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Biomedical subjects

Magda Stouthamer-Loeber

Publications and source records attributed to Magda Stouthamer-Loeber.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Phenomenology of depression in young girls.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms, the overlap between caregiver and child report, the association between depression and anxiety, and the relationship between symptoms of depression and impairment in young girls. METHOD: Participants in the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a community sample of 2,451 girls aged 5-8 years old and their primary caregivers were interviewed in 2000-2001 using the Child Symptom Inventory and the Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire to measure depression, the Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders to measure anxiety, and the Children's Global Assessment Scale to measure impairment. RESULTS: Less than 1% of 5- to 8-year-old girls had five or more symptoms of major depression according to the caregiver report. Individual differences in symptom counts and depression scores by caregiver and child report were observed. Agreement between caregivers and girls on depression symptoms was low, with only 2% of the variance in caregiver-reported depression on the Child Symptom Inventory being accounted for by child report on the Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. The level of association between depression and anxiety scores suggested that these constructs are associated but relatively independent in young girls. Both caregiver report and child report of depressive symptoms were uniquely associated with impairment ratings. CONCLUSIONS: Although major depression appears to be rare among 5- to 8-year-old girls, continuous measures of depressive symptoms yield significant individual differences that are associated with impairment. Thus, preliminary evidence suggests that depressive symptoms can be validly measured in 5- to 8-year-old girls.

Anxiety↗
PubMed2003

Reading problems and depressed mood.

Although reading difficulties show well-established overlaps with disruptive behavior disorders in childhood, much less is known about reading-disabled children's vulnerability to emotional difficulties. Using longitudinal data from 6 assessments of boys in the Pittsburgh Youth Study, we found robust links between severe, persistent reading problems and increased risk for depressed mood in a community sample of boys aged 7 and 10 years at initial assessment, though not in those who had already entered their teens. These associations could not be accounted for in terms of selected family risks or comorbid disruptive behaviors; instead, the pattern of the findings pointed to the existence of more direct causal processes whereby reading problems influence younger boys' risk of depressed mood.

Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorder↗
PubMed2002

Lost opportunities for intervention: undetected markers for the development of serious juvenile delinquency.

INTRODUCTION: Persistent serious delinquency in young males rarely starts without a history of problem behaviour in childhood. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) At what age does persistent serious offending emerge for the first time? (2) What proportion of persistent serious delinquent boys qualifies for a diagnosis of a disruptive behaviour disorder? (3) What proportion of persistent serious delinquent boys receive help for their behavioural or educational problems, either from mental health professionals or from personnel at school? METHOD: Eight waves of assessments from the oldest sample (ages 13 to 18.5) of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to classify boys as persistent serious violent offenders, persistent serious property offenders, persistent non-serious offenders, and non-offenders based on their self-reports. Juvenile court records, diagnostic information and information about help for mental health problems were used. RESULTS: Almost half of the boys who eventually become a persistent serious offender already have an onset of their serious delinquent behaviour by age 12. Two-thirds of the boys who come to the attention of the juvenile court already had behaviour problems for at least five years, and one-third were diagnosed as having a disruptive behaviour disorder by age 13. However, less than half of the persistent serious delinquents had received any help from either mental health professionals or from personnel in schools. CONCLUSIONS: Early behaviour problems and a diagnosis of disruptive behaviour disorder constitute targets for intervention. The relatively low rate of interventions for boys with these problems and who later become persistent serious offenders indicates a high under-utilization of opportunities to prevent serious delinquency by parents and professionals.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

How many of the offspring born to teenage fathers are produced by repeated serious delinquents?

