A group of 34 children from mainstream schools in Libya representing four Local Education Authorities (LEAs) were interviewed about their emotional and behavioural diffiulties (EBD) and the factors which might be responsible for their EBD. Although, in general, children's views of EBD did not yield remarkably different accounts to those already reported in the literature, they highlighted an alternative perspective into the dominant aetiology of children's EBD. In fact, children's accounts of their EBD appeared to reflect a psychosocial perspective in that the impact of the social context on their behaviour was predominant as opposed to attributing their behaviour merely to individual or psychological inner conflicts. They appeared likely to develop behavioural difficulties and do much less well academically because of school related factors, despite the fact that they identified personal and parental shortcomings. The implications of this study on the attributions of EBD underline the role and responsibility of the school and teachers leading to EBD and possibly to exclusion as an admission of failure.
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