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Children's Behavior Problems is a statistical study of hundreds of children's cases examined consecutively at the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research to investigate the causal factors underlying undesirable behavior manifestations.
The principle of multiple causality is the basis on which the author has proceeded. It was assumed that behavior traits are correlated with a large number of possible etiological factors, either inherent in the child or arising in his environment, and that these contributing factors are of differing degrees of etiological potency. The behavior traits studied were chosen on the basis of how frequently they were noted, rather than according to any current belief concerning their relative importance.
The author feels that effective methods of treatment have often been discovered by chance, with little understanding of etiology. It seems to have been his hope that this extensive statistical study of the correlations between traits and possible etiological factors might lead directly to the development of practical methods of treatment or prevention, even though a complete knowledge of the underlying causal mechanisms is lacking.
Dr. Ackerson has undertaken a tremendous task which will undoubtedly interest those who work with statistics.