A descriptive survey of Flemish delinquent adolescents

Previous research has shown that delinquent adolescents are characterized by a number of psychiatric problems. Most of these assessments, however, have been conducted on incarcerated adolescents. By means of semi-structured assessment (Child Assessment Schedule) and self-report measures, we assessed psychiatric status in a group of 72 delinquent adolescents, adjudicated before the Juvenile Court of Antwerp, Belgium. A significant difference was found between ethnic groups on self-report scores. Seventy per cent of subjects received at least one psychiatric diagnosis. The most prevalent diagnoses were conduct disorder (CD), substance abuse disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Less prevalent were post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (MD). As we found that an unselected sample of delinquent adolescents show a great number of psychiatric disorders, we suggest that psychiatric screening of delinquent adolescents should be done systematically. The predictive value of psychiatric assessment and subsequent treatment in delinquent adolescents should be investigated by future, prospective research.