Schools and emotional and behavioral problems: A comparison of school-going and homeschooled children

Much attention has been focused recently on the deepening crisis in the education system. Researchers have attributed these problems to the school environment. One method for examining this claim is to compare specific emotional and behavior problems among children who attend schools and children who do not. This study examined three aspects of children's emotional world—emotional and behavioral problems, depression, and attachment security—in a group of children attending school and a group of homeschooled children, matched for socioeconomic background and research procedure. The findings indicated a lower level of depression among the homeschooled children; no difference was found between the groups in attachment security. With respect to emotional and behavioral problems, no difference was found in internalizing problems, but more externalizing problems were found among the school-going than the homeschooled children, in 9–10-year-olds and 11–12-year-olds, but not in 6–8-year-olds.