“Small Talk”

Abstract

Accurate diagnosis of young children’s problem behavior is of great importance for understanding the early development of psychopathology and for early and effective interventions. Children, even young children, may offer a valuable complement to information from the traditional adult informants. Yet, in the Netherlands, no validated instrument was available to systematically assess young children’s perspective on their feelings and behavior. To address this gap, the Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI) was translated into Dutch and introduced in the Generation R Study, a large epidemiological study. The series of studies described in this thesis examined whether information about emotional, behavioral and peer relationship problems, obtained by the Dutch translation of the BPI, provides reliable, valid and valuable information that can be used in research settings. The studies also examined the value of young children’s reports if implemented along with other outcomes in a multi-informant approach.