Child and adolescent day treatment: population profile

This paper presents the demographic and clinical data necessary to define the population of children and adolescents served in a model day treatment program. On the day of admission, patients (N = 204) and parents complete a batter of instruments designed to measure reliably characteristics of the patient's system at three levels: individual, parental, and family. Design of the assessment establishes comparisons among self-report, parent/other report, and clinician report measures at each subsystem level. Results of the CBCL, YSR, PIC, Piers-Harris, MCMI, DAS, and FES indicate moderate levels of disturbance, usually consistent with norms reported on referred or clinical populations. Patients are being treated for a wide variety of childhood disorders within systems demonstrating dysfunction at parental, marital, and familial levels.