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The involvement of non-resident fathers with their child was analysed by use of a questionnaire in a sample of 74 divorced or separated families living in the city of Ziurich, Switzerland. Fathers, mothers, and one child separately rated the involvement of the father. The three perspectives were compared and showed significant differences in the dimensions of educational responsibility, cognitive and social support, and the quality of the emotional relationship. The temporal availability and leisure time activities did not show significant differences. The different family perspectives should be considered when assessing a father's involvement with his child. The quality of the relationship of the children to their fathers was primarily fostered by the emotional engagement of the father.

The present contribution presents psychometric findings of a newly developed questionnaire on paternal engagement after parental separation based on a sample of 225 separated or divorced fathers living in the German part of Switzerland. Factor analyses led to the following five dimensions: educational responsibility, cognitive and social support, quality of the emotional relationship, temporal availability, and leisure activities. Internal consistency coefficients (Cronbach's Alpha) ranged from .86 to .91. The dimensions reflect significant differences of paternal engagement regarding child custody, living arrangements of the mother, and parental cooperation. These findings clearly indicate that paternal engagement after separation should be considered in a differentiated multidimensional way.

A German version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was used in the Zurich Epidemiological Study of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (ZESCAP). Psychometric analyses revealed clear evidence of a central factor of depression as reflected by the CES-D. Due to good reliability, a total score of the CES-D should be used in clinical diagnostics. The first cross-sectional wave of assessment within ZESCAP found that gender, nationality (indigenous vs. migrants) and residence (urban vs. rural) are important determinants of the total score. The article provides norms for adolescents. The study of the validity of the CES-D warrants further research.

This paper introduces the Zurich Intervention Planning and Evaluation Form (ZIPEF). The instrument covers (1) treatment problems, (2) interventions as to type, duration, and time expenditure, (3) treatment outcome and (4) causal factors. A total of 413 treatment problems were evaluated with the ZIPEF in a public child and adolescent psychiatric service. Depending on the target (e.g. symptoms, personality, relationship) the distribution of types of intervention differed. Time expenditures were significantly higher only for client-centred interventions than for parent counseling and similar for all other interventions. Treatment outcome and cooperation were independent from type of intervention. The main causal factor of treatment outcome for almost all types of interventions was cooperation followed by resources in some types of intervention. Complexity of the treatment problem tended to be another important determinant for treatment outcome. In summary, the ZIPEF can contribute to quality management in the area of intervention planning and evaluation of clienteles with mental health problems.

The short form of the Clinical Assessment Scale of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (CASCAP) assesses psychopathological features only on the level of symptom domains and not on the level of single symptoms. The instrument is part of the basic documentation of child and adolescent psychiatry. Based on the multicenter study sample of CASCAP the ratings of the symptom domains in the different centers were analysed. Inpatients receive higher ratings than outpatients on nearly all symptom domains. Only minor differences could be found between the centres. Advantages and disadvantages of this short version are discussed.

Findings in intervention research are an important basis for the discussion of issues pertaining to quality control. In Switzerland such findings have been rare. The present study of the entire 1988-1995 referred child and adolescent population of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service of the Canton of Zurich (N = 7538 treated patients) concentrated on the demographic, diagnostic, and therapeutic attributes of the outpatient, day clinic, and inpatient populations that comprised the referred population. Marked differences are found in comparable studies from Germany with regard to patients treated in an inpatient setting. For example, the mean age of the patients in the Zurich sample is lower and patients with conduct disorders are more frequently represented. On the other hand, patients with psychotic illness are missing and, on the average, the duration of treatment is considerably longer. The reasons for these differences are to be found in the various structural attributes of the cantonal services that are provided in Zurich. In the area of inpatient care, where in comparison to outpatient settings and also day care settings patients with severe disorders are treated, there is a lack of places for the short-term care of acutely ill patients--for example, psychotic patients. This is especially true for adolescent patients. The limitations of traditional outpatient settings are frequently marked by unsatisfactory treatment results in outpatients with conduct disorders, developmental disorders, and a high impact of abnormal psychosocial circumstances.

Goal of the multicenter study with the Clinical Assessment Scale of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (CASCAP) in a sample of N = 5027 patients from the inpatient and outpatient clinics of psychiatry and psychotherapy of childhood and adolescence of the universities of Berlin (Virchow Clinic), Frankfurt, Cologne and Zurich is the comparison of the clinical populations of these institutions with respect to single symptoms, to symptom scales and to the supreme level of aggregation, the clinical diagnoses according to ICD 10. On the level of diagnoses similar distributions can be found in the centers, but there are also significant differences between the centers. This differences can be found again also on the level of symptom scales and single symptoms, though the deviations are comparatively low.

Data collected in the 1980's, before the reunification of Germany, and comparing 39 patients in former East Berlin and 60 patients in former West Berlin are presented in this second report on the Berlin longitudinal study of eating disorders in adolescence. The clinical profiles of patients of former East Berlin were found to differ from those of their West Berlin counterparts in the following assessed measures: younger age at disease onset and at admission for inpatient treatment; greater number of siblings; fewer accounts of the clinical symptoms lanugo, bradycardia, hypothermia, constipation; lower rate of premorbid psychopathological features; lower number of psychopathological findings; less frequent sibling rivalry; lower rate of psychopathological attributes among the siblings; lower incidence of maternal mental and physical illness; higher parental educational status; fewer number of complaints, and better sense of well-being.

Basic terms of medical and psychiatric classification are outlined in the introduction. This is followed by an historical sketch of German publications of early classification systems of child and adolescent psychiatry as found in the work of Tramer, Stutte, and Lutz. The main section deals with current classification systems. Deficits of the ICD-9 and recent improvements in the DSM-III-R and the ICD-10 are discussed. The paper concludes with considerations regarding the empirical foundation of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders and with criticism of psychiatric classification in general.

The course of encopresis in 41 children who had been presented at a child and adolescent university clinic was examined by means of a follow-up interview which took place on an average of 3;6 years after the initial visit. The symptoms in this sample diminished considerably: 76% of the children were free of symptoms at the time of the follow-up interview, whereby most of these children had experienced a spontaneous remission. Eighty-one percent of the children were evaluated as having improved in regards to their whole development while in about one third of all the children new problems arose. Remission occurred within the first two years of the initial consultation in 81% of the sample. An examination of the prognostic factors yielded the following relationships: the total remission of symptoms was considerably greater if the frequency of encopresis had been low, if the subjects were male, and if there had not been any therapeutic intervention. However, treatment was usually reserved for relatively serious cases. Favorable outcome tended to be marked by the following factors: normal psychosocial conditions, higher intelligence, the absence of constipation, a concurrently presenting enuresis, and a low degree of behavioral disorders as evaluated by a parental questionnaire. A comparison of the behavioral disorders at the time of the initial consultation and at follow-up revealed a significant reduction of emotional disturbances and hyperactivity. This favorable development was not evident for conduct disorders.

The outcome of 103 enuretics after a mean follow-up of 2.7 years showed remission of wetting in 63%. The figures varied considerably for different subgroups. Enuresis in association with conduct disorders had the worst outcome. Girls showed better response to treatment. A high score of behaviour abnormalities was related to poor outcome. A global outcome measure at follow-up added further information to remission rates.

In the introduction classification of socalled "psychosomatic" disorders in ICD-9 and DSM-III are critically reviewed and supplemented by the author's proposal. Furthermore, main findings coming from international epidemiological research on diseases usually involving tissue damage (bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer, neurodermatitis) and the eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, obesity) are reported. Findly, some conclusions with regard to treatment of the afflicted clientele and research are drawn.