Sixteen-year comparisons of parent-reported emotional and behaviour problems and competencies in Norwegian children aged 7–9 years

Abstract

Background: Studies about changes in the prevalence of emotional and behaviour problems across time are lacking, especially among younger children. Aim: To determine if the level of parent-reported emotional and behaviour problems and competencies in young Norwegian school children had changed across a 16-year time interval. Methods: We compared parent reports obtained by the Child Behavior Checklist in two samples of children aged 7–9 years from the general population assessed in 1991 and 2007. Results: The results demonstrated overall stability or slight decreases of emotional and behaviour problems and a significant increase in competencies, mainly due to increased activity and social competence scores in the 2007 sample. Boys obtained higher scores than girls in Total Problems, Externalizing and Attention problems at both time points and there was a high stability of the rank order of items. Conclusions: The findings suggest stability in child emotional and behaviour problems, and an increase of competencies across the period.

• Behaviour problems
• Child
• Emotional problems
• Social behaviour
• Time trend

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all parents participating in the study and especially Randi Judith Frengstad for co-ordinating the collection and entry of the data of the 2007 sample.

Declaration of interest: Torunn Stene Nøvik served in an advisory board for Eli Lilly. She received research support from Eli Lilly, speaker's fees from Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and Lundbeck and conference attendance support from Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Thomas Jozefiak reports no conflict of interest. The present work in unrelated to the above grants or relationships. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.

This study was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, Anders Jahre's foundation, Hans M. Eilertesen's foundation, Inger R. Haldorsen's legacy, Reidar and Gunnar Holst's foundation and Solveig and Johan B. Sommer's legacy (TS Nøvik), and the National Council of Mental Health/Health and Rehabilitation (T Jozefiak).