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Cited by 101Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentMental Health Treatment and AccessHealth and Medical Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

How impaired are children and adolescents by mental health problems? Results of the BELLA study

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Wille, Nora, Bettge, Susanne, Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich, Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike, The BELLA study group·2008·European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
DOI 10.1007/s00787-008-1005-0PMC PMC2757610
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The consideration of impairment plays a crucial role in detecting significant mental health problems in children whose symptoms do not meet diagnostic criteria. The assessment of impairment may be particularly relevant when only short screening instruments are applied in epidemiological surveys. Furthermore, differences between childrens' and parents' perceptions of present impairment and impairing symptoms are of interest with respect to treatment-seeking behaviour. OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to assess parent- and self-reported impairment due to mental health problems in a representative sample of children and adolescents; to describe the characteristics of highly impaired children with normal symptom scores; and to investigate the associations between symptoms in different problem areas and impairment. METHODS: The mental health module of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (the BELLA study) examined mental health in a representative sub-sample of 2,863 families with children aged 7-17. Self-reported and parent-reported symptoms of mental health problems and associated impairment were identified by the extended version of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in children 11 years and older. RESULTS: Considerable levels of distress and functional impairment were found with 14.1% of the boys and 9.9% of the girls being severely impaired according to the parental reports. However, self-reported data shows a reversed gender-difference as well as lower levels of severe impairment (6.1% in boys; 10.0% in girls). Six percent of the sampled children suffer from pronounced impairment due to mental health problems but were not detected by screening for overall symptoms. Childrens' and parents' reports differed in regard to the association between reported symptom scores and associated impairment with children reporting higher impairment due to emotional problems. CONCLUSIONS: The assessment of impairment caused by mental health problems provides important information beyond the knowledge of symptoms and helps to identify an otherwise undetected high risk group. In the assessment of impairment, gender-specific issues have to be taken into account. Regarding the systematic differences between childrens' and parents' reports in the assessment of impairment, the child's perspective should be given special attention.

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Stiensmeier-Pelster J, Schürmann M, Duda K (1989) Depressionsinventar für Kinder und Jugendliche; DIKJ. Hogrefe, Göttingen
  2. Organization World Health (1993) The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: diagnostic criteria for research. WHO, Geneva

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Metadata

Authors
Wille, N., Bettge, S., Wittchen, H.-U., Ravens-Sieberer, U., & The BELLA study group
Affiliations
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE)
Corresponding author
Wille, Nora
Venue
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2008-12
Volume
17
Issue
S1
Pages
42-51
ISSN
  • 1018-8827 (ISSN-L)
  • 1435-165X
DOI
10.1007/s00787-008-1005-0
PMC
PMC2757610
OpenAlex
W1969337703
Cited by
101
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 6
FWCI
5.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • Qucosa (Saxon State and University Library Dresden) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health and Medical Studies
Keywords
psychiatric disability, children and adolescents, parent-child agreement, gender differences, emotional problems, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, mental health screening, treatment-seeking behavior, functional disability
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adolescent Psychiatry, Affective Symptoms, Attention, Mental Disorders, Child, Child Psychiatry, Family, Female, Germany, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Parents, Psychometrics, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Disclosure, Severity of Illness Index, Stress, Psychological, Prevalence, Odds Ratio, Cost of Illness, Sex Distribution

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