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Perceived parental behaviour has mainly been studied in association with various developmental outcomes in children and adolescents but less is known about the underlying developmental change of parental behavior during adolescence. In the present study, a sample of N = 552 participants aged 11-12 years were assessed at three measurement times during adolescence. Perceived acceptance, psychological control, and structure were measured separately for both parents with the brief Perceived Parental Behavior Inventory (PPBI). Trajectories were analyzed using individual growth curve models. Perceived acceptance did not change over time for either parent and there were no sex differences. In contrast, parental psychological control and structure decreased and showed sex differences during adolescence. The latter effect was stronger in boys. This study documents normative developmental trajectories of perceived parental behaviour during adolescence. The PPBI adequately reflects developmental changes in perceived parental behaviour across adolescence and may represent a useful tool in future studies., (© 2020. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

There are pronounced developmental changes in perceived social support during adolescence. The present study used the newly developed Adolescent Social Support Questionnaire (ASSQ) to examine both the consultation frequency of, and the satisfaction with perceived social support across adolescence in a longitudinal study focusing on nine different familial and non-familial supporters. The sample of N = 857 adolescents was derived from the Zurich Adolescent Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS) and included three measurement time points. Overall, there was a decrease in the perceived frequency and satisfaction from adolescents with social support from both parents and grandparents from preadolescence to late adolescence. Best friends and romantic partners were consulted more frequently, and their support was perceived as more satisfying with increasing age. Teachers were contacted more frequently with increasing age, while satisfaction with their support remained stable. In contrast, though contacted less frequently, brothers and other relatives showed no changes in perceived satisfaction with support during adolescence. Parents and best friends were perceived as the most satisfying supporters during adolescence followed by romantic partners in later adolescence. Grandparents were perceived as an important support source but only in preadolescence. There were developmental differences during the various stages of adolescence with regard to the importance placed on each social support source. Both parents remained a very a satisfying support source, although they were consulted less often. Romantic partners and best friends gained importance as supporters in older adolescents, whereas grandparents represented a more important support source for preadolescents. Although teachers were not frequently consulted, they remained a stable and satisfying source of support., (Copyright © 2020 Spitz, Winkler Metzke and Steinhausen.)

Understanding the dysregulation profile (DP) consisting of high scores in aggression, attention problems, and anxious/depressed problems is still limited. The aims of the present study were threefold: (a) to analyze developmental trajectories of DP (b) to identify predictors of these trajectories, and (c) to study the outcome of DP in terms of mental disorders and criminal offenses in young adulthood. A sample of 402 individuals aged 11-14 years at baseline was followed up during adolescence and young adulthood. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify DP based on the youth self-report and the young adult self-report. Self-related cognitions, perceived parental behavior, life events and coping served as predictors, psychiatric diagnoses and criminal convictions in young adulthood as outcomes. There were three developmental trajectories representing high, moderate, and low DP subgroups with 9.2% of participants represented by the high DP subgroup. Among predictors, self-esteem (negative), self-awareness (positive), and high numbers of life events had the most consistent effect on high DP. Affective and anxiety disorders and any mental disorder were significant outcomes of the high DP subgroup in both sexes at the time of young adulthood. This first report on DP based on longitudinal self-reports shows that DP is stable for a sizeable proportion of youth during adolescence and young adulthood. The predictors for DP share some similarity with those predicting psychopathology in general. However, so far there seems to be no heightened risk for the development of crime in the concerned individuals.

Background: Understanding motivation to change is a key issue in both the assessment and the treatment of eating disorders. Therefore, sound instruments assessing this construct are of great help to clinicians. Accordingly, the present study analysed the psychometric properties of the Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire (ANSOCQ), including its relation to coping style and self-esteem., Methods: N  = 92 adolescents referred to an eating disorders outpatient clinic meeting criteria for anorexia nervosa gave written informed consent to participate in this study and completed the ANSOCQ, the Eating Disorder Inventory, the Eating Attitudes Test, the Body Image Questionnaire, two questionnaires measuring Self-Related Cognitions and the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire. After a treatment period of nine months, clinical anorexia nervosa diagnosis and the body mass index were re-assessed. In addition to exploratory factor analysis, correlational analysis was used to test for the convergent validity of the ANSOCQ and logistic regression analysis was used to test its predictive validity., Results: The ANSOCQ had good psychometric properties. Factor analysis yielded two meaningful factors labelled as 'weight gain and control' and 'attitudes and feelings'. Internal consistencies of the two factors amounted to Cronbach's alpha = .87 and .76, respectively. Significant correlations with other scales measuring eating disorder psychopathology were indicative of meaningful construct validity. Higher motivation to change was related to higher self-esteem and a more active coping style. Higher (positive) ANSOCQ total scores predicted remission of anorexia nervosa after nine months of treatment. A higher score on 'attitudes and feelings' was a protective factor against drop-out from intervention., Conclusions: The ANSOCQ is a clinically useful instrument for measuring motivation to change in adolescents with AN. Two factorial dimensions explain most of the variation. Self-esteem and coping style are relevant additional constructs for the understanding of the motivation to change in anorexia nervosa., Trial Registration: NCT02828956. Retrospectively registered July 2016.

To conduct international comparisons of parent-adolescent cross-informant agreement in clinical samples, we analyzed ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) for 6,762 clinically referred adolescents ages 11-18 from 7 societies (M = 14.5 years, SD = 2.0 years; 51% boys). Using CBCL and YSR data, we asked the following questions: (a) Do parents report more problems for their adolescent children than the adolescents report about themselves? (b) How do cross-informant correlations (rs) for scale scores differ by problem type and by society? (c) How well do parents and adolescents, on average, agree regarding which problems they rate as low, medium, or high? (d) How does within-dyad item agreement vary within and between societies? (e) How do societies vary in dichotomous cross-informant agreement with respect to the deviance status of the adolescents? CBCL and YSR scores were quite similar, with small and inconsistent informant effects across societies. Cross-informant rs averaged .47 across scales and societies. On average, parents and adolescents agreed well regarding which problem items received low, medium, or high ratings (M r = .87). Mean within-dyad item agreement was moderate across all societies, but dyadic agreement varied widely within every society. In most societies, adolescent noncorroboration of parent-reported deviance was more common than parental noncorroboration of adolescent-reported deviance. Overall, somewhat better parent-adolescent agreement and more consistency in agreement patterns across diverse societies were found in these seven clinical samples than in population samples studied using the same methods.

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.

Objective: The present study aimed at testing the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) including an adapted five-item DSM-Oriented Attention Problem Scale for predicting attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD)., Methods: CBCL ratings were made both in a community sample (N = 390) and an outpatient child psychiatric sample (N = 392). Four different prediction models were analyzed in a community subsample (n = 195) and an outpatient subsample (n = 196) and cross-validated in two further subsamples of the same size., Results: The adapted DSM-Oriented Attention Problem Scale was superior to the original Attention Problem Scale in the identification of ADHD participants. A raw score of 5 to 6 on the reduced DSM-Oriented Attention Problem Scale was the best discriminator between cases and noncases., Conclusions: The adapted DSM-Oriented Attention Problem Scale of the CBCL is a useful screening instrument for ADHD with adequate diagnostic accuracy in community and outpatient samples. (J. of Att. Dis. 2010; 13(5) 454-463).

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.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare psychosocial adaptation in adolescent (first generation) migrants, double-citizens (mainly second generation with one migrant parent), and native Swiss, and to compare migrants from various European regions., Method: Data from a community survey were based on 1,239 participants (mean age 13.8, SD = 1.6 years) with 996 natives, 55 double-citizens, and 188 migrants. The adolescents completed the youth self-report measuring emotional and behavioural problems, and various questionnaires addressing life events, personality variables, perceived parental behaviour (PPB), family functioning, school environment, and social network., Results: Adolescent migrants had significantly higher scores for internalizing and externalizing problems. There was a pattern of various unfavourable psychosocial features including life events, coping, self-related cognitions, and PPB that was more common among adolescent migrants than natives. Double-citizens were similar to natives in all domains. Young adolescents from South and South-East Europe differed from natives in terms of more unfavourable psychosocial features. Migrant status was best predicted by adverse psychosocial features rather than emotional and behavioural problems., Conclusion: There is some indication that certain migrant adolescents are at risk of psychosocial mal-adaptation. Obviously, ethnic origin is an important moderator.

