Regulatory disorders in early childhood: Correlates in child behavior, parent–child relationship, and parental mental health

According to the guidelines published by the German Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (2007), regulatory disorders of early childhood are characterized by a symptom triad, including (a) behavioral symptoms such as excessive crying, sleeping, or feeding problems; (b) a disturbed parent–child relationship; and (c) parental psychopathology. On the basis of a clinic–referred sample of 162 children, we examined whether children with and without regulatory symptoms differed in the quality of parent–child relationship and parental mental health, and how often the criteria of the symptom triad were fulfilled in the group of children with regulatory symptoms. In addition, emotional and behavior problems were compared in children with and without regulatory symptoms. Children with regulatory symptoms and children with other psychiatric symptoms did not differ with respect to child–parent relationship quality. However, parents of children with regulatory symptoms scored higher on the Symptom Checklist 90 Items-Revised (G.H. Franke, 2002) than did the other parents. On the Child Behavior Checklist (T.M. Achenbach & L.A. Rescorla, 2000), children with regulatory symptoms tended to show more somatic problems, but they showed significantly less withdrawn behavior than did the other children. Of the 67 children with regulatory symptoms, only 11 (16.4%) fulfilled all three criteria of a regulatory disorder.