Factors affecting student behavioral disorders: a qualitative study

Behavioral abnormalities are defined as an individual’s level of maladjustment to social values. Regardless of what the causes of these behavioral abnormalities are, they are studied as a problem in social studies conducted by researchers and professionals. During their development, youth and children are influenced by numerous factors. Factors such as environmental, genetics, family and educational factors can influences this age group. Children are the most vulnerable group considering these factors. Behaviors of parents, teachers and peers influence personality in children and youth. Many of these behaviors are acquired through observational learning, which could in return, shape what children do and how they do it. As the result, what teachers and instructors do and what they do during school hours are crucial in behavioral patterns of school-aged children. The aim of this study was to determine the factors influencing behavioral abnormalities in students studying in Markazi and Hamedan Province, in the school year of 2016-2017.
This study employed a qualitative content analysis based on interviews. These teachers were interviewed for the purpose of the qualitative analysis. The data collection was based on grounded theory method. A number of professionals in the field of education, as well as a number of teachers, who were working in schools or university campuses, were selected and were interviewed in Markazi and Hamedan province. To select the sample, quota sampling was utilized. This sampling method was used as it was believed that the quota of each group in the population and variety of variables such as gender, level and the province influence in determining the number of the sample and sampling had to be done, respectively. As the result, to determine the quota of each sample in the sample, the following steps were taken: to obtain the needed qualitative data form the interviews, sampling was done from teachers and professionals based on quota and interviews were performed until saturation was reached. Totally, ninety-four participants were recruited and were interviewed about factors affecting behavioral abnormalities and prevention of these behaviors in students. The researchers interviewed teachers and professionals in schools as well as university lecturers to determine factors affecting behavioral adjustment as well as abnormalities in students. After coding of the data, these approaches were investigated and were presented in an atlas format. A semi-structured interview was used to identify preventive approaches in children’s behavioral abnormalities. Based on their daily interaction with students and their understanding of personality and behavioral traits of children, teachers provided a valuable resource in determining the above-mentioned data.
Based on the finding of this research, five core concepts were found to be correlated with student's abnormalities and disorders as follows: (1) school related issues, (2) social related matters, (3) family related matters, (4) personal related matters, and (5) Peer related issues. Based on the finding of this research, 37 areas of sub-content were also identified.
Based on the finding of this research, it can be concluded that abnormalities and disorders in school-aged teenagers are correlated with family and social issues, to prevent abnormalities in school-age children, cooperation between school, family and society is necessary.