| Popis: |
The purpose of this study was to analyze the medical records of 167 children who attended an urban early intervention/partial hospitalization program in order to accomplish the following objectives: describe risk factor pervasiveness in the backgrounds of children attending the program; describe the prevalence and severity of externalizing behavior problems (non-compliance, aggression, tantrums) among the children; identify salient relationships between background risk factors and externalizing behavior problems; and test the cumulative risk premise which suggests that a significant, positive relationship exists between the number of risk factors a child is exposed to and the severity of his/her symptoms. Data was gathered from two items in the childrens medical charts: 1) initial psychiatric evaluations, within which the presence or absence of the background risk factors of interest in this study are noted; and 2) monthly treatment plan progress notes, in which progress regarding presenting symptoms are noted. An analysis of medical record data painted a compelling picture regarding the pervasiveness of risk factors in the childrens backgrounds, as nearly 80% of the children within the study were found to be exposed to three or more risk factors (not including poverty). An analysis of the data revealed a significantly high prevalence of children being referred for treatment due to clinically significant behavior problems, as approximately 80% of the children presented with clinically significant levels of non-compliance and/or aggression. Although clinically significant aggression and non-compliance frequently co-occurred with several background risk factors, no significant, positive correlations were discovered between background risk factors and externalizing behavior problems (when the entire sample was included within the analysis). In addition, a correlational analysis revealed no significant, positive correlations between the number of background risk factors and the severity of certain externalizing behavior problems. The absence of significant, positive correlations may reflect the need for researchers to attend to contextual details (i.e., severity of exposure, timing of exposure, individual traits) when investigating the effects of exposure to risk factors on childrens development. In addition, it is likely that the correlations were partially weakened by the fact that the participants within this study represented a restricted sample (poor, clinically referred preschool-age children). |
