Abstract:

Early socioemotional and behavioural difficulties can undermine both learning and well-being, yet in everyday school practice, screening often relies on a single informant. This study explores how teachers and parents describe the same children’s strengths and difficulties, and how these ratings relate to academic achievement and family background in a minority context. The sample comprised 501 Hungarian minority pupils in Grades 1–4 (ages 6–10) attending Hungarian-language primary schools in five regions of Slovakia. Both parents and teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for each child, and background data were collected on GPA, parental education, and the presence of officially diagnosed special educational or behavioural needs.

Teachers most often classified hyperactivity in the abnormal range, whereas parents most frequently reported abnormal scores for emotional symptoms. Parents tended to rate children as having more conduct problems and slightly more emotional symptoms, but also somewhat higher prosocial behaviour than teachers. Agreement between teachers and parents was fair to good across SDQ subscales (ICC ≈ 0.45–0.61), highest for hyperactivity and lowest for prosocial behaviour. Inter-rater agreement increased by grade and reached good to excellent levels in Grade 4, suggesting that behavioural patterns become more consistent across home and school as children grow older and expectations become clearer in both settings.

Socioemotional and behavioural difficulties were systematically linked to school performance and family background. Across both informants, a higher GPA was associated with fewer emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, and peer problems and with higher prosocial behaviour. Maternal education showed small but protective associations, relating to fewer behavioural problems, particularly conduct, hyperactivity, and peer difficulties. Children with officially diagnosed special educational or behavioural needs scored substantially higher on all difficulty scales than their non-diagnosed classmates, according to both parents and teachers, confirming the sensitivity of SDQ screening in regular classroom settings.

These findings offer several practical messages for schools. First, they underline the value of combining teacher and parent SDQ ratings when screening for difficulties, rather than relying on either informant alone. Second, they highlight GPA as a readily available indicator that can help schools identify pupils who may benefit from socioemotional support. Third, the results point to the need for close home–school collaboration, especially for minority learners and for pupils with diagnosed needs, to design early, family-informed interventions that address both behavioural and academic risks and to strengthen inclusive education practices in culturally diverse contexts.

Keywords:

Multi-informant assessment, teacher–parent ratings, socioemotional and behavioural difficulties, academic achievement, minority primary school pupils, behaviour screening, inclusive education.