title: Teachers' assessments of children's mental problems with respect to adolescents' subsequent self-reported mental health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether teachers' assessments of children are predictive of subsequent self-reported mental problems in adolescence and how these problems are concurrently linked with adolescents' overall life satisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study subjects originated from the prospective population-based Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (N = 9,432). At age 8 years first-grade students' emotional and behavioral problems were assessed by their teachers with Rutter Children's Behavioural Questionnaires for teachers (RB2). At the age of 16 years, adolescents responded to the eight Youth Self-report (YSR) subscales and the one-item overall life satisfaction scale. Multivariate logistic regression was used to study the longitudinal relationship between RB2 and YSR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children who had emotional problems according to their teachers (RB2) were more prone to withdrawal and social problems in adolescence (YSR). Behavioral problems in childhood (RB2) were predictive of attention problems, and delinquent and aggressive behavior (YSR), while hyperactivity (RB2) was only predictive of attention problems and delinquent behavior (YSR). Additionally, each YSR subscale was strongly and linearly associated with concurrent self-reported life satisfaction in adolescence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Teachers' assessments of children were predictive of self-reported mental problems in adolescence, which, in turn, were strongly associated with concurrent self-reported life satisfaction. In order to support favorable growth of children to well-adjusted adolescents and to intervene as early as possible in the event of adverse progression, both teachers' assessments of children and adolescent's self-rated overall life satisfaction should be acknowledged.
authors.affiliation: Department of Teacher Education, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: meri.honkanen@kuopio.fi.
authors.forename: Meri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Honkanen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Määttä
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Department of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu & University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Tuula
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hurtig
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu & University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ebeling
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Primary Health Care Unit, University Hospital of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taanila
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Lapland Hospital District, Rovaniemi, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, South-Savonia Hospital District, Mikkeli, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, North Karelia Central Hospital, Joensuu, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, SOSTERI, Savonlinna, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, SOTE, Iisalmi, Finland.
authors.forename: Heli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koivumaa-Honkanen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D008603:Mental Health; D057566:Self Report
keywords: Adolescent; Children; Cohort; Life satisfaction; Mental health; Quality of life; RB2; School