Objective: To determine the prevalence rates of child psychiatric diagnoses
in a school-based population of children aged 6 to 8 years in the south of
the province of Limburg (The Netherlands). Method: In a two-stage design 1
,317 children were screened with the Child Behavior Checklist. From 403 of
these children, child psychiatric information was obtained with the Amsterd
am Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (ADIKA, DSM-III-R/IV).
Data were generalized to the responder group (n = 1,317) and to the entire
cohort (N = 2,290). For the latter procedure, a prediction model was used
to generalize ADIKA results to the nonresponders (n = 973). Results: Estima
tes of the prevalence of different ADIKA diagnoses in the responder group w
ere quite comparable with those for the entire cohort. Twenty-four percent
of the entire cohort met criteria for a single disorder, and 21.0% met crit
eria for two or more disorders. However, in only 5.7% of the cases parents
did report a need for help. Conclusions: Where other studies generalize psy
chiatric diagnoses to the responder group only, this report adds new inform
ation by generalizing the prevalence to a school-based cohort of children a
ged 6 to 8 years. These prevalence estimates are of importance with regard
to the demand for care for child psychopathology.