Epidemiological indicators of the origins of behavior disturbance as measured by the Bristol social adjustment guides.

Abstract

Sex and social-class differences in juvenile behavior disturbance are quoted from two large surveys in Britain (N = 15,496) and Canada (N = 2527). These were significant in overreacting, but small or nonexistent among underreacting types of maladjustment. Comparable differences for social class and/or sex are quoted for developmental and health handicaps, perinatal mortality, and other congenital variables, notably the mother's smoking during the pregnancy. The greater prevalence among males over a wide range of deficits could not be accounted for by differing child-rearing practices, but seemd to be genetic. Similarly, the greater prevalence of overreacting maladjustment in lower-class children could not be explained in terms of cultural conflict, but rather as the outcome of prenatal stresses associated with child morbidity. A unifying theory accounting for both sets of phenomena could be found in mechanisms for the control of population numbers observed in many animal species.