Children ’s use of psychosocial care in a population-based longitudinal study: less likely for girls, children with a non-Western background and children with a high quality of life

This study examined the independent contributions of need and predisposing factors to psychosocial care use in 9-year-old children, guided by the Gateway Provider Model. Data of the Generation R Study, a prospective cohort of c hildren born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, were analysed using multivariable logistic regression (n = 4714). Need (quality of life, presence and type of emotional/behavioural problems) and predisposing factors (sex, ethnic background and maternal educational level) were measured using parent questionnaires at multiple time points between ages 1.5 and 9 years. Psychosocial care use was parent -reported at 9 years old (9.6% among children with Western background, 7.3% among children with non-Western background). Having emotional/behavioural problems at 5 and 9 years old was associated with more care use, while having a higher quality of life, being a girl and having a Moroccan/Turkish o r other non-Western background were associated with less care use. Externalising and internalising problems, as well as several types of problems, at 5 and 9 years old were associated with psychosocial care use. Stratified analyses revealed that, in children with non-Western backgrounds, only a poo rer psychosocial quality of life was associated with psychosocial care use. To conclude, girls with a Western background and children with a non-Western background were less likely to receive care compared to their peers. Children with parent-reported emotional/behavio...
Source: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research