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies have found an association between teenage fatherhood and delinquency. Yet, it is not clear whether there is a dose response relationship between the severity of delinquency and teenage fatherhood. This paper quantifies the public health impact of serious delinquency on the risk of impregnation and teenage fatherhood among urban, adolescent males. METHODS: Using data up to age 19, rates of sexual activity, impregnation and fatherhood are compared among three groups: minor/non-delinquents, moderate delinquents and repeat serious delinquents. RESULTS: The results demonstrate a dose response relationship between delinquency and age of onset of sexual activity, whereby more serious delinquents began having sex at younger ages. By age 19, almost half of repeat serious delinquents (46.7%) had caused a pregnancy, and nearly a third (31.4%) had fathered children. Rates of impregnation and fatherhood were twice as high among repeat serious delinquents compared with moderate and minor/non-delinquents. Repeat serious delinquents were also more likely than others to father multiple children; of the children produced by teenage fathers in this study, almost two-thirds (65%) were fathered by repeat serious delinquents. During late adolescence, repeat serious delinquents continued to be at greater risk for fathering children, as they were continuing to have unsafe sex more frequently and with more partners. CONCLUSIONS: Repeat serious delinquents comprise a crucial but hard-to-reach population for family planning services and parenthood education. Programmes and services for teenage pregnancy prevention need extra funding and efforts to address this population, in terms of both the primary prevention of pregnancy and the prevention of repeat pregnancies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Characteristics of girls with early onset disruptive and antisocial behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Crime, particularly among juvenile females, has increased in recent years. Little is known, however, about the development and precursors in childhood of female delinquent behaviour. This is primarily due to a lack of consensus on how to define and assess female antisocial behaviour, and a lack of studies using sufficiently large samples. METHOD: A community sample of 2451 girls between the ages of five and eight years were recruited into a longitudinal study following the enumeration of 103,238 households in the city of Pittsburgh. Data on disruptive and antisocial behaviours were collected from parents, teachers and children during the first wave of the study. RESULTS: Prevalence rates of disruptive disorders varied by choice of informants and measurement thresholds. The prevalence of most disruptive behaviours was similar across the four age cohorts. Where there were differences, parents of younger girls tended to report fewer problematic behaviours compared with parents of older girls. Teachers reported more disruptive behaviours than parents and, by their reports, older girls were more likely to show oppositional/defiant behaviour and relational aggression than younger girls. Girls scoring highly on several domains relative to their peers were over-represented in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. CONCLUSIONS: A range of disruptive disorders are present among a subgroup of females at an early age, particularly among girls in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Longitudinal follow-up is required to examine the developmental trajectories and predictive utility of these behaviours. The implications for clinical interventions are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Serious delinquent behavior, sensation seeking, and electrodermal arousal.

Low tonic skin conductance level (SCL) has been related, inconsistently, to both delinquency and sensation-seeking. This study tests the hypothesis that there is an interaction such that high sensation seeking delinquents, in particular, have low SCLs. Participants consisted of 335 boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study classified as serious delinquents or controls based upon 10 years of prospectively collected self-report delinquency data. Participants' skin conductance was evaluated at age 16 along with several personality and neuropsychological measures. Both delinquency and sensation seeking were characterized by low SCL. However, there was no evidence to suggest that the presence of both of these factors together lead to especially low skin conductance levels. This finding is not explained by differences between the groups on measures of negative emotionality, IQ, socioeconomic status, or impulsivity.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2002

Risk and promotive effects in the explanation of persistent serious delinquency in boys.

Risk and promotive effects were investigated as predictors of persistent serious delinquency in male participants of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (R. Loeber, D. P. Farrington, M. Stouthamer-Loeber, & W. B. van Kammen, 1998), living in different neighborhoods. Participants were studied over ages 13-19 years for the oldest sample and 7-13 years for the youngest sample. Risk and promotive effects were studied in 6 domains: child behavior, child attitudes, school and leisure activities, peer behaviors, family functioning, and demographics. Regression models improved when promotive effects were included with risk effects in predicting persistent serious delinquency. Disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared with better neighborhoods, had a higher prevalence of risk effects and a lower prevalence of promotive effects. However, predictive relations between risk and promotive effects and persistent serious delinquency were linear and similar across neighborhood socioeconomic status.

Adolescent↗