Objective: Numerous studies based on parent questionnaires reveal that obese children are subject to both physical and psychosocial strains. Children are not included as informants in the assessment procedure, and there is a lack of clinical interview studies assessing DSM-IV-based diagnoses in overweight children., Methods: Emotional and behavioural problems of treatment seeking obese children (N = 59; aged 8-12-years) attending a mental health service were assessed by means of clinical interviews (Kinder-DIPS) that included child and parent reports. In addition, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) data (N = 55) available for this clinical sample were compared with data of a representative sample of normal-weight children (N = 1,080). Furthermore, CBCL data of the clinical subsample of 10-12 year-old overweight children (N = 34) were compared with data of a subsample of 10-12 year-old overweight children (N = 33) and of the subsample of normal-weight (N = 386) children from a representative population, both matched by sex., Results: 23 children (39%) met full criteria for a psychiatric disorder according to DSM-IV, and 19 (34.5%), nearly one third, suffered from Binge Eating Disorder (BED). The overweight clinical sample and their normal weight peers differed significantly on 6 of the 8 primary syndrome scales, on the internalizing and the externalizing scores, and on the total problem score of the CBCL. The overweight children in the clinical sample scored significantly higher than the overweight children in the representative sample on the subscale measuring social problems and the total score, with BMI accounting for the difference in total score. Within the representative sample, overweight 10-12 year-old children scored significantly higher than their normal weight peers on two scales measuring delinquency and social problems., Conclusion: A third of the obese children had mental disorders and behaviour problems. This finding applies to clinically referred obese children and, to a much lesser degree, to nonclinical obese subgroups in the normal population. Clinically obese children constitute a patient group that is in urgent need of multimodal treatment. As a consequence, a major change in treatment and prevention of childhood obesity is warranted, i.e., from the mere treatment of eating and activity behaviours to the inclusion of treatment of co-morbid mental disorder and prevention of chronification.

Objective: The course and clinical predictors of rehospitalization were studied in a large sample of adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa who had been treated at five European sites and been followed-up., Method: Two-hundred and twelve adolescent patients first admitted for in-patient treatment, aged 10-18 (Mean 14.9) years and 94.8% female, were followed-up for an average of 8.3 years after first admission at sites in (former East and West Berlin, Zurich, Sofia, and Bucharest). Clinical history data were collected by use of standardized item-sheets at first admission. Semi-structured interviews including ratings of eating pathology and psychosocial outcome were performed at follow-up., Results: About 44.8% (95/212) of the patients required at least one readmission. Rates of rehospitalization were significantly higher at the Eastern sites (Sofia and Bucharest). Significant predictors of readmission were paternal alcoholism, history of anorexia nervosa in the family, eating disorder in infancy, periodic overactivity, lower weight increase at first admission, and lower BMI at first discharge. In a model of logistic regression analysis, five variables (paternal alcoholism, eating disorder in infancy, periodic overactivity, low weight increase during first admission, and low BMI at first discharge) correctly classified 69% of the participants into cases with single or repeated admissions. Patients with repeated admissions had a less favorable long term outcome and had higher rates of persisting psychopathology at follow-up., Conclusion: Rehospitalization reflects the chronic course in a sizable proportion of adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa. Family psychopathology may have an effect both in terms of genetic vulnerability and environmental stress leading to unfavorable courses. The strong effect of insufficient weight gain during first admission and lower BMI at first discharge emphasizes the importance of adequate interventions. Readmissions carry the risk for later poor psychosocial and psychiatric outcomes.

As a basis for theories of psychopathology, clinical psychology and related disciplines need sound taxonomies that are generalizable across diverse populations. To test the generalizability of a statistically derived 8-syndrome taxonomic model for youth psychopathology, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were performed on the Youth Self-Report (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) completed by 30,243 youths 11-18 years old from 23 societies. The 8-syndrome taxonomic model met criteria for good fit to the data from each society. This was consistent with findings for the parent-completed Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) and the teacher-completed Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) from many societies. Separate CFAs by gender and age group supported the 8-syndrome model for boys and girls and for younger and older youths within individual societies. The findings provide initial support for the taxonomic generalizability of the 8-syndrome model across very diverse societies, both genders, and 2 age groups., ((PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).)

Background: The goal of this study was to assess the course of functional-somatic symptoms from late childhood to young adulthood and the associations of these symptoms with young adult psychopathology., Methods: Data were collected in a large community sample at three different points in time (1994, 1997, and 2001). Functional-somatic symptoms were represented by nine self-reported items of the Youth Self Report (YSR) or the Young Adult Self Report (YASR). Only definite expressions of these symptoms were counted., Results: Definite functional-somatic symptoms across time ranged between 1.0 and 2.6% for dizziness, 3.0 and 6.7% for overtiredness, 1.0 and 2.9% for aches and pains, 5.6 and 8.3% for headaches, 1.2 and 1.9% for nausea, 2.5 and 3.0% for stomach-ache, and .2 and .8% for vomiting. In general, symptoms were more common in females at various times. In high-scoring subjects there was a significantly higher chance of functional-somatic symptoms persisting across time., Conclusions: Functional-somatic symptoms in childhood and adolescents can be easily identified in the community. In high-scoring subjects they tend to persist from childhood to adulthood.

Objective: Study of the impact of episodic and persistent depression on psychosocial and mental functioning of young adults., Methods: In a longitudinal representative community sample, four groups of subjects were identified who were depressed either in pre-adolescence, late adolescence or young adulthood or persistently depressed across time, and compared among each other and with a young adult control group. The 90th percentile on one or two self-reported symptom scales (i.e., the Center for Epidemiological Depression Scale (CES-D) or the Anxious/Depressed subscale of either the Youth Self-Report (YSR) or the Young Adult Self-Report (YASR)) served as the cut-off for the depression groups. Outcome was studied with regard to various psychosocial variables including life events, coping, self-related cognitions, size and efficiency of the social network, perceived parental behaviour, family relations and mental functioning., Results: For the large majority of psychosocial variables, the persistent depression group showed the most abnormal scores. The YASR profile of mental functioning at outcome of the persistent depression group was also clearly distinguishable by higher scores from all other groups on the majority of scales. On a few scales, the young adult episodic group was not significantly different from the persistent depression group., Conclusion: This study shows that persistent rather than episodic adolescent depression carries a risk for abnormal psychosocial and mental functioning in young adulthood. The study also reflects the burden of young adult depression.

Objective: The current study investigated psychosocial correlates of abnormal adolescent eating behavior at three times during adolescence and young adulthood and its association with psychiatric diagnosis in young adulthood in a community sample., Method: Sixty-four (10.5%) high-risk subjects (mean age 15 years) with abnormal eating behavior were identified at Time 1, another 252 (16.9%) were identified at Time 2 (mean age 16.2 years), and 164 (16.9%) were identified at Time 3 (mean age 19.7 years) and compared with three control groups matched for age and gender. Dependent measures included emotional and behavioral problems, life events, coping capacities, self-related cognition, social network, and family functions. Outcome was measured additionally by structured psychiatric interviews, and stability of abnormal eating behavior was studied in a longitudinal sample of 330 subjects., Results: Few subjects showed more than one of five criteria of abnormal eating behavior. High-risk subjects shared a very similar pattern at all three times. They were characterized by higher scores for emotional and behavioral problems, more life events including more negative impact, less active coping, lower self-esteem, and less family cohesion. Among 10 major psychiatric disorders, only clinical eating disorders at Time 3 shared a significant association with abnormal eating disorder at the same time whereas high-risk status at Times 1 and 2 did not predict any psychiatric disorder at Time 3. Stability of abnormal eating behavior across time was very low. Stability of abnormal eating behavior across time was very low., Discussion: Abnormal eating behavior in adolescence and young adulthood is clearly associated with various indicators of psychosocial maladaption. In adolescence, it does not significantly predict any psychiatric disorder including eating disorder in young adulthood and it is predominantly a transient feature., ((c) 2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

In an epidemiological sample of children aged 6 to 17 a total of 1964 parents responded to the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL). A subgroup of 399 parents were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). The mean syndrome scale scores in the various sex/age groups were in the lower range of several international studies using the CBCL. Effect analyses revealed sex to be more important than nationality (indigenous vs. immigrant) and age. All effects had to be considered as being small. Convergence between syndrome scales of the CBCL and interview-derived DSM-III-R diagnoses was good for three major groups of disorders.