title: Prevalence of behavioral problems in school going children.
abstract: The study was conducted on 957 school children using Rutter B scale which was to be completed by the class teachers in Ludhiana, India. One hundred and forty-one children (14.6%) scored more than 9 points and were included in the second part of the study. An equal number of sex matched children scoring less than 9 points served as controls. Both these groups were called for an interview with a child psychiatrist along with their parents. Only 117 and 124 children turned up and were included in the analysis. Based on the screening instrument results and parental interview, 45.6% of the children were estimated to have behavioural problems, of which 36.5% had significant problems. It was noticed that neither the screening instrument nor the interview was able to detect all the problems. Scholastic under-achievement was found to be associated with maximum problems. Scholastic under-achievement can be a useful starting point of identifying children with behavioural problems. Close cooperation between school teachers, parents, and health care providers is essential to ensure healthy development of children.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India. sunilag59@hotmail.com
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D014505:Urban Population