Six-year predictors of problems in a national sample of children and youth: I. Cross-informant syndromes

Abstract

Objective: To illuminate the development of psychopathology by tracing 6-year predictive paths to outcomes assessed in terms of empirically based syndromes.

Method: A national sample assessed at ages 4 through 12 years via parent reports was reassessed 3 and 6 years later via parent, teacher, and self-reports.

Results: For syndromes having the clearest DSM counterparts, cross-informant predictive paths revealed similar traitlike patterns for Aggressive Behavior in both sexes; Delinquent Behavior was less traitlike, with greater sex differences in predictive paths; the Attention Problems syndrome was developmentally stable, but, surprisingly, it was associated with more diverse difficulties among girls than boys; conversely, Anxious/Depressed was associated with more diverse difficulties among boys than girls.

Conclusions: Quantification of problems via empirically based syndromes can detect important sex, age, and developmental variations that may be masked by uniform diagnostic cutoff points for both sexes and diverse ages. This may be especially true for diagnostic cutoff points derived mainly from clinical cases of one sex, such as depression for girls versus attention and conduct disorders for boys.