Attachments: The Pediatric Symptom Checklist: A Bridge to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry From Pediatrics

During my residency training in pediatrics and child/adolescent psychiatry (1973-1979), I wondered how pediatricians would identify children with psychosocial problems. Some behavioral problems were obvious because the school or parent had raised a concern. Most pediatricians would ask 1 or 2 psychosocial questions, and some, attuned to emotional issues, would identify children based on their clinical impressions. However, the few studies that had been done at the time indicated that the rates of psychosocial problems identified in pediatric primary care were far lower than predicted by epidemiological studies. Therefore, I began the work to create a screening questionnaire.