Social-emotional screening status in early childhood predicts elementary school outcomes.
OBJECTIVE
The goal was to examine whether children who screen positive for social-emotional/behavioral problems at 12 to 36 months of age are at elevated risk for social-emotional/behavioral problems in early elementary school.


METHODS
The sample studied (N = 1004) comprised an ethnically (33.3% minority) and socioeconomically (17.8% living in poverty and 11.3% living in borderline poverty) diverse, healthy, birth cohort from a metropolitan region of the northeastern United States. When children were 12 to 36 months of age (mean age: 23.8 months; SD: 7.1 months), parents completed the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment and questions concerning their level of worry about their child's behavior, emotions, and social development. When children were in early elementary school (mean age: 6.0 years; SD: 0.4 years), parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist and teachers completed the Teacher Report Form regarding behavioral problems. In a subsample (n = 389), parents reported child psychiatric status.


RESULTS
Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment screen status and parental worry were associated significantly with school-age symptoms and psychiatric disorders. In multivariate analyses that included Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment status and parental worry, Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment scores significantly predicted all school-age problems, whereas worry predicted only parent reports with the Child Behavior Checklist. Children with of-concern scores on the problem scale of the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment were at increased risk for parent-reported subclinical/clinical levels of problems and for psychiatric disorders. Low competence scores predicted later teacher-reported subclinical/clinical problems and parent-reported disorders. Worry predicted parent-reported subclinical/clinical problems. Moreover, the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment identified 49.0% of children who exhibited subclinical/clinical symptoms according to teachers and 67.9% of children who later met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder.


CONCLUSIONS
Screening with a standardized tool in early childhood has the potential to identify the majority of children who exhibit significant emotional/behavioral problems in early elementary school.
Briggs-Gowan
Margaret J
MJ
Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave, MC-1410, Farmington, CT 06030, USA. briggsgowan@psychiatry.uchc.edu
Carter
Alice S
AS
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires