Prevalence of Behavioural and Emotional Problems among Two to Five Years Old Kosovar Preschool Children—Parent’s Report

Abstract

Preschool age is characterized by a rapid development in all aspects of child development. During this development, the introduction of emotional and behavioral disorders can happen to any child. Preschool children have been a neglected population in the study of psychopathology. The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA), which includes the Child Behavior Checklist/1.5 - 5 (CBCL/1.5 - 5), constitutes the few available measures to assess preschoolers with an empirically derived taxonomy of preschool psychopathology. The study was based on an age- and gender-stratified sample of 755 children aged 1.5 - 5 years from five municipalities of Kosovo. The CBCL/1.5 - 5 form was voluntarily completed by the parents of 426 or 56.4% boys and 329 or 43.6% girls. There were 639 or 84% mothers and 116 or 15.4 % fathers. The prevalence of total problems was estimated as 2.9%, the prevalence of externalizing behavior problems was 2.5%, while the prevalence of internalizing behavior problems was 3.8%. These results are low compared to other international studies. The results revealed that there are not significant differences in mean scores among boys and girls on total problems, internalizing and externalizing. Regarding the age, there are statistical differences within the decreasing of age among the three broad-bands syndromes. Such findings highlight the way in which preschool behavior problems may vary within specific cultural settings and underscore the need for in-depth research to explore the contexts.