Behavior Problems and Depressive Symptoms in Developmental Dyslexia: Risk Assessment in Brazilian Students

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if students with developmental dyslexia (DD) have more behavior problems and depressive symptoms than students without learning difficulties. METHOD: Participants were 61 students, aged 7-14 years, including 31 with interdisciplinary DD diagnosis and 30 without learning disabilities. We collected data from parents, using the children’s behavior checklist (CBCL), and from students, using the children’s depression inventory (CDI). RESULTS: The DD group had higher CBCL averages for anxiety, depression, withdrawal, rule-breaking behaviors, aggressiveness, and social, attentional and thought problems. They also showed higher results for the internalizing and externalizing categories, others and total. In the CDI, DD students had higher averages for total score and for the following symptoms: negative self-evaluation, guilt, suicidal thoughts, feeling concern, performance comparison, sleeping difficulties, fatigue, and problems in interacting with peers at school. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the results in terms of implications for DD diagnosis and intervention. Parent reports indicate a higher frequency of behavior problems in students with DD diagnosis. Those students also demonstrate more symptoms of depression than students without learning difficulties.