1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The primary aim of this paper was to assess if the proportion of children who remained in an age-appropriate regular classroom (A-ARC) from age 8 to 11 differed by gender when the main effects and interactions with kindergarten disruptive behaviours and family adversity were accounted for. [...] The secondary aim of this paper was to assess if the age at which children were placed in an A-ARC from age 8 to 11 differed by gender when the main effects and interaction with kindergarten disruptive behaviours and family adversity were accounted for. » (p. 227)

Questions/Hypothèses :
« It was expected that there would be a higher proportion of boys, among children with high family adversity, and children who had high disruptive behaviours in kindergarten transferred from an A-ARC. [...] It was expected that boys would be transferred from an A-ARC sooner than girls and those who have high family adversity and high kindergarten disruptive behaviour. » (p. 227)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« Children were included in the analyses if they had complete data on school placement up to age 11, a measure of kindergarten disruptive behaviour, and the information needed for assessing family adversity in kindergarten (N=1847). [...] All participants attended French schools in Quebec. This sample included a high proportion (34%) of children who had disruptive behaviour in kindergarten. » (p. 228)

Instruments :
- Family adversity (« Information on the age of parents at the birth of their first child, level of schooling of the parents, socioeconomic index for occupation (Blishen et al., 1987), and family status composed the global index » (p. 229));
- Social Behavior Questionnaire (Tremblay et al., 1991);
- School failure was « [...] based on whether the child was in an age-appropriate regular classroom or not ». (p. 230)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The objective of this article is « To investigate the developmental pathway of school failure from age 8 to age 11 by gender when the main effects and interactions of family adversity and the level of kindergarten disruptive behaviour problems were accounted for. A population of boys (n= 862) and girls (n= 985) were followed from kindergarten up to age 11. Family adversity and disruptive behaviour were measured in kindergarten and school failure was assessed from ages 8 to 11. A logit-linear analysis on the patterns of school failure revealed that there was no significant difference in the proportion of boys and girls transferred from an age-appropriate regular class by the end of elementary school. However, the age at which this transfer occurred differed by gender: Girls were found to experience failure later than boys do. The results also indicate that both family adversity and kindergarten disruptive behaviour problems had an effect on the proportion and age at which children were transferred from an age-appropriate regular class. Findings underline that the academic performance and delinquency relationship may be developmentally different by gender. Further research focused on understanding the impact of school failure by gender is needed to clarify this issue. » (p. 225)