Development of regulation disorders into specific psychopathology

Underlying deficits in self-regulation and sensory processing are seen in children with regulation disorders (RD) and might lead to emotional and behavioral problems as the child develops. However, little is known about the specific developmental course of RD. This follow-up study was conducted to investigate the development of a clinical sample of RD children, diagnosed by means of the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised (DC:0-3R; ZERO TO THREE, 1994), toward specific psychopathology 4 to 10 years later based on parent- and teacher-reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (T.M. Achenbach & L.A. Rescorla, 2007). Parental reports showed that 39 to 69% of children with RD had internalizing, externalizing, and total problems above borderline cutoffs, as compared to norm group data (16%). In addition, higher rates of affective, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional defiant, and conduct problems were reported. Analyses between RD subtypes showed significant differences on future attention problems and rule-breaking behavior, wherein less favorable results were found for the Hypersensitive subtype Type A (fearful/cautious) in comparison to the sensory stimulation-seeking/impulsive subtype. The current results indicate persistence of emotional and behavioral problems into middle childhood and adolescence in children with preschool RD diagnoses. More attention should be paid to differentiation of psychopathology in these children since developmental outcomes may differ between RD subtypes.