SYMPTOM CLUSTERS AMONG YOUNG ADOLESCENTS

This study examines recurrent psychosomatic symptoms and symptom clust ers among 5th and 6th grade Israeli school children. A questionnaire w hich asked about the frequency of eight psychosomatic and eight organi c complaints was administered to 259 students. The most frequently rep orted psychosomatic complaints were abdominal pain, experienced ofter by 21%, and headache, experienced often by 20% of the pupils. There we re statistically significant differences between the sexes, girls havi ng a higher prevalence than boys for eight of the symptoms, and with m ore girls than boys reporting more than one symptom in each category: 23% of the students had more than one psychosomatic symptom and 16% ha d more than one organic symptom. Multiple psychosomatic complaints wer e common, with 28% of those with back or limb pain and 27% of those su ffering from ''bad mood'' reporting an additional three to five compla ints. Abdominal pain and headache were each reported as an accompanyin g complaint in more than 40% of cases for almost every other psychosom atic complaint. The significance of these symptom clusters needs to be explored further as they may have important implications as markers f or psychosocial stress.