Prevalence, Patterns and Correlation of Behavioral and Emotional Disorders in School-going Children and Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: School-going early adolescent population are most vulnerable to psychiatric disorders. The study was undertaken to determine the prevalence, patterns, and correlation of behavioral and emotional disorders in school-going early adolescent children. Material and methods: The present study was conducted in Kolhapur district schools. A total of 376 students of age 6–16 years, without any diagnosed medical/surgical illnesses and known to teachers for at least 3 months were included in the study. The school teachers were then introduced to the screening tools such as the pediatric symptom checklist PSC for 6–12 years and youth self-report Y-PSE for ≥12 years. Results: The mean age of the children was 9.80 ± 1.85 years, ranging from 6 to 13 years. The majority of participants were male (52.92%). The incidence of behavioral and emotional disorders was found to be 46.67%. The prevalence of behavioral and emotional disorders was more in children of 10–11 years of age (34.07%), followed by 12–13 years (29.12%), 8–9 years (27.32%), and 6–7 years (9.34%). Whereas, prevalence in boys was more than in girls (53.30% vs 46.70%). The assessment of the pattern of emotional and behavioral problems in the children revealed that external problems were most common in children followed by attention problems and internalizing problems. A significant correlation was seen between academic performance and the presence of emotional and behavioral problems in children (p = 0.000). Conclusion: Alarming number of school-going early adolescent children are suffering from emotional and behavioral problems at the study site causing a significant impact on academic performance. These data suggest urgency in establishing a school-based mental health service.