Convergence or divergence? A longitudinal analysis of behaviour problems among disabled and non-disabled children aged 3 to 7 in England

This study sets out to identify the incidence and development of disabled children’s problem behaviours, including conduct, peer, hyperactivity and emotional problems during the early years using the Millennium Cohort Study, a large-scale, nationally representative UK study. We track the behaviour problems from age 3 to 7 to examine the emergence of problems and whether disabled girls’ and boys’ behaviour converges or diverges from non-disabled children over time. Childhood disability is assessed using three broad measures: developmental delay (DD), long standing limiting illness (LSLI), and special educational needs (SEN) to ascertain the implications of particular constructions of disability. Finally, we examine whether parenting and the home environment moderate any associations between disability and behaviour. Estimating linear growth models, we find that disabled children exhibit more behaviour problems than non-disabled children across disability measures. We find no evidence that trajectories converge for disabled and non-disabled children; rather, children with LSLI and SEN show a greater increase in peer problems, hyperactivity and emotional problems over time. We find little evidence that parenting moderates associations between disability and behaviour. The findings suggest that further in-school support for disabled children may be warranted given persistence in problem behaviour well after school entry.