Social competence and emotional/behavioural problems in children of psychiatric inpatients.
The social competence and emotional/behavioural problems among 80 5-16-year-old children of 46 inpatients with various psychiatric disorders were assessed by the parents using a Swedish version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The ratings of these children were compared to a normative sample of school children, but also whether type of psychiatric disorder among the parents was related to psychosocial functioning in their children. Fifty percent of the parents had a psychotic disorder; other common diagnoses were depressive, neurosis or personality disorders. Overall, children of psychiatric inpatients were perceived by the parents to be less socially competent and to have more emotional/ behavioural problems than school children in the same age groups. However, 25% of the children of psychiatric parents were rated as having more severe problems (corresponding to the 90th percentile of the normative sample). About 15% of the children had total problem levels comparable to child psychiatric samples, but only 5% did actually receive ongoing help from the child psychiatric service. Parents with a depressive disorder or a crisis reaction also regarded their children to be more anxious/depressed, and to have more social problems than those of parents with other psychiatric disorders. Four CBCL items were found to be strong predictors of being a child of a psychiatric parent or parent in the normative sample. We suggest that the CBCL might be a valuable clinical tool in the screening and identification of those children of psychiatrically ill parents, who show more extreme problem scores and therefore might need help because of psychological problems.
Larsson
B
B
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Knutsson-Medin
L
L
Sundelin
C
C
von Werder
A C
AC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms; D002648:Child; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010554:Personality Disorders; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012919:Social Behavior