Psychiatric disorders in Thai school-aged children: II Associated factors.

Background: Many factors have been studied and found to be associated with psychiatric disorders in children. In Thailand, some have been studied but they did not cover the wide range of important factors.

Method: A two-stage survey designed was used in a community sample of 1698 Grade 4 children randomly selected from 107 schools in Bangkok. Thai Youth Checklist (TYC)-Parent and Teacher form were used in the screening phase together with self-report questionaires to be answered by parent about general information concerning the child and the family. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) was used in the second phase for 127 parent and child interview.

Results: Factors which are significantly associated with behavior and emotional problems are family discord, large family with more than 4 children, death of family members in the previous 6 months, children not living with biological parents, parental mental illness, substance abuse or criminal record and children who repeated grade at school.

Conclusion: Factors associated with behavior and emotional problems are not different from those reported from other studies. However, children with physical illness was not found to be associated with higher risk in this study.