Posted
December, 2011
The
CBCL Dysregulation Profile is Associated with Psychosocial
Adversity and Impairment among Clinically Referred German
Children
Multiple
studies have identified a CBCL/6-18 profile characterized
by high scores on the Anxious/Depressed, Attention Problems,
and Aggressive Behavior syndrome. Designated as the "Dysregulation
Profile," it has been found to be associated with genetic
factors and poor outcomes. To investigate psychosocial aspects
of the environments of children manifesting the Dysregulation
Profile and also to assess the children's psychosocial impairment,
a German team compared the Psychosocial Adversity and Psychosocial
Impairment scores of the International Classification of Disease-10th
Edition (ICD-10) for 373 4-18-year-olds manifesting the Dysregulation
Profile versus 8,651 other 4-18-year-olds (Juksch et al.,
2011). All the children had been referred to German university
child psychiatry services. Children manifesting the Dysregulation
Profile had significantly higher ICD-10 psychosocial adversity
scores than children with clinically elevated scores on the
Attention Problems and Anxious/Depressed syndromes and children
with no clinically elevated syndrome scores. However, psychosocial
adversity scores did not differ significantly between children
with the Dysregulation Profile and children with clinically
elevated Aggressive Behavior syndrome scores. Nevertheless,
children with the Dysregulation Profile obtained higher scores
than all other groups on the portion of Psychosocial Adversity
that reflects abnormal qualities of upbringing, including
parental overprotection, inadequate parent supervision, experiential
privation, and inappropriate parental pressures. Children
with the Dysregulation Profile obtained significantly higher
Psychosocial Impairment scores than children with no clinically
elevated syndromes, but did not differ significantly from
the other clinically referred children. Although Jucksch et
al. acknowledged that children with the Dysregulation Profile
"may behave in ways that predispose to life situations
that provide risks for other disorders" (p. 692), they
concluded that "Improving parental competence might be
a fruitful target for intervention to prevent a detrimental
course" (p. 693).
Reference:
Jucksch,
V., Salbach-Andrae, H., Lenz, K., Goth, K., Doepfner, M.,
Poustka, F, Freitag, C.M., Lehmkuhl, G., Lehmkuhl, U., &
Holtmann, M. (2011). Severe affective and behavioural dysregulation
is associated with significant psychosocial adversity and
impairment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
52, 686-695.
