Even if the two orphan care systems showed more similarities than differences, the foster care revealed better outcomes over time. The results are discussed in relation to gender, age, socio-economic situation, cultural values and the characteristics of each care system.

The Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Children (PTSS-C) was developed as a cross-cultural semi-structured interview to diagnose posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to identify PTSD-non-related posttraumatic stress symptoms in children after various traumatic experiences. The psychometric properties were studied in two different child populations in Iraqi Kurdistan (the survivors of the military operation "Anfal", and the orphans), in a sample of Kurdistanian refugee children in Sweden, and in a comparison sample of Swedish children. The instrument yielded satisfactory internal consistency, high interrater agreement, and excellent validity on cross-validation with the Child Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (CPTSD-RI) and the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

To identify child mental health problems in a mid-sized to large city in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Reporting Questionnaire for Children (RQC), followed by the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the Post-traumatic Stress Symptom Checklist for Children (PTSS-C), were administered in interview form to the caregivers of 806 school-aged children. To cover different categories of children, four samples were randomly selected from among the general population (n = 201), orphans (n = 241), primary medical care patients (n = 199), and hospital patients (n = 165). The RQC revealed satisfactory validity against a deviant CBCL cut-off. The screening capacity of the RQC was further supported by its similarity to the CBCL in distribution of problem scores among the four samples and its positive correlation with the CBCL, but not with the trauma-related PTSS-C. Although the general population showed lower problem scores than the orphans and the two clinical samples, problem scores in all instruments were considerably higher than those reported from other societies. The RQC seems to be useful as a first-stage screening instrument for child mental health problems in Kurdistan.