Behavioral Disorders in Vocational Schools for Special Education. A Pilot-study using the Teacher‘s Report Form and the Youth Self Report

Up until now emotional and behavioral disorders in Vocational Schools were only rarely subject of research. Yet it is probable that these disorders might represent a serious field of problems in such schools. Within the scope of a Pilot Study we explored the pupils of a large Special Educational Vocational school in Bavaria, Germany using Teacher’s Report Form (TRF) and Youth Self Report (YSR) of the Achenbach Scales (CBCL). We were interested in the occurrence of emotional and behavioral disorders in general, in those specific disorders in the foreground, in differences between some groups of the population and in supplementary qualitative information.Whereas disorder quotas coming from the TRF data were unexpectedly low, YSR data showed just the contrary. The latter findings were supported by the partially impressive qualitative information. Furthermore, differences in the occurrence of disorders between women and men as well as between special subgroups such as young workers without vocational training, persons in courses of vocational preparation and in some various courses of vocational training are being discussed. Finally, in regard of the results of this pilot study, potentials and problems of the used methods are subject to investigation.