Abstract
Aim To study the prevalence and pattern of behavioural problems among adolescents of both gender using the Paediatric Symptom Checklist(PSC) 35 from age groups of 11 to 18 years and to correlate the PSC score with the age, gender, BMI, and socioeconomic status, maternal education and maternal employment.
Material and Method All adolescents between age group of 11–18 years of both genders coming to Paediatric OPD, private Paediatric OPD and the adolescent clinic were screened using Paediatric Symptom Checklist-35 (PSC 35). The score was analysed and adolescents were further categorised into different behavioural problems based on the subscore for different categories. The score was correlated to age, gender, BMI and socioeconomic status, maternal education and maternal employment.
Results Out of 500 adolescents screened, 221(44.2%) had behavioural problems. Out of 44.2%, 59(11.8%) had attention seeking behavioural problems,117(23.4%) had internalizing symptoms and 45(9%) had externalizing symptoms. Multivariate analysis showed an association of behavioural problems with age, gender, BMI and maternal occupation.
Conclusions We concluded from our study that behavioral problems are very common, especially among girls of middle adolescent age group. Behavioral problems were categorized into three different categories: attention-seeking behavior, internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms. Amongst the three, internalizing symptoms were most common (23.4%) followed by attention seeking behavior (11.8%) and externalizing symptoms (9%).