Emotional symptoms in inattentive primary school children: a population-based study.
OBJECTIVE
The present study investigates teacher and parent reports of inattention and emotional symptoms in 6,229 primary school children.


METHODS
The assessment included the Emotional Symptoms subscale and the Impact scale from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the inattention items from the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV Questionnaire.


RESULTS
Children defined as inattentive showed a high risk of being defined as high scorers on the Emotional Symptoms subscale. A high score on both the Inattention and Emotional Symptoms subscales was associated with a high impact score. Teachers but not parents reported a higher risk of such co-occurrence of symptoms in girls than in boys.


CONCLUSIONS
Inattentive children should be screened for emotional problems by use of the multi-informants method.
Sørensen
Lin
L
University of Bergen, Norway. lin.sorensen@psybp.uib.no
Hugdahl
Kenneth
K
Lundervold
Astri Johansen
AJ
D000339:Affect; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012574:Schools; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires