Life events in a South Indian population and their association with psychiatric disorder in children

Western research suggests that life events contribute to childhood psychiat ric disorder but no studies have examined this in developing countries. Dur ing a population-based study of 1403 8-12 year old children in Kerala, Sout h India, a life events schedule was administered to parents of children wit h ICD10 psychiatric disorders (n = 72) and controls. Life events were associated with lower social class, greater poverty, less educated parents, worse physical health and psychiatric disorder. Multivari ate analysis confirmed the association of life events with psychiatric diso rder, independent of indices of social adversity.