Survey of psychosocial problems of preschool children
Jin, X.M.; Pan, H.Q.; He, P.Q.; Guo, D.
Chinese Medical Journal 100(11): 911-914
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0366-6999 PMID: 3130231 Document Number: 292891
An investigation on psychosocial problems was carried out in 2 groups of children in shanghai. Group I was composed of 643 children of 3 and 5 years old selected randomly from two districts of Shanghai, and Group 2 of 413 children aged 3 and 5 years from an area in a district. Symptoms of the two age groups were identified separately. Symptoms of 5 year olds which upset the parents or might hamper the child's future personality development including disobedience, shouting, quarrelsomeness, difficulty in separating from the mothers, fears and overdependence occurred in more than 10%. Three-year-old symptoms included hitting others, shouting, aggressiveness, destructiveness, difficulty in separating from mother, quarrelsomeness and disobedience. There was a tendency for aggressive symptoms and developmental immaturity to cluster. While the symptoms listed for 3-year olds persisted to the age of 5, there were significant decreases in occurrence of aggressive symptoms, and significant increases in nail-biting, tooth grinding and nose-picking at 5. When an excessive number of symptoms is used as a criterion of abnormality, the frequency was 6.4% and 6% in 3-years olds and 51 year olds.