Do child healthcare professionals and parents recognize social-emotional and behavioral problems in 1-year-old infants?

Abstract

Growing evidence supports the existence of clinically significant social-emotional/behavioral (SEB) problems among as young as 1-year-old infants. However, a substantial proportion of early SEB problems remain unidentified during contacts with child healthcare professionals. In this study, child healthcare nurse (CHCN; N = 1008) and parental (N = 518) reports about SEB worries were gathered, along with the maternal and paternal Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) ratings, for 12-month-old infants randomly recruited through Finnish child health centers. Only 1.4-1.8 % of CHCNs, 3.9 % of mothers, and 3.2 % of fathers reported of being worried about the assessed child's SEB development. When the CHCNs' and parental reports were combined, 7.7 % (33/428) of the infants assessed each by all three adults had one (7.0 %), two (0.7 %) or three (0 %) worry reports. Even the combination of the CHCN's and parental worry reports identified only 7.0-13.8 % of the infants with the maternal and/or paternal BITSEA Problem or Competence rating in the of-concern range. Identified associations across the three informants' worry reports, parental BITSEA ratings and sociodemographic factors are discussed in the paper. Routine and frequent use of developmentally appropriate screening measures, such as the BITSEA, might enhance identification and intervening of early SEB problems in preventive child healthcare by guiding both professionals and parents to pay more attention to substantial aspects of young children's SEB development and encouraging them to discuss possible problems and worries.

Parental Reports of Early Socioemotional and Behavioral Problems: Does the Father's View Make a Difference?

“…Because the current study was part of a larger research project focusing on infants'/toddlers' SEB development, data collection was carried out in the context of routine well-child visits, and it was voluntary-based for parents (Alakortes et al, 2015;Alakortes et al, 2016), the main emphasis of the data collection was given to child characteristics and functioning, and the amount and type of questions addressing parental characteristics were limited to minimal and neutral. Consequently, in this study, the main focus of parental factors was given to parenting stress, although other parental characteristics such as parental psychopathology and marital discord also have been found to be potential moderators of interparental discrepancies in behavior ratings of older offspring (Christensen et al, 1992, Jensen et al, 1988Treutler & Epkins, 2003).…”

Anxiety related disorders in adolescents in the United Arab Emirates: a population based cross-sectional study

“…Previous UAE-based studies in this area date back to 1998 [33] and 2004 [34], and more up-to-date data are required. It is of particular concern that many social, emotional and behavioral problems among young children are not identified during pediatric healthcare contacts [35], which suggests a preventive approach is necessary. An initial national epidemiological study is needed to clarify the extent of the problem in the UAE, increase awareness of this issue, and inform further interventional studies.…”

Construct validity of a service-setting based measure to identify mental health problems in infancy

“…Community screening of infants’ mental health may be provided as a part of the general child health surveillance, which in many European countries includes services delivered by health visitors [50]. Research based on these settings indicates potentials for mental health screening for socio-emotional and behavioral problems in 1-year-olds [51], and 2-year-olds [52], psychosocial problems in 2-year-olds [53], and neuro-developmental problems in 30 months children [54]. A general population-based Danish study embedded in the settings of community health nurses (CHNs) has identified several infancy markers of psychopathology in preschool ages [22, 28, 55].…”