[Incidence of psychiatric symptoms and somatic complaints in 4- to 10-year-old children in Germany as judged by parents--a comparison of norm-oriented and criteria-oriented models].

Objectives: To analyze the frequency of behavioral/emotional problems and somatic complaints of children aged four to ten as rated by their parents.
Method: The analysis is based on the PAK-KID study on behavioural and emotional problems and psychosocial competencies of children and adolescents in Germany. In a nationally representative sample of N = 1030 children aged four to ten years the parents rated their child using the Child Behavior Checklist.
Results: The prevalence rates of the symptoms are presented. Additionally global prevalence rates based on three different models were calculated and compared. They range from 13.1% to 28.3%. The issues of defining cutoffs necessary for the calculation of prevalence rates are discussed.