Cross-Cultural Analysis On Behavioural Problems And Its Influence Factors In Chinese And German Children

ObjectivesThis study aimed at comparing parent-reported behavioural problems of children inChina and Germany, analyzing impact on behavioural problems delivered by individualcharacteristics, family environment, and family stress in these two different cultural settings,and discussing cultural difference of the two countries in the relation of children'sbehavioural problems and their academic performance, social relationships.MethodsThe data collected from two researches on children's behavioural and emotionalproblems conducted in China and Germany. A total of 2073 Chinese and 3980 German 4thgrade Children were involved in this study. Chinese sample constituted 1030 boys (49.69%)and 1043 girls (50.13%), and there were 918 children coming from countryside (44.28%).In Germany, 1969 boys (49.45%) and 2012 girls (50.55%) were studied. The researchapplies parent-reported Achenbach's Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and adoptsself-administered questionnaire to collect related influencial factors. Questionnaires wereenveloped and delivered to parents or parent surrogates. All analyses were conducted by thestatistical software program Stata 9.2.Results1. Except Social problems of Chinese children and Thought problems of their Germancounterparts, all Cronbach'sαof sydroms, Internalizing, Externalizing and Total scale inboth Chinese and German CBCL were over 0.60; the confirmatory factor analysisdemonstrated a good fitness for most models of syndromes.2. Comparison results of occurence of behavioural and emotional problems in Chineseand German children.2.1 Chinese children were scored significantly higher than German children inWithdrawn, Social problems, Thought problems, Delinquent behaviour, and Total problems.Cultural factor accounted for respectively 3.7%,3.3%,1.1% of variance of Delinquencyproblems, Social problems and Thought problems, whereas cultural difference accountedfor less than 1% variance of Total problems. German children were scored significantly higher in Aggressive behaviour than the Chinese group with cultural explicability less than1.0%. (P＜0.01) .2.2 According to the American norm, Chinese boys and girls were both inclined toachieve higher scores in deviate rate of the Total problems than the compared with Germangroup (18.5%, 13.5% vs. 13.2%, 8.4%). ORs were 1.50(1.22～1.84), 1.69(1.34～2.15)(P＜0.01) respectively. More Chinese boys (5.7%) had Thought problems than German boys(2.6%), while there was no significant difference in all other syndromes deviate rates inboys of two countries. Chinese girls acquired higher scores than German girls in deviaterate on syndromes of Withdraw, Thought problems and Deliquency behavior and theInternalizing problems (P＜0.01). Deviate rates of Chinese girls were 3.3%, 4.9%, 2.9% and17.1% with those of German girls 1.2%, 1.5%, 1.5%, 13.3%. ORs are 2.79(1.64, 4.74),3.28(2.08, 5.18), 1.96(1.17, 3.26) and 1.69(1.34, 2.15).2.3 Spearman correlation coefficient of the rank ordering of 118 symptom items in thetwo countries reached 0.71, but in top 20 symptoms items Spearman correlations was 0.12(P=0.52). Nine symptom items out of the top 20 in German children were aggressivebehaviour related. In bottom 20 symptoms items Spearman correlations was 0.46 (P=0.02).3. Comparison results of influence factors of behavioural and emotional problem inChinese and German children.3.1 17 out of 33 possible factors associated with children's behavioural and emotionalproblems were included in a stepwise regression model with CBCL total score as dependentvariable. Factors having common negative relation with CBCL total score in the bothcountries included sound relations with teachers and classmates, good or excellentacademic performance, like schools; factors having common positive relation with CBCLtotal score included repeat grade, hours spending in doing homework pro day, requiringhelp in doing homework, and psychological treatment experiences; similar but stillculturally different factors included meeting friends for over three times per week andasking for professional psychological assisstance. Meeting friends for over three times hadnegative relationship with German children's behavioural problems, and correlationbetween asking for professional psychological assisstance and behaviour problems wasstronger in Germany than that in China; Correlation-free factors are always asking for helpand meeting friends for 1-2 times per week, which only affect German children.3.2 14 out of 43 possible factors influencing children's behaviour (including dummyvariables) were included in a stepwise regression model with CBCL total score as dependent variable. Common risk factors of the two cultures included being as boy, chronicdiseases, watching TV for over one hour pro day, disturbance from neighbourhood noises,ailments of family members, sever behavioural problems of other children in the family andparental phycological disorders. Unique cultural factors can also be found. Familyeconomic difficulty delivered less impact on German children than their Chinese peers.Discussion and Suggestion1. Both Chinese and German version CBCL indicated required reliability and validity,and thus can be used as cross-culture comparative tool for research on behavioural andemotional problems of Chinese and German children. However, some special notice shouldbe given to cultural differences.2. Although behavioural and emotional problems occurence significant differences inboth cultures, the effect size indicated that the differences were by no means practical.Delicate analysis of syndromes and symptoms is the only way to reveal cultural influenceon children's behavioural and emotional problems.3. Chinese children have 1-2 times risk than those of their German counterparts tohave deviate behavioural problems, but less children in China have received mental healthservice. We need to improve relevant system so as to provide opportune and effcientassisstance to children with mental problems.4. It should be given great attention that Chinese girls have more internalizing anddelinquent behaviours than the German girls. In learning from the west experience andmethods of children education, we shouldn't deny and ignore our own cultural asset andimpact.5. Agreement has been achieved in relations between most of factors and theircorresponding behaviour problems. Therefore cultural exchanges in children fostering,education, and the prevention and therapy of behavioral problems in eastom and westomcountries should be further enhanced.6. Some factors affecting children's behaviour problems are culturally unique. Thesociety and families in the two countries should make respective improvement in line withits own features.