| Abstract: | The cross-sex comparability of child social maladaptation is assessed within populations of elementary school children. The randomly aggregated normative sample for the revised Bristol Social Adjustment Guides (BSAG) was partitioned into subsamples of 1,305 boys and 1,222 girls ranging in age from 5 to 15 years. The children were observed by 900 classroom teachers and rated on the BSAG's six core syndromes and two associated groupings of problem behavior. For each sex, scores on the various behavioral groupings were normalized and submitted to principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation of retained dimensions. A general two-factor model emerged, with one factor resembling a dimension of general overreaction and the other a dimension of general underreaction. Cross-sex equivalence of factor structures was confirmed via Kaiser's analytic factor relations process. The BSAG's core syndromes and nonsyndromic groupings were found to sustain similar functions across the sexes, although differential trends were noted in the prevalence of specific behavioral syndromes. |
