Behavioral Problems Differences in Primary School Children: A Comparison Between Divorced and Intact Families
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Objective: This study aims to identify the behavioral problems of aggression, stealing, lying, and hyperactivity in children at primary schools and to find the difference concerning intact parents vs divorced parents.
Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was conducted in government primary schools in Hillah city. A total of 383 students were selected using a non-probability sampling method, comprising male and female primary school students (fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students). The study was conducted from November 2024 to March 2025. The Behavior Problems Scale was used to measure the study variables (aggression, stealing, lying, and hyperactivity). The validity of the questionnaire was estimated by CVI and CVR, which were statistically adequate. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the results of the study using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 26.0.
Findings: the study shows some variables aggression and several factors, including male sex, first-born status (for divorced families), perceived academic level, and availability of needs compared to peers and lying behavior and birth order, behavioral history, and perceived academic level, especially in children from divorced families.
Conclusion: There is a notable trend of children from intact families exhibiting lower levels of aggression, stealing, lying, and hyperactivity compared to children from divorced families. However, these differences are not statistically significant across all measured behaviors, indicating that parental marital status may not be a decisive factor in these behavioral outcomes. For children from intact families, most exhibit low levels of aggression, stealing, lying, and hyperactivity. However, children from divorced families tend to have slightly higher behavioral problems, though the differences are not statistically significant. Significant correlations were found between aggression and several factors, including male sex, first-born status (for divorced families), perceived academic level, and availability of needs compared to peers.
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