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The Pathway of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems from Childhood to Adolescence: A Prospective Study from Age 7 to 14–16 in Korea

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Abstract

This study prospectively investigated developmental psychopathology pathway from the age of 7 to ages 14–16. The subjects (N = 1,857) were evaluated using the Korean version of the Child Behavior Checklist and reassessed using the Korean Youth Self Report. In path analyses, total problems, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems in childhood associated significantly with problems in adolescence. In particular, childhood externalizing problems associated with adolescent externalizing problems, for both genders. However, our results differ from those of previous studies in that internalizing problems showed a restrictive stability by gender and in that early externalizing problems correlated negatively with later internalizing problems for girls. In the syndrome scales analyses, we confirmed that some syndromes showed heterotypic pathways, despite the general continuity of the developmental psychopathology. The importance of Anxiety/Depression and Attention problems in childhood suggested that adolescent difficulties are a consequence of an accumulation of such risk factors.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a grant from the Ajou University Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Ajou University, 5 Wonchun-Dong, Paldal-Gu, Suwon, Kyunggi-Do, 443-749, Korea

    Yun-Mi Shin, Ki-Young Lim & Sun-Mi Cho

  2. School of Business, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea

    Min-Je Sung

  3. Graduate School of Professional Therapeutic Technology, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Korea

    Kyung-Soon Park

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  1. Yun-Mi Shin
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  2. Min-Je Sung
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  3. Ki-Young Lim
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  4. Kyung-Soon Park
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  5. Sun-Mi Cho
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Correspondence to Sun-Mi Cho.

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Shin, YM., Sung, MJ., Lim, KY. et al. The Pathway of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems from Childhood to Adolescence: A Prospective Study from Age 7 to 14–16 in Korea. Community Ment Health J 48, 384–391 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-011-9468-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-011-9468-8

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