex in the prediction of reading accuracy (no. of errors, y-axis). Note: Error bars show the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the regression coefficients.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction conduct problems (x-axis) by sex in the prediction of mental arithmetic difficulties (y-axis). Note: Error bars show the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the regression coefficients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Peterson R.L., Pennington B.F. Developmental dyslexia. Lancet. 2012;379:1997–2007. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60198-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mogasale V.V., Patil V.D., Patil N.M., Mogasale V. Prevalence of Specific Learning Disabilities Among Primary School Children in a South Indian City. Indian J. Pediatr. 2011;79:342–347. doi: 10.1007/s12098-011-0553-3. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Moll K., Kunze S., Neuhoff N., Bruder J., Schulte-Körne G. Specific Learning Disorder: Prevalence and Gender Differences. PLoS ONE. 2014;9:e103537. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103537. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cappa C., Giulivi S., Schilirò A., Bastiani L., Muzio C., Meloni F. A screening on Specific Learning Disorders in an Italian speaking high genetic homogeneity area. Res. Dev. Disabil. 2015;45:329–342. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2015.07.011. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fortes I.S., Paula C.S., Oliveira M.C., Bordin I.A.S., Mari J.D.J., Rohde L.A. A cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of DSM-5 specific learning disorders in representative school samples from the second to sixth grade in Brazil. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry. 2015;25:195–207. doi: 10.1007/s00787-015-0708-2. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources