Page 68 - Age of onset of disruptive behavior of residentially treated adolescents -Sjoukje de Boer

describes the 145 patients included in the study. The sample comprised 39 female and 106 male patients with a mean age of 17.7 years at admission. Although the level of intelligence (mostly measured at the institutions that requested admission) of the sample was average (IQ=100.1, SD=13.0, n=109), compared to the general Dutch population, the educational attainment was relatively low. In addition to their psychiatric problems, all patients in the sample displayed severe disruptive behavior.
Table 1 shows the characteristics by EO and AO classification. Compared to the AO group, significantly more youths in the EO group were males (χ 2 (1, N=145) = 6.81, p=.009). Both groups differed significantly on the age of onset of the disruptive behavior (t(141.9) = -21.21, p<.000), and in the number of DSM diagnoses (Axis I) (t(143) = 2.34, p<.021), with the EO group showing significantly more often a diagnosis of conduct disorder (χ2 (1, N=145) = 5.63, p=.018). No significant differences were noted between the groups on other diagnostic categories.
Table 1
Characteristics of the sample (n=145)
Total Early-onset Adolescent-onset
Characteristic Sex (male)
Age (years) Ethnicity Dutch IQ
Highest occupation of both parents (SES) No
Without qualification
Low qualification Intermediate qualification High qualification
(SD) Mean (73.1%) 69
(1.2) 17.6 (76.6%) 67 (13.0) 99.7
(9.6%) 6
(8.1%) 5 (21.3%) 21 (46.3%) 36 (14.7%) 11
(SD) Mean (SD)
(81.2%) 37 (61.7%) (1.1) 17.8 (1.2) (78.8%) 44 (73.3%) (12.3) 100.7 (14.1)
7.6 7 12.3
6.3 6 10.5 26.6 8 14.0 45.6 27 47.4 13.9 9 15.8
N1 n
Mean
145 106 145 17.7 145 111 109 100.1 136
13 11 29 63 20
n=145 (EO) n=85 (AO) n=60 (%) n (%) n (%)
SD = standard deviation;
1 Number of patients for whom information about the characteristic was available
Significantly more patients with EO disruptive behavior dropped out of the treatment, i.e., 44.4% of the EO group versus 24.7% of the AO group (χ 2 (1, N=211) =
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