The persistence of behavioural symptoms and symptom groups in children - Astudy of the stability of parental reported symptoms

The investigation assessed psychiatric symptoms in children at two time poi nts and the persistence of symptom groups over an interval of 4 years. We s tudied 1128 children by using parental questionnaires (Rutter Scale A2) in both studies (mean age of the children was 8.5 years in Study 1 and 12.5 ye ars in Study 2). There was a tendency for the frequency of symptoms to decr ease over the 4-year period. Most of the symptoms reported in Study 1 were also found in Study 2. Sex differences were similar in both studies. Four f actors were constructed out of the items on Rutter Scale A2, reflecting ext ernalizing, hyperactive, internalizing, and poorly socialized behaviours. E xternalizing, hyperactive, and internalizing behaviours were moderately per sistent in the sample studied. The stability of externalizing and internali zing behaviour was high among deviant children. Hyperactivity was not persi stent among deviant boys but highly persistent among deviant girls. Poorly socialized behaviour was not persistent in the sample studied, but girls sc oring high in this factor in Study 1 scored high on the externalizing facto r in Study 2.