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Results for “Behavioral problems”

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PubMed1987

Family characteristics of adolescents who display overt and covert behavior problems.

The purpose of the present study was to examine and compare the families of young adolescents who demonstrated overt behavior problems, overt and covert behavior problems (i.e. versatile adolescents), and neither type of problem. From 176 nonclinic adolescents, a sample of 23 was selected based upon a teacher-completed measure. Interparental conflict, parental marital status, and mother-adolescent conflict were examined. The results indicated that families with a versatile adolescent were characterized by divorce as well as more interparental and mother-adolescent conflict than the other two groups. Assessment of and intervention for school-identified adolescents may need to include a focus on interparental conflict and parent-adolescent conflict.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

The use of selegiline in Alzheimer's patients with behavior problems.

BACKGROUND: Currently there is no regimen for managing the inappropriate behavior seen in Alzheimer's disease that does not cause significant patient sedation. Preliminary evidence suggests selegiline may be effective in behavioral modification without the adverse effects observed with other regimens. The purpose of this study was to document the efficacy of selegiline in Alzheimer's patients with behavior problems. METHOD: Eight Alzheimer's patients (6 women and 2 men) ranging in age from 50 to 82 years (mean +/- SD = 74.0 +/- 10.5) were enrolled in this single-blind study. Patients received selegiline 10 mg each day for 8 weeks. Prior to drug administration and at the end of Weeks 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8, patients were evaluated for behavior (BEHAVEAD), cognitive function (Mini-Mental State Examination), and caregiver stress (Caregiver Burden Scale). RESULTS: Of eight enrolled patients, five were available for analysis. No statistically significant differences were found between mean baseline and mean 8-week scores for any of the three tests. However, clinical significance was noted by improvement in cognition (orientation and recall), caregiver stress, and behavior. Behavior was noted to improve in the areas of paranoid and delusional ideation, hallucinations, activity disturbances, anxiety, and phobias. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that some Alzheimer's patients with behavior problems may benefit from selegiline therapy.

Aged↗

PubMed1989

[Family life events and behavior problems in children].

In this paper, Family Life Event Questionnaire and Children Behavior Questionnaire were applied to measure the 402 subjects between 3-15 years old from 301 rural and urban families. The results showed that family life events were accompanied with behavior problems in children. Six events, which can be concluded into the inappropriate management for parents to control the children, the harmful family atmosphere and the parents' inferior role, related with the behavior problems closer than the other events.

Child↗

PubMed2000

Life events, locus of control, and behavioral problems among Chinese adolescents.

This study examined associations of life events and locus of control with behavioral problems among 1,365 Chinese adolescents by using the Youth Self-Report (YSR), Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist (ASLEC), and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children. Results indicated that the overall prevalence of behavioral and emotional problems was 10.7% (95% CI = 9.9-11.5%). Logistic-regression analyses showed that a total of 13 negative life events mainly coming from academic domain and interpersonal relationships, high life-stress score, and high external locus score significantly increased the risk for behavioral problems. Life stress and locus of control significantly interacted with behavioral problems. These findings support the linkage between stressful life events and psychopathology in a general population of adolescents from mainland China, and demonstrate the stress-moderating effects of locus of control on psychopathology as well.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

The implications of different developmental patterns of disruptive behavior problems for school adjustment. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group.

Based upon developmental models of disruptive behavior problems, this study examined the hypothesis that the nature of a child's externalizing problems at home may be important in predicting the probability of and nature of school adjustment problems at school entry. Parent ratings were collected for a sample of 631 behaviorally disruptive children using the Child Behavior Checklist. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed differentiated ratings of oppositional, aggressive, and hyperactive/inattentive behaviors at home. Teacher and peer nominations assessed school adjustment at the end of first grade. As expected from a developmental perspective, aggressive behaviors indicated more severe dysfunction and were more likely to generalize to the school setting than were oppositional behaviors. Hyperactive/inattentive behaviors at home led to more classroom disruption than did aggressive or oppositional behaviors. Co-occurring patterns of oppositional/aggressive and hyperactive/inattentive behaviors were more common than were single-problem patterns, and were associated with broad dysfunction in the social and classroom contexts. The results were interpreted within a developmental framework, in which oppositional, aggressive, and hyperactive/inattentive behaviors may reflect distinct (as well as shared) developmental processes that have implications for the home-to-school generalization of behavior problems and subsequent school adjustment.

