Behavioral Problems Among Children Attending Private and Community Schools in Karachi, Pakistan

The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of conduct problems amongst among children attending different school settings in Karachi, Pakistan. A total of seven private and eight community schools agreed to participate. 1488 consent forms were sent to 700 parents of private school and 788 parents of community school children. A total of 675 parents agreed to participate in the study. Assessment of conduct problems was conducted using Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1999). Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with parent's rating. It was found that girls were more likely to be rated as abnormal on this scale as compared to boys when data is adjusted for parent's education and school type (OR adj=.59; 95% CI: .4-.8; p<.002). Moreover children attending private schools were more likely to be rated as normal as compared to community school children. adjusting for child's gender and parent's education (OR adj = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2-3.8,m p<.01). In the present study estimates of behavioral problems was higher than reported in studies from other countries.