Brief Description

This is a questionnaire designed to help preschool teachers identify children who may have specific emotional needs or behavioral problems. It is completed by the teacher and consists of 22 questions aimed at covering four main areas of behavior: conduct, emotional difficulties, social relationships, and attention span. Each question offers three or four options that indicate the frequency or severity of the problem. The teacher selects the option that best describes the child’s recent behavior.

Purpose

A scale designed to detect emotional and behavioral problems in children aged 2 to 5 years.

Scoring Method

Scoring is done on a scale from 0 (no problem), 1 (possible problem), to 2 (definite problem). Therefore, the total possible score ranges from 0 to 44. The individual behavioral factors are determined by the following questions:

Aggression (1, 2, 6, 10, 14, 16, 18, 20)

Social isolation (9, 11, 17, 19)

Emotional disorders (12, 13, 21)

Psychosomatic disorders (3, 4, 22)

Attention and concentration difficulties (5, 7, 8, 15)

The cut-off point for identifying problematic behavior was set at 12 and above (within the possible range of 0–44). Using this threshold, 25.3% of the sample fell into category 2 (definite problem).

Validity

The Pre-school Behaviour Checklist, after being translated into Greek, was administered to a representative sample of preschoolers by their teachers. Before completing the questionnaire, teachers were asked to familiarize themselves with the questions and observe the children for one week with the questions in mind. It was administered in December, when it was assumed that teachers had developed a sufficient understanding of the children. The sample included 1,277 children aged 4 to 6 years, attending kindergartens in the Magnesia region. Of these, 667 (52.2%) were boys and 610 (47.7%) girls, with an average age of 5.14 years.
To investigate the structure of the questionnaire, a factor analysis with oblique rotation was conducted. Five factors emerged, with eigenvalues > 1.0, and items with factor loadings < 0.4 were excluded. Based on the content of the questions, the following factors were identified: 1. Aggression, 2. Social isolation, 3. Emotional disorders, 4. Psychosomatic disorders, and 5. Attention and concentration difficulties.

Reliability

The internal reliability coefficient Cronbach’s alpha per factor was:
Aggression 0.82
Social isolation 0.73
Emotional disorders 0.65
Psychosomatic disorders 0.73
Attention and concentration difficulties 0.56

Data Analysis and Use

The mean total score for the entire sample was 8.23 (standard deviation 5.96). Separately by gender, boys had a mean score of 9.29 (SD = 6.27), while girls had a mean score of 7.07 (SD = 5.37). The means and standard deviations (in parentheses) for boys and girls by factor were as follows:
Aggression: boys 4.03 (3.34), girls 2.64 (2.71)
Social isolation: boys 1.14 (1.55), girls 1.03 (1.45)
Emotional disorders: boys 1.11 (1.31), girls 1.20 (1.32)
Psychosomatic disorders: boys 0.50 (1.00), girls 0.30 (0.75)
Attention and concentration difficulties: boys 2.25 (1.76), girls 1.77 (1.50)

References

McGuire, J. & Richman, R. (1988). Preschool Behaviour Checklist. Windsor, NFER-Nelson.
St James-Roberts, I., Singh, G., Lynn, R. & Jackson, S. (1994). Assessing emotional and behavioural problems in reception class school-children: factor structure, convergence and prevalence using the PBCL. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 64, 105–118.
Zafeiropoulou, M., Argyroukoulis, E., Rousi, Ch., Angelosopoulou, A., Georgiou, E., & Menegatou, M. (Rhodes, May 2003). Evaluation of emotional difficulties and behavioral problems in kindergarten: The Pre-school Behaviour Checklist. 9th Panhellenic Conference of Psychological Research, Oral Presentation.