Early Detection of Emotional and Behavioural Problems in Preschool Children:

Abstract

Psychosocial problems are already prevalent in very young children. Early detection of such problems is important because it improves the prognosis. One instrument that is developed for the early detection of psychosocial problems and delay in competencies is the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA). This study had two main objectives: 1) evaluating the psychometric properties of the BITSEA, and 2) assessing whether psychosocial well-being was better when the BITSEA was applied during the well-child visit, compared to care as usual (i.e. the application of an instrument intended to guide the conversation between parent and child health professional; the KIPPPI). The studies described in this thesis indicate that the BITSEA is a questionnaire with adequate psychometric properties. It appeared that children experience fewer psychosocial problems when the BITSEA was used as compared to care as usual at one-year follow-up. These findings support the BITSEA as a useful instrument, for the application in preventive child health care in the Netherlands, to detect psychosocial problems at an early age and in an early stage.