Crisis events and school mental health referral patterns of young children.

Conducted 2 studies investigating the impact of 2 types of potential crisis-producing experiences on the referral patterns of maladapting 5-10 yr old school children: parental separation and divorce and parental death. Ss in Study 1 were 108 children with a history of parental separation or divorce and 32 with a history of parent death. Study 2 used 226 Ss, 188 with separation-divorce histories and 38 with parental death histories. Both "crisis" groups were compared first to demographically matched referred controls, without crisis histories, and then directly to each other. Each crisis group had a significantly higher overall maladjustment score than its respective control group. Ss with histories of parent death were significantly more anxious, depressed, and withdrawn than their matched controls; whereas separation-divorce Ss had significantly more aggression and acting-out problems than their controls. These effects remained (a) when initial maladjustment differences were ruled out and (b) in a direct comparison of matched death and divorce Ss. The association between specific crisis history and specific school maladjustment patterns is seen to have implications for early detection and preventive efforts. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)