The Icelandic child mental health study. An epidemiological study of Icelandic children 2–18 years of age using the child behavior checklist as a screening instrument

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldThe purpose of this study was to test the applicability of a standardised procedure for assessing Icelandic children's behaviour/emotional problems and competencies, and to identify differences related to demographic variables. This study focuses upon the method of using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) by Achenbach to estimate the reported prevalence by parents and adolescents of emotional and behaviour problems in children from 2-16 years of age and self-reported prevalence of adolescents from 11-18 years, selected at random from the general population, both in urban and rural areas. The information was obtained by mailing checklists with a letter to parents of children 2-10 years of age. The checklists for adolescents 11-18 years of age were distributed by teachers in school. Those adolescents who were not in school received the checklists by mail at their homes. The Child Behavior Checklists used for analyses were completed by 109 parents of 2-3 year old children; 943 parents of 4-16 year old children, and 545 non-referred adolescents from the general population. The rate of response was lowest for the youngest age group, 47%, but increased to 62% with increasing age of the child. The response rate among the adolescents answering the Youth Self Report was 64%. Comparisons with the Child Behavior Checklist from this study are presented with Dutch, American, French, Canadian, German and Chilean samples and show striking similarities in four of these countries on the behaviour/emotional problems reported

Psychosocial functioning and psychiatric comorbidity among substance-abusing Icelandic adolescents

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldOur objectives were to compare behaviour problem scores (BPS) for Icelandic adolescents admitted for detoxification treatment for alcohol and narcotic abuse as compared with the general population, in accordance with the Youth Self Report (YSR), and to describe psychosocial functioning and psychiatric comorbidity for the treated adolescents. The case series consisted of 103 adolescents, ages 12-18 years, who completed the YSR at the end of a 10-day stay at the National Hospital of Addiction Medicine. The total BPS tallied from the YSR items was compared with scores for the general population. The psychiatric comorbidity and psychosocial functioning of the case series were assessed through diagnostic interviews in accordance with DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. The BPS for the 36 treated girls was significantly higher than for the general population (104 versus 36) and higher than for the 56 treated boys (82 versus 56) with 2 standard deviations above the norm for the population. Three-quarters of the adolescents had psychiatric comorbidity: conduct disorder (44%), depression (28%), or posttraumatic stress disorder (11%). The findings support the discriminative validity of the YSR as part of a structured global assessment of substance-abusing adolescents, in particular to identify the frequently present psychiatric comorbidities

Comparison of behavioral problems between two samples of 2- to 3-year-old children in Finland and Iceland

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldThe study objective was to compare the behavior problems of 2- to 3-year-old children in Finland and Iceland. A standardized rating scale of preschool psychopathology (CBCL 2-3), developed in the USA, was used to obtain parental information on 493 preschoolers in Finland and Iceland. Behavior scores in the two samples were rather similar. Boys had higher rates of externalizing behavior, aggressivity, and destructivity in both samples. In addition, there were relatively high rates of attention-seeking and poor concentration overall

Catapult for bomb throwing, trenches and bombing school, Duntroon, Australian Capital Territory, 20 April, 1916 [picture].

Title from caption.; Condition: Yellowing.; Inscriptions: "Susan M.B. Campbell from G.B.C. Aug 14' 14"--From inside front cover of album.; This is a copy made by the National Library of Australia from an original in private ownership.; Electronic reproduction. Canberra : National Library of Australia, 2007. 1 digital photograph : b&w Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Lent for copying by Robert Campbell, 2007

Developmental psychopathology of children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome - impact of ADHD

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldBACKGROUND: In Tourette syndrome (TS) as a neurodevelopmental disorder not only the tics but also the comorbid conditions change with increasing age. ADHD is highly comorbid with TS and usually impairs psychosocial functioning more than the tics. Its impact on further comorbidity during development is important for clinical practice and still a matter of debate. METHOD: Aspects of developmental psychopathology considering the impact of ADHD were examined by logistic regression (year wisely) in a cross-sectional sample of children and adolescents (n = 5060) from the TIC database. RESULTS: In TS+ADHD (compared to TS-ADHD) higher rates of comorbid conditions like OCD, anxiety disorders, CD/ODD and mood disorders were found in children (5-10 years). In adolescents (11-17 years) higher comorbidity rates in TS+ADHD remained only for CD/ODD and mood disorders. Accordingly, for OCD and anxiety disorders there was a steeper year wise increase of these comorbidities in TS-ADHD while it was a similar for CD/ODD and mood disorders in TS-ADHD as well as TS+ADHD. CONCLUSION: Children with TS+ADHD have more comorbidities than the TS-ADHD group, whereas in both adolescent groups this did no longer hold for OCD and anxiety disorders. These findings indicate that in TS comorbid ADHD is associated with high rates of externalizing and internalizing problems, whereas TS without ADHD is associated only with internalizing problems in adolescence

