Prevalence and risk factors of psychopathology in Ethiopian children

To determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with psychopathology in Ethiopian children aged 6 to 11 years living in Jimma town.

The mothers of 611 randomly selected children (317 boys and 294 girls) were interviewed to determine the presence of 64 child problem behaviors. Scores on the Child Behavior Problem Questionnaire were normed and reduced to eight subscales using responses to a second scale developed by the World Health Organization (the Reporting Questionnaire for Children). Measures of maternal psychopathology, family stress, and child disability were included.

Separate analyses conducted for boys and girls yielded prevalence rates of 21.45% for boys and 25.17% for girls. Principal-components analyses identified common syndromes such as aggressive, anxious, delinquent, depressed, hyperactive, uncommunicative, and immature. Two additional syndromes, hostile/withdrawn and insecure, were particularly prevalent. Children whose mothers reported more psychiatric symptoms for themselves tended to score higher on at least one of the pathology subscales.

On a measure developed for Ethiopian children, the prevalence and risk factors were similar to those found in other countries. Several differences in syndromes indicate the need for culture-specific analyses of psychopathology in children.