Prevalence of behavior-emotional disorders and its associated factors among the primary school students of Sari township in 2006

Background and Presence of behavior-emotional disorder BED at childhood is a very important problem and predisposing factor for mental disorder in adulthood. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of BED and its associated factors in the primary school students in Sari, Iran. Totally, 926 urban and rural students were selected randomly by cluster sampling method. Tools of data collection were: Demographic feature questionnaire divided in two parts of Rater behavior- emotional disorder for parents (31 questions) and teachers (30 questions). Data were analyzed by descriptive tests, X2, t-test using SPSS software. Findings of this study indicate the general prevalence of BED in the children based on the parent's report (15.8%) and of teacher's 24.9%. The highest rate of BED prevalence based on the parents and teachers reports were the lack of attention deficit disorder 93.3% and absent minding 11.1% respectively. The lowest rate of disorders were antisocial behavior 1.5% and 0.4% respectively based on the parents and teachers reports. Our data showed that the relation between the total prevalence of BED based on the questionnaire of parents with the variables of sex, score of the students, the child number in family, somatic complaints (headache, asthma, stomach pain or nausea, eating problems, sleeping disorders, urine incontinency, stool incontinency) cooperation of parents in keeping the child and school leaving was significant at the level of 5%. Also, based on the teachers reports, the total prevalence of BED at the level of 5% in the students under study was significantly different considering the factors such as educational status, scores average, separation of parents and mistreatment with the child. In addition, there was no significant relationship between the total prevalence of BED in the students based on the reports given by the teachers and parents on the basis of being urban or rural. Knowing the prevalence of BED is very important for the individual's health in the future and because proper and scientific identification of the children's behavior problems is the first step in the control and treatment of this problem, more research is recommended in this field.