Detailed contribution information
| Contribution title | 3260 - Gender, prosocial behavior and psychiatric symptoms in Finnish children aged 5-12 |
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| Contribution code | PS03-45 (P) |
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| Form of presentation | Poster |
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| Abstract |
Objectives: To evaluate how prosocial behavior, age, gender, and clinical status (referred to psychiatric evaluation vs population control) correlate to psychiatric symptoms of children aged 5 to 12. Methods: The sample consists of 866 5-12-year-old child psychiatric outpatients at Helsinki University Hospital and age-and-gender-matched controls from normal population. Prosocial behavior and psychiatric symptoms were measured by Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire filled in by a parent. Information on the patients’ diagnoses and general functioning was obtained from medical records. ANOVA, Pearson's χ2 test, and linear regression were used in the statistical analyses. Results: Abnormal prosocial behavior was three times more common in the clinical than in the population sample (21.4 vs 6.6 %). Correlates to low level of prosocial behavior in both groups included gender and all SDQ subscales, but prosocial behavior seems to be stable between ages 5 to 12. Abnormal prosocial behavior correlated to more hyperactivity, conduct and peer problems for both genders. However, when adjusting for prosocial behavior and clinical status, gender was correlated only to hyperactivity. More prosocial behavior meant less psychiatric symptoms for all other situations, but among clinically referred girls, also high prosocial behavior correlated to emotional problems. Patients with abnormal prosocial skills had more diagnoses and worse general functioning than other patients. Conclusion: Low level of prosocial behavior is more common in referred children than in the general population. Low level of prosocial behavior correlates to more psychiatric symptoms of all kinds for both clinically referred children and population controls. In referred children a more complicated symptom profile and lower level of general functioning associates with low prosocial behavior. While girls in general have less conduct problems and more emotional problems than boys, these differences disappear when adjusted for prosocial behavior. For hyperactivity, gender has an effect independent of prosocial behavior, and there is a group of clinically referred girls with high prosocial behavior and clinically significant emotional problems. One possible explanation for these observations is that cultural and biological factors result in more prosocial expectations for girls, who then present with less conduct problems, but more anxiety. |