How Russian teachers, mothers and school psychologists perceive internalising and externalising behaviours in children

Abstract

This study examined the perception of children’s internalising and externalising behaviours by Russian teachers, mothers and school psychologists. The participants rated their agreement about the causes, seriousness and recommended interventions for the problem behaviour of a fictitious girl/boy described in two vignettes. Mixed ANOVAs indicated that all the respondents attributed externalising behaviours to social causes to a greater degree than internalising behaviours. Compared to mothers and psychologists, teachers perceived both types of behaviours as more serious; however, they downplayed their own role in the child’s problems. Psychological help was more popular among school psychologists than among mothers. Correlational analyses demonstrated problem- and respondent-specific associations between casual attributions and recommended interventions. Implications for educational practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• causal attributions
• internalising and externalising behaviours
• interventions

Acknowledgement

We thank Natalia Kondrashova for her assistance in data collection.