An investigation of relationships between teachers' ratings of behavior and children's personality traits.

This study examined the relationships between teachers' ratings of children's behavior on the Behavior Problem Checklist and children's self-reported personality source traits on age-appropriate Personality Questionnaires. The sample consisted of 254 children from first through eighth grades and 13 teachers in a rural Maine elementary school. Analysis of the data revealed that teachers' ratings and children's self-reports in grades four through six agreed more frequently about problematic behavior than did children's self-reports and teachers self-ratings in grades one through three and seven and eight. In general, the study (1) supported the validity of teacher judgments made with the Behavior Problem Checklist, (2) demonstrated the critical need for more than one perspective when identifying and defining maladaptive behavior potentially indicative of emotional disturbance, and (3) suggested the need to increase the accuracy of teachers' perceptions and evaluations of children's behavior.