Aggression↗

PubMed1993

Familial aggregation of emotional and behavioral problems of childhood in the general population.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to evaluate the existence and implications of familial aggregation of emotional and behavioral problems of childhood in a general population sample. METHOD: The children included in the study were chosen with the use of a sampling technique that identified households in which there were two or more children aged 4-16 years living at home at the time of the survey. Ratings on checklists of emotional and behavioral problems were obtained from parents, teachers of children in elementary school, and the children themselves if they were adolescents aged 12-16. Children were classified as having problems if their scores on scales of conduct, attention deficit, or emotional problems were in the top 10% of the distribution of scores from any informant. RESULTS: There was evidence for familial aggregation of these problems, particularly conduct and emotional problems. However, this was largely derived from the parents' reports of symptoms, not the teachers' or adolescents' reports. The degree of familial aggregation varied according to certain sibship characteristics and patterns of comorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Familial aggregation of emotional and behavioral problems does exist in a community population and is not simply an artifact of clinic attendance.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Maternal mental health, substance use, and domestic violence in the year after delivery and subsequent behavior problems in children at age 3 years.

CONTEXT: Mental health disorders, substance use, and domestic violence often occur together. However, studies examining the impact of these conditions in mothers on the well-being of their children have focused only on isolated conditions. OBJECTIVE: To examine the cumulative effect of maternal mental health disorders, substance use, and domestic violence on the risk of behavior problems in young children. DESIGN: A birth cohort (1998-2000) followed up to age 3 years. SETTING: Eighteen large US cities. PARTICIPANTS: At 3 years, 2756 (65%) were followed up from the population-based birth cohort of 4242. Thirty-six percent had annual incomes below the poverty threshold. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: One year after delivery, mothers were asked questions about conditions in 3 categories: (1) mental health (major depressive episode and generalized anxiety disorder), (2) substance use (smoking, binge drinking, and illicit drug use), and (3) domestic violence (emotional and physical). At 3 years, mothers completed questions from the Child Behavior Checklist. RESULTS: Fifty percent of mothers had a condition in at least 1 of the 3 categories. The prevalence of child behavior problems increased with the number of categories (0, 1, 2, or 3) in which the mother reported a condition: respectively, 7%, 12%, 17%, and 19% for aggression (P<.001); 9%, 14%, 16%, and 27% for anxious/depressed (P<.001); and 7%, 12%, 15%, and 19% for inattention/hyperactivity (P<.001). This graded risk persisted after adjustment for sociodemographic and prenatal factors and for paternal mental health and substance use. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of child behavior problems increased with the number of areas--mental health, substance use, or domestic violence--in which the mother reported difficulties. Preventing behavior problems in young children requires family-oriented strategies that address the needs of both parents and their children.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Correlates of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: perceived competence, causal attributions, and parental symptoms.

Young adolescents in the clinical range on internalizing, externalizing, and both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, as well as youth in the normal range on both types of problems, were identified separately using adolescents' self-reports and mothers' reports of behavior problems. In comparisons of groups identified on the basis of either type of informant, differences among the four groups were found in adolescents' self-perceptions of competence and in their fathers' psychological symptoms. Specifically, normals reported a more positive sense of their social acceptance and their behavioral conduct than all clinical groups, and fathers of adolescents in the clinical range on both internalizing and externalizing problems tended to report more psychological symptoms than the fathers of the normal group. Differences were found in mothers' psychological symptoms only when mothers' reports of adolescents' behavior problems were used to identify the groups. No consistent differences among the groups were found on adolescents' causal attributions for success and failure.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

In search of effective programs to address students' emotional distress and behavioral problems. Part I: Defining the problem.

This article discusses the prevalence and seriousness of emotional difficulties and behavioral problems in students, with a special focus on high school students and the obstacles they encounter when addressing these problems. The educational, psychological, and medical literature which addressed the problem over the past five years was evaluated, and 22 references were selected. It was determined that the lack of consensus on the terms used to describe the problem prevented accurate assessment of its prevalence. However, one fifth to one third of the students were found to be affected, leading to serious educational, psychosocial, and economic difficulties--and more are likely to be affected in the 1990s. Since the school and mental health systems have not been entirely successful in addressing the problem, adolescents' patterns of seeking help indicate that peer support groups can be part of the solution. It was concluded that the enormity of the problem requires a low-cost gate-keeping mechanism to facilitate early identification and intervention. Thus, school peer-support programs, if proven effective, may complement traditional mental health services in addressing adolescents' emotional distress and behavioral problems.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Differences in background and outcome of three behavior problems of dogs.

In order to characterize the three major behavior problems, aggression toward owners, aggression toward strangers and separation anxiety, backgrounds of dogs and general outcomes of the behavioral treatments were analyzed retrospectively. There were 169 cases of aggression toward owners, 84 cases of aggression toward strangers and 78 cases of separation anxiety which did not overlap each other during the 5 years from 1993 to 1997 at Cornell University Animal Behavior Clinic. Based on the case records, including discharge instructions, follow-up information, and pre-presentation questionnaires, several variables were compared among these three groups. The sexual status of these groups was not statistically different, although dogs with aggression toward owners had the highest proportion of males and there were more males in all behavior groups than in the hospital population. Also, breed types were different among three groups with a significantly higher proportion of mixed breed dogs among dogs with separation anxiety and aggression to strangers as compared to dogs with aggression to owners and to the hospital population. A higher percentage of dogs in the separation anxiety group tended to live in apartments and to be disciplined only verbally by the owner than in the other two groups. Age differences were apparent among the three groups in relation to when the dogs were obtained, and the separation anxiety group was different from at least one of the other groups in the age when first obtained, the age the owners first noticed the problem, and the age of behavioral examination. Regarding the general outcome of the behavioral treatment, there were no significant differences among the behavioral groups with regards to the proportion of dogs reported improved. These results provide new characterizations of these three major behavior problems.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Social competence and problem behavior of adolescent girls with learning disabilities.

Estimates of social competence and problem behavior were obtained using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983) for a sample of 51 adolescent girls with learning disabilities. Results identified poor social competence and elevated problem behaviors, in comparison to a normative group of nonhandicapped adolescents. Implications for both diagnosis and research are addressed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Food insecurity and the risks of depression and anxiety in mothers and behavior problems in their preschool-aged children.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine if the prevalence of depression and anxiety in mothers and the prevalence of behavior problems in preschool-aged children are more common when mothers report being food insecure. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 2870 mothers of 3-year-old children was conducted in 2001-2003 in 18 large US cities. On the basis of the adult food-security scale calculated from the US Household Food Security Survey Module, mothers were categorized into 3 levels: fully food secure, marginally food secure, and food insecure. The 12-month prevalence in mothers of a major depressive episode and generalized anxiety disorder was assessed by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form. A child behavior problem in > or = 1 of 3 domains (aggressive, anxious/depressed, or inattention/hyperactivity) was based on the Child Behavior Checklist. RESULTS: Seventy-one percent of the respondents were fully food secure, 17% were marginally food secure, and 12% were food insecure. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors plus maternal physical health, alcohol use, drug use, prenatal smoking, and prenatal physical domestic violence, the percentage of mothers with either major depressive episode or generalized anxiety disorder increased with increasing food insecurity: 16.9%, 21.0%, and 30.3% across the 3 levels. Among children, after further adjustment for maternal major depressive episode and generalized anxiety disorder, the percentage with a behavior problem also increased with increasing food insecurity: 22.7%, 31.1%, and 36.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health problems in mothers and children are more common when mothers are food insecure, a stressor that can potentially be addressed by social policy.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Can emotions and themes in children's play predict behavior problems?

OBJECTIVE: To empirically test whether systematic examination of emotions and themes in children's play can provide useful information about childhood problems. METHOD: Using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery and coding system, distress and destructive themes (aggression, personal injury, and atypical negative responses) were coded from the play of 51 children at ages 3, 4, and 5 years, in a low-risk, nonclinical volunteer sample. To measure behavior problems, both parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist at all ages, and teachers completed the Teacher's Report Form when the children reached 5 years of age. RESULTS: Both distress and destructive themes in the play of 4- and 5-year-olds were found to correlate with externalizing behavior problems as rated by parents and teachers. CONCLUSIONS: Children who display more distress during play at 4 and 5 years of age and who demonstrate destructive themes at 4 and 5 years of age appear to have more externalizing behavior problems, as rated by their parents and teachers. These results provide empirical support for the use of play as an assessment tool in young children. The findings suggest approaches to and limitations of play interpretation.

Child Behavior Disorders↗

PubMed1992

Transient versus stable behavior problems in a normative sample: infancy to school age.

Identified 3 subgroups of children from a prospective longitudinal study of temperament and development: (a) those with stable, (b) transient, or (c) no-behavior problems, as rated by mothers across the toddler, preschool, and preparatory school grade periods. Children with stable behavior problems were particularly characterized by more difficult temperament, mothers' overall perception of the child as difficult, and aggressive behavior in the 2- to 4-year age period. Group differences were linear rather than categorical with transient behavior problem children showing a lesser degree of difficulty. In a second study where more comprehensive child and family measures were available, temperament was again an important discriminator, with Vineland Adaptive Behavior Composite Score, mothers' overall perception of the child's temperament, and maternal psychological health and stress factors also more adverse for the stable group. However, correct classification of the members of these groups using a combination of the above variables was not impressive.

Child↗

PubMed1998

The effect of lead exposure on behavior problems in preschool children.

OBJECTIVES: Interpreting associations between lead exposure and child behavior problems is difficult because studies have not controlled for sociodemographic confounders or have used shed teeth to mark exposure. This study explored associations between blood lead and preschool behavior. METHODS: Children from a smelter town and a non-lead-exposed town in Yugoslavia were followed up prospectively from pregnancy through age 3. The Child Behavior Checklist was used to assess behavior problems in 379 3-year-olds, controlling for sociodemographic factors and difficult infant temperament. RESULTS: Multiple regression revealed the expected significant associations between checklist subscales and sociodemographic factors, which explained 7% to 18% of the variance on the subscales. Concurrent blood lead explained a significant 1% to 4% of the variance on the Destructive and Withdrawn subscales. Earlier difficult temperament explained an additional 2% to 5% of the checklist variance. Scores on the Destructive subscale were consistently associated with blood lead. As blood lead increased from 10 to 20 micrograms/dL, subscale scores increased by approximately 0.5 points. CONCLUSIONS: Lead/behavior associations are significant but small compared with the effects of social factors.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗

PubMed1998

Overt behavior problems and serotonergic function in middle childhood among male and female offspring of alcoholic fathers.

A large body of literature indicates that the serotonergic system is involved in behavioral regulation, as evidenced by the inverse relationship between impulsive aggression and serotonergic function found in adult alcoholics and nonalcoholics. However, studies of this relationship among child and adolescent offspring of alcoholics (COAs) have not previously been done. This study examines the potentially parallel relationship between behavioral dysregulation and low serotonergic function in young COAs. The relationship is of potential interest as a phenotypic marker of biological vulnerability to aggressiveness, which itself has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for later antisocial alcoholism. The present work is part of an ongoing prospective study of the development of risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and other problematic outcomes in a sample of families subtyped by the fathers' alcoholism classification. We examined the relationship between overt behavior problems in middle childhood (mean age = 10.5 +/- 1.7 years) and whole blood serotonin (5-HT) in a subsample of the offspring (N = 32 boys and 12 girls). Using a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) index of behavioral undercontrol, we obtained results indicating that high total behavior problem (TBP) children had lower levels of whole blood 5-HT than did low-TBP children (p < 0.01). These results support the hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between whole blood serotonin levels and behavior problems in young male and female COAs. A father's alcoholism status was not significantly related to his child's 5-HT level, i.e., the child's phenotypic expression of behavioral dysregulation was more reliably connected to serotonergic function than was paternal alcoholism.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Investigation of the possible associations between fluorosis, fluoride exposure, and childhood behavior problems.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the potential association between fluoride exposure and behavior problems in children, as well as the prevalence of and risk factors for fluorosis. METHODS: Children between the ages of 7 and 1 years (N = 197) were included in the study and were examined for dental fluorosis using the Modified Dean's Index. Parents of subjects completed and returned three questionnaires which investigated their children's history of exposures to fluoride, social and medical backgrounds, and behavior using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). RESULTS: Sixty-nine percent of the study participants demonstrated fluorosis with very mild fluorosis being the most common (39%), while 13% demonstrated moderate to severe fluorosis. Using a summation of the Modified Dean's index (Sum of 8), we divided the children into high fluorosis (HF) and low fluorosis (LF) groups. These groups were compared to each other with respect to fluoride exposures and behavior. CONCLUSION: Although there was no association between the fluoride exposures in aggregate and fluorosis, there was a significant association between supplemental fluoride exposure from ages 0-3 years and fluorosis. There was no association between behavior problems and dental fluorosis in this population.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1991

Marital adjustment, parental disagreements about child rearing, and behavior problems in boys: increasing the specificity of the marital assessment.

2 studies were conducted to illustrate how measuring a specific aspect of marriage, namely, child-rearing disagreements, provides a better understanding of the link between marriage and boys' behavior. In Study 1, 200 mothers of 3-year-old boys completed unstandardized measures of marital functioning and child behavior. An index of child-rearing disagreements: (1) correlated with a greater variety of behavior problems than nonchild disagreements, and (2) improved upon the prediction of behavior problems after accounting for nonchild disagreements as well as after accounting for boys' exposure to marital conflict. In Study 2, 87 mothers with 4-6-year-old sons completed the index of child-rearing disagreements used in Study 1 as well as standard measures of marital functioning and child behavior. Child-rearing disagreements: (1) predicted a greater variety of behavior problems than global marital adjustment, and (2) improved upon the prediction of internalizing problems after controlling for global marital adjustment as well as after controlling for boys' exposure to marital conflict.

Adaptation, Psychological↗