Page 83 - Age of onset of disruptive behavior of residentially treated adolescents -Sjoukje de Boer
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File review
To determine the psychiatric classification at admission, information on current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnoses were collected
from file. These DSM classifications were made by the attending psychiatrist within the
first 2 months of treatment and were based on direct evaluations of the subjects. The research assistants also screened the files on referral (i.e., referral by youth care, youth
mental health care, or judicial institutions), age at admission, criminal offences (type, frequency, and age at onset), substance usage (type and age at onset), and duration of 5 treatment.
Self-report instrument
Participants filled in the youth self report (YSR; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001; Verhulst et al., 1997) in the first week of admission. The YSR includes 108 items covering a broad range of emotional and behavioural problems, each rated on a scale of 0–2. The YSR yields scores on eight syndrome scales, two broadband scales (internalising and externalising problems), and a total scale. The internalising scale reflects inward directed problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, withdrawn behaviour, and somatic complaints), the externalising scale reflects outward directed problems (i.e., rule breaking and aggressive behaviour). Summing scores of problem items results in a total problem score. Only the main scale “externalising problems” and the total problem scale were reported in this study. To indicate social functioning, the syndrome scale “social problems” of the YSR was also used. The Dutch version of the YSR has good validity and reliability (Ferdinand, Verhulst, & Wiznitzer, 1995).
Encoding of the data
Ethnicity was determined by the native country of the participants and their (biological) parents. If the country of birth of both parents was The Netherlands (independently of the country of birth of the child) the child was seen as Dutch. If one of the parents was born abroad, the child was seen as non-native Dutch. A division was made between native Dutch and non-natives.
Academic functioning was determined based on the highest level of education attended prior to the admission (i.e., not attending school, special education, pre-
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