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Studying the "referability" of child clinical problems
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
|April 1, 1991
Summary
Child problem "referability" varies by gender and culture. A new statistic, the referability index (RI), helps quantify how often child issues lead to clinic referrals, considering problem type and population prevalence.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Child clinical problems exhibit varying likelihoods of referral.
- These referral patterns can be influenced by child gender and cultural context.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a novel method for studying differences in child problem referability.
- To propose and validate a new statistic, the referability index (RI).
Main Methods:
- Assessed referability across 118 child problems.
- Analyzed referability based on problem type (overcontrolled vs. undercontrolled), child gender, and culture (U.S. vs. Thailand).
- Calculated the referability index (RI) adjusting for problem prevalence.
Main Results:
- Childhood problems were more frequently referred for girls than boys across both cultures.
- In the U.S., undercontrolled problems were more referable than overcontrolled problems.
- Surprisingly, this difference in referability between overcontrolled and undercontrolled problems was not observed in Thailand.
Conclusions:
- Findings highlight significant gender differences in child problem referability.
- Cultural context plays a crucial role, altering the expected patterns of problem referability.
- The referability index (RI) offers a valuable tool for empirical research on child clinical issues.