H. Kristensen, Multiple informants' report of emotional and behavioural problems in a nation-wide sample of selective mute children and controls, EUR CHILD A, 10(2), 2001, pp. 135-142
Emotional and behavioural problems and competencies in a nation-wide sample
of referred selective mute children (SM) and matched non-referred controls
, aged 4-16 years, were assessed by the Child Behaviour Checklist, (CBCL),
Teacher Report Form (TRF) and Youth Self Report (YSR) (1). Main issues addr
essed were the co-variation of internalising and externalising problems rep
orted across informants, whether there exists a pure externalising group of
children with SM, and the nature of the internalising and externalising pr
oblems. The results show that the children with SM differed substantially f
rom their peers in internalising problems as reported by the parents and th
e teachers. In contrast, the results on the YSR indicated an under-reportin
g of internalising problems. Externalising problems in SM were reported in
a low to moderate degree by the parents only. No child with SM and pure ext
ernalising symptoms was found. The children with SM differed mostly from th
eir peers on the withdrawn scale. On the item level, both the internalising
and the externalising symptoms that best differentiated the children with
SM from the controls support the notion of SM as an expression of social an
xiety.