Differences between informants' reports describing emotional and behavioural problems in community and clinic-referred children: a research note.

This study compared the pattern of reports describing childhood emotional and behavioural problems amongst children in the community with the pattern of reports describing children referred to mental health clinics. Whereas children in the community reported more externalizing and internalizing problems than were reported by their parents, clinic-referred children reported fewer externalizing but more internalizing problems than their parents. The results highlight potential limitations which may arise when reports describing the problems of clinic-referred children are used as the criterion for assessing the clinical significance of reports describing problems amongst children in the community.