Treatment aims and philosophy in the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa in Europe

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldThis study describes the range of service provision and explores differences in treatment approaches and therapeutic aims, in the 12 countries participating in the European Union collaborative COST B6 Adolescent Project into the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN). Following a number of group meetings, two questionnaires were administered, completed and returned by e-mail. The first questionnaire examined features of the services provided, including details of the numbers of patients seen, inpatient admission criteria and aspects of patient management. The second questionnaire contained a list of 13 therapeutic aims, asking respondents to rank in order the six they considered most important in the first weeks of treatment. There was broad agreement between services concerning the need to offer a full spectrum of services in a range of settings. Nevertheless, there were significant differences in approaches, chiefly concerning the readiness to admit to hospital, the use of (individual or family) day units and the focus on weight restoration as opposed to therapeutic engagement

Epidemiological comparisons of problems and positive qualities reported by adolescents in 24 countries

In this study, the authors compared ratings of behavioral and emotional problems and positive qualities on the Youth Self-Report (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) by adolescents in general population samples from 24 countries (N = 27,206). For problem scales, country effect sizes (ESs) ranged from 3% to 9%, whereas those for gender and age ranged from less than 1% to 2%. Scores were significantly higher for girls than for boys on Internalizing Problems and significantly higher for boys than for girls on Externalizing Problems. Bicountry correlations for mean problem item scores averaged .69. For Total Problems, 17 of 24 countries scored within one standard deviation of the overall mean of 35.3. In the 19 countries for which parent ratings were also available, the mean of 20.5 for parent ratings was far lower than the self-report mean of 34.0 in the same 19 countries (d = 2.5). Results indicate considerable consistency across 24 countries in adolescents' self-reported problems but less consistency for positive qualities

The generalizability of the Youth Self-Report syndrome structure in 23 societies

As a basis for theories of psychopathology, clinical psychology and related disciplines need sound taxonomies that are generalizable across diverse populations. To test the generalizability of a statistically derived 8-syndrome taxonomic model for youth psychopathology, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were performed on the Youth Self-Report (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) completed by 30,243 youths 11-18 years old from 23 societies. The 8-syndrome taxonomic model met criteria for good fit to the data from each society. This was consistent with findings for the parent-completed Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) and the teacher-completed Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) from many societies. Separate CFAs by gender and age group supported the 8-syndrome model for boys and girls and for younger and older youths within individual societies. The findings provide initial support for the taxonomic generalizability of the 8-syndrome model across very diverse societies, both genders, and 2 age groups.http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=browsePA.volumes&jcode=ccp&vol=75&issue=5&monthSeason=Oct&year

P-Factor(s) for Youth Psychopathology Across Informants and Models in 24 Societies

Objective: Although the significance of the general factor of psychopathology (p) is being increasingly recognized, it remains unclear how to best operationalize and measure p. To test variations in the operationalizations of p and make practical recommendations for its assessment, we compared p-factor scores derived from four models. Methods: We compared p scores derived from principal axis (Model 1), hierarchical factor (Model 2), and bifactor (Model 3) analyses, plus a Total Problem score (sum of unit-weighted ratings of all problem items; Model 4) for parent- and self-rated youth psychopathology from 24 societies. Separately for each sample, we fitted the models to parent-ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18) and self-ratings on the Youth Self-Report (YSR) for 25,643 11-18-year-olds. Separately for each sample, we computed correlations between p-scores obtained for each pair of models, cross-informant correlations between p-scores for each model, and Q-correlations between mean item x p-score correlations for each pair of models. Results: Results were similar for all models, as indicated by correlations of .973-.994 between p-scores for Models 1-4, plus similar cross-informant correlations between CBCL/6-18 and YSR Model 1-4 p-scores. Item x p correlations had similar rank orders between Models 1-4, as indicated by Q correlations of .957-.993. Conclusions: The similar results obtained for Models 1-4 argue for using the simplest model - the unit-weighted Total Problem score - to measure p for clinical and research assessment of youth psychopathology. Practical methods for measuring p may advance the field toward transdiagnostic patterns of problems