Gender Differences in Behavioral Problems among Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Behavioral problems are inappropriate type of behavior exhibited by the students of different ages. The presence of behavioral problems are known to hinder the overall development of students. Due to the higher importance put on academic achievement in Indian society, students with learning disabilities are at the higher risk for developing various behavioral problems. The study was aimed at exploring the gender and age wise differences in among students with learning disabilities (CWLD). This study was conducted on 120 students with learning disabilities aged 11 to 14 years. There were 60 male and 60 female students selected from nuclear families with middle socioeconomically status from Pune City. Achenbach and Rescoria’s (2001) Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was administered on their parents and the results were used to study existence of different behavior problems. Gender differences were explored by using the One-way ANOVA which revealed significant gender differences for behavioral problem measures such as withdrawn/depressed, somatic complaints, attention problems, aggressive behavior and thought problem. However, gender differences were not observed for anxiety/depressed, social problems, and rule-breaking behavior among students with learning disabilities. It was noted that withdrawn/depressed, and somatic complaints were higher in female students and attention problems, aggressive behavior and thought problem were higher in male students compared to their counterpart. Further, there were no gender differences for anxiety/depressed, social problems, and rule-breaking behavior among students with learning disabilities.