Emotional and behavioral problems in children and adolescents with and without intellectual disability.
BACKGROUND
The main objective of this study was to assess and compare the prevalence of a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems in children with and without intellectual disability (ID).


METHODS
We studied 1,041 non-residential children randomly selected from special schools for educable (IQ 60 to 80) and trainable (IQ 30 to 60) children without severe additional physical or sensory impairments, and compared them to 1,855 children randomly selected from the general population (both ages 6 to 18). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and teachers the Teacher's Report Form (TRF).


RESULTS
Controlling for sex, age, and socioeconomic status, we found that both educable and trainable children had significantly higher mean scores on all CBCL and TRF scales than children without ID, except for trainable children on the scales Anxious/Depressed and Somatic Complaints. Almost 50% of children with ID had a Total Problem score in the deviant range compared to about 18% in children without ID. Compared to children without ID, the most prominent problem behaviors of educable children were Social Problems, Attention Problems, and Aggressive Behavior, and trainable children had an increased risk for Social Problems, Attention Problems, Withdrawn and Thought Problems.


CONCLUSIONS
Elevated scale scores reflected differences between children with and without ID over a broad range of items, and not solely on items more likely to be related to developmental delay. Therefore, problem areas covered by the items in these scales deserve special attention in the mental health care of children with ID.
Dekker
Marielle C
MC
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. dekker@psys.azr.nl
Koot
Hans M
HM
van der Ende
Jan
J
Verhulst
Frank C
FC
D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012494:Sampling Studies