Troubled Tots

Just like the grownups', a child's world is full of worries. But the teachers cannot always find out what the worries are. Last week the Science Research Associates of Chicago published a "Junior Inventory" of problems to help bewildered adults.

To compile the inventory, two psychologists--H. H. Remmers of Purdue University and Robert H. Bauernfeind of Carleton College--questioned 6,000 school kids on every sort of problem from "I have to go to bed too early" to "I hit my sister." One-fourth of the children, they found, are chronic hypochondriacs, worried about all sorts of aches and pains (e.g., "I have a thumping . . ." "Sometimes I get real dizzy"). And almost as many are worried because "I am not nice-looking."

About 15% of the children think "I say the wrong thing at the wrong time," but only 2% are out & out misanthropes ("I don't like people"). As for school, 20% don't like it and 12% hate spelling in particular; but 25% wish they knew how to read better. One out of three thinks he bites his fingernails too much, and four out of ten wish they knew what they are going to be when they grow up.

Oddly enough, say the psychologists, more rural children than urban are afraid of animals, more Westerners than Easterners wish "we had a nice house," and more Midwesterners than any others are worried about their pimples. Girls are apt to be a bit more morbid than boys, but 16% of all the children sometimes wish for death.

Among the 6,000 children, Psychologists Remmers and Bauernfeind found a few tots wise beyond their years. Said one fourth-grader: "I have no troubles. But I'll have some afterwards."

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