Persistence of Behavior Disorders in Children

The major objective of this study was to investigate spontaneous improvement in public school children who had been identified as behavior problems but who had not had the help of any special educational or psychiatric care. The study examined the basic assumption underlying early detection programs that the majority of childhood problems would continue or become worse if left untreated. After a 4 year interval, behavior disordered children, who had completed the first screening and had not received any type of intervention, were reexamined with the same screening device (an abbreviated form of the Bower, 1960, instrument). Persistent disturbances were found in 30 percent of the children.