Do age and sex influence the association between recent life events and psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents?--A controlled enquiry.

In a consecutive sample of school-aged children attending a routine child psychiatry clinic, four clinical groups were classified based on presenting signs and symptoms, conduct (N = 44), mild emotional (N = 55), severe emotional (N = 32) and somatic (N = 26). The groups were divided by age and sex and comparisons made between the groups and community subjects (N = 76) for the number of children experiencing one or more recent stressful life events. The results indicated that with the possible exception of severe emotional disorders, neither age nor sex substantially influenced the association between events and psychiatric disorder.