Behavioral and Emotional Problems Among Jamaican and African American Children, Ages 6 to 11: Teacher Reports Versus Direct Observations

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated the importance of comparing different informants' (i.e., teachers, parents, observers) reports of children's behavior. A study comparing Jamaican and U.S. teacher reports on children ages 6 to II revealed that Jamaican teachers reported higher problem scores in their pupils than U.S. teachers. Do Jamaican children really have more problems than U.S. children, or do teachers in these two countries have different tolerance levels for certain problems? This study addressed this question by comparing observers' and teachers' reports on Jamaican and African American children. We obtained teachers' reports and conducted structured direct observations on the same group of children. Considerable disparity emerged between observers' and teachers' ratings of Jamaican versus African American pupils.The findings suggest that ethnic similarities between Jamaican pupils and their teachers and the lack of similarities between African American pupils and their teachers may affect the teachers' threshold for perceiving the problems that their pupils present.