Moral maturity and self-esteem as predictors of problem behaviour in children
Date
1993
Authors
Van Domselaar, Theresa Anne
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Abstract
Moral maturity and self-esteem scores were assessed for their ability to predict reports of elementary school children's problem behaviour both at home and at school. Of the 79 participating children, 20 were assigned to the "high" problem behaviour group and 20 to the "low" problem behaviour group. Classification analysis was limited to these groups. Two hierarchical discriminant function analyses were carried out; one using teachers' ratings of children's behaviour, and the other using parents' ratings. In order to control for socioeconomic status (SES), this variable was entered into the model prior to both moral maturity (SRMS) and self-esteem (SEI) scores. Results indicated that SES alone does not predict group membership in this sample, regardless of the source of the behaviour ratings. However, when using teacher-generated behaviour ratings, the simultaneous inclusion of moral maturity scores, self-esteem scores and SES in the model results in significant prediction (R = .448, p < .05), allowing 70% of participants to be correctly classified. Self-esteem scores correlated at .88 (p < . 02) with the discriminant function, indicating that most of the classificatory power of this model was due to this variable. When self-esteem, moral maturity and SES were included in the model which used parent-generated behaviour ratings, no significant prediction of group membership was found. Implications of these results for the prediction of children demonstrating problem behaviour are discussed.
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UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities