The Impact of Emotional and Behavioural Problems on the Lives of Children Growing up in the Care System

Gerard McCarthy, Janet Janeway and Angus Geddes investigate the way in which the lives of looked after children and their carers are affected by the emotional and behavioural problems that these children and young people often experience. Starting from a sample of 115 children looked after by one English local authority, their study assessed the level of social impairment and distress experienced by looked after children with behavioural disorders. It also examined the duration of these difficulties and the impact of these problems on the carers. The carers, who completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (n = 70), reported very high levels of social impairment in the areas of home life, peer relationships and learning. Fifty-nine per cent of looked after children had an overall impact score of 2 or more, thus indicating the presence of a child psychiatric disorder. Forty per cent had significant problems in three or more key areas of their lives: home, learning, peers and leisure. Where significant problems were identified by carers, 65 per cent reported that the problems had existed for over a year. Almost half the sample revealed that the children's problems were imposing a significant burden on families or other carers, and the level of conduct problems reported was found to be a significant predictor of whether a carer expressed feeling burdened. Some clinical and service implications are discussed.

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Prenatal and postnatal psychological symptoms of parents and family functioning: the impact on child emotional and behavioural problems

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry ◽

10.1007/s00787-011-0178-0 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 20 (7) ◽

pp. 341-350 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Fleur P. Velders ◽

Gwen Dieleman ◽

Jens Henrichs ◽

Vincent W. V. Jaddoe ◽

Albert Hofman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Family Functioning ◽

Psychological Symptoms ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽

The Impact

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Children emotional and behavioural problems and its association with maternal depression in Jimma town, southwest Ethiopia

General Psychiatry ◽

10.1136/gpsych-2020-100211 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. e100211

Author(s):

Arefayne Alenko ◽

Shimelis Girma ◽

Mubarek Abera ◽

Abdulhalik Workicho

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Maternal Depression ◽

Child Mental Health ◽

National Level ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽

Southwest Ethiopia ◽

The Impact ◽

Jimma Town ◽

Parent Version

BackgroundIn sub-Saharan countries, one in five children and one in three women experiences emotional and behavioural problems (EBPs) and depression, respectively. While various factors were reported to affect the mental health of children, little is known about the impact of maternal depression on the offspring. Moreover, the magnitude of children’s EBPs is barely known in Ethiopia.AimTo determine the magnitude of child EBPs and its association with maternal depression in Jimma town, southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 734 mother–child pairs in Jimma town from January to June, 2019. EBP was assessed by using the parent version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) with cut-off score of ≥14. Maternal depression was assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 with a cut-off score of ≥10. Data were entered into Epidata V.3.1 and exported to SPSS V.24 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was fitted to identify the strength of association between exposure and outcome variables.ResultsOf the 734 participants, 146 (19.9%, 95% CI: 16.9% to 22.9%) met EBP criteria based on parent version of SDQ. Maternal depression had significant association with child EBP (adjusted OR=2.38, 95% CI: 1.55 to 3.66). In addition, children aged 7–10 years, family size categories of ≤3 and 4–6, maternal intimate partner violence and maternal khat use had significant association with child EBP.Conclusions and recommendationsA significant number of children suffer from EBP in Jimma town. Maternal depression is found to be a predictor of children’s EBPs. Thus, there is a need to design and implement an integrated maternal and child mental health programme. The maternal and child health section at the national level should integrate and cascade routine maternal and child mental health screening and intervention modalities down to the family healthcare system.

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Examining the impact of the Good Behaviour Game on emotional and behavioural problems in primary school children: A case for integrating well-being strategies into education

Australian Journal of Education ◽

10.1177/0004944119878480 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 63 (3) ◽

pp. 292-306

Author(s):

Michelle Torok ◽

Victoria Rasmussen ◽

Quincy Wong ◽

Aliza Werner-Seidler ◽

Bridianne O'Dea ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Well Being ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽

The Impact ◽

Good Behaviour

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Children’s (Non-)Participation in Cyberbullying and Emotional, Behavioural Problems

Psichologija ◽

10.15388/psichol.2019.10 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 60 ◽

pp. 72-85

Author(s):

Saulė Raižienė ◽

Vilmantė Pakalniškienė

Keyword(s):

Psychological Functioning ◽

Internet Use ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

The Internet ◽

Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽

Traditional Bullying ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Funded Project ◽

Cyber Space ◽

The Impact

Technological changes are making the Internet more accessible and interactive. The opportunities offered by the Internet, Internet use (time, frequency, accessibility, social networks, activities, etc.), and threats are changing as well. Cyberbullying is identified as one of the main threats on the Internet that has the most serious consequences. Research has found that cyberbullying is the most frustrating Internet threat for children (Haddon & Livingstone, 2012). Considering that children do not live without the Internet, and that the opportunities and threats of the Internet change all the time, the impact on emotional and behavioural problems of children has not been fully explored. This study is part of the Lithuanian Science Council funded project “Children’s and adolescents’ Internet use in Lithuania: possibilities and risks tendencies in EU context” (No. S-MIP-17-1/LSS-250000-1087). It aims to compare emotional and behavioural problems of children who have been victims of different forms of bullying and/or bullied themselves. During the data collection in 2018, 1012 children aged 9 to 17 years were interviewed; 161 (15.9%) children reported being bullied over the last year (61.5% of them in cyber space), and 65 (6.4%) children bullied others over the last year (52.3% of them in cyber space). The results show that cyberbullying is more often related to traditional and other forms of bullying than it takes place separately. However, there is an overlap in bullying environments: children who have experienced traditional bullying, bully others in a traditional way; and children who have experienced cyberbullying, bully others in the cyber space. The results confirm that the experience of bullying is related to poor psychological functioning, but the most emotional and behavioural problems are experienced by those kids who participated in or experienced traditional bullying. According to the results of this study, the harm caused by a traditional bullying is greater than cyberbullying.

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Assessing emotional and behavioural problems with the Child Behavior Checklist: Exploring the relevance of adjusting the norms for the Flemish community

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e578442014-121 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mark Schittekatte ◽

Caroline Braet ◽

Justine Callens ◽

Veerle Soyez ◽

Celina Druart ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Child Behavior ◽

Child Behavior Checklist ◽

Behavioural Problems ◽

Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽

Flemish Community

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Belgium: Creeping Vulnerability of Children

10.1093/oso/9780198797968.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Julie Vinck ◽

Wim Van Lancker

Keyword(s):

Social Protection ◽

Child Poverty ◽

Growing Up ◽

Important Lesson ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Poverty Risk ◽

Poor Households ◽

Families With Children ◽

The Impact

Belgium has been plagued by comparatively high levels of child poverty, and by a creeping, yet significant, increase that started in the good years before the crisis. This is related to the relatively high share of jobless households, the extremely high and increasing poverty risk of children growing up in these households, and benefits that are inadequate to shield jobless families with children from poverty. Although the impact of the Great Recession was limited in Belgium, the crisis seems to have had an impact on child poverty, by increasing the number of children living in work-poor households. Although the Belgian welfare state had an important cushioning impact, its poverty-reducing capacity was less strong than it used to be. The most important lesson from the crisis is that in order to make further headway in reducing child poverty, not only activation but also social protection should be improved.

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Adolescence as a “critical period” in the heritage language use. Polish in Germany

Open Linguistics ◽

10.1515/opli-2021-0019 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 301-315

Author(s):

Hanna Pułaczewska

Keyword(s):

Role Models ◽

Personal Development ◽

Critical Period ◽

Growing Up ◽

Age Related ◽

The Media ◽

Role Of Parents ◽

Qualitative Part ◽

The Impact

Abstract In the article, we consider the impact of adolescence upon the usage of Polish in Polish-German bilinguals raised and living in Germany and demonstrate how adolescence surfaces as a socially based “critical period” in this usage using results from a survey and interviews conducted with 30 teenagers. In the quantitative part of the study, we seek to establish whether adolescents’ age affected the pattern and quantity of their usage of Polish in the media and contacts with age peers, whether the latter two facets of growing up with Polish were interrelated, and which other factors affected peer-relevant activities in Polish. Both age and peer contact turned out to significantly affect the use of the media in Polish, while peer contact in Polish was affected by the parental use of Polish in parent-child communication. The qualitative part presents the context and motivation for using Polish by the youths in peer-relevant activities. We integrate the results with insights provided by child development psychology from the perspective of language socialisation theory and interpret the age-related decline of interest in the Polish media as an effect of a diminishing role of parents and the increasing role of age peers as role models in personal development.

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