Preschoolers' social skills and behavior problems: A cross-cultural exploratory study of Angolan and Portuguese teachers' perceptions

Preschoolers social skills and behavior problems have become a worldwide focus of research in developmental, clinical and educational fields, which translates into an increase of cross-cultural research. However, few studies have been conducted with African participants, especially Angolan preschoolers. This study explored teachers' perceptions on preschool children's social skills and behavior problems from two countries (Angola and Portugal) who share the same language. Thirteen preschool teachers rated 119 Angolan preschoolers with the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales - Second Edition (PKBS-2). This sample was matched with 119 preschoolers from the Portuguese PKBS-2 normative sample, also rated by their preschool teachers. Results indicated good to very good values for internal consistency in both samples (from .73 to .96). Differences in teachers' perceptions were found, with Angolan preschool teachers perceiving that their children have more behavior problems than the Portuguese teachers (differences associated mostly to large effect sizes), and exhibit less social cooperation. Culture and gender main effects were evidenced, but no interaction effects were present. Results comparing teachers' perception from both countries at the item level revealed a similar pattern for the most rated social skills items (eight common out of 10 items), but Angolan teachers rated more externalizing behavior problems at a higher level than Portuguese teacher and fewer internalizing problems. Results of this exploratory cross-cultural investigation are discussed emphasizing issues associated with the use of behavior rating scales and cultural specificities, highlighting some contributions for practice and future research.