Writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, David Goldston and colleagues reported about their study that examine questions about comorbid Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and reading problems among adolecents. Here’s the abstract.
Reading Problems, Psychiatric Disorders, and Functional Impairment from Mid- to Late Adolescence.
David B Goldston, Adam Walsh, Elizabeth Mayfield Arnold, Beth Reboussin, Stephanie Sergent Daniel, Alaattin Erkanli, Dennis Nutter, Enith Hickman, Guy Palmes, Erica Snider, and Frank B Wood
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, January 1, 2007; 46(1): 25-32.OBJECTIVE:: To examine psychiatric morbidity and functional impairment of adolescents with and without poor reading skills during mid- to late adolescence. METHOD:: The sample consisted of 188 adolescents, 94 with poor reading skills and 94 with typical reading skills, screened from a larger sample in the public schools at age 15. To assess psychiatric disorders, participants were assessed annually with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Epidemiologic Version (up to 4.5 years; maximum age, 20 years). Functional impairment was assessed with the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale. RESULTS:: Adolescents with poor reading skills evidenced higher rates of current attention-deficit/hyperactivity, affective, and anxiety disorders, particularly social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders but not affective disorders were related to reading status after controlling for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Adolescents with poor reading evidenced more functional impairment across multiple areas than youths with typical reading skills, even after considering the presence of comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. CONCLUSIONS:: The increased psychiatric morbidity and functional impairment of adolescents with reading problems highlight the importance of developing interventions that help these youths address reading deficits and associated vulnerabilities during the last years of secondary school.
Link to the PUBMED record for the study.
Sphere: Related Content
I don’t think I understand this abstract, but I feel like it applies to my students– any insight??
Hi, Jill. Thanks for commenting. I suspect that the results of this study do, indeed, apply to your students. However, I don’t think it tells you much about what to do for them. Goldston and colleagues simply determined that adolescents who have reading problems are more likely to have other problems, too. And, they found that, if one statistically removes the contribution of ADHD to their problems, the kinds of additional problems they have are more likely to be in the form of anxiety (uneasiness, apprehension) than affect (shy, sad, withdrawn).
From my point of view, students who have reading problems need good reading instruction, regardless of the possibility that they have other problems, too. If they have other problems (e.g., anxiety), then we should be addressing those problems as well. We shouldn’t expect to be able to fix one or the other issue and have the unaddressed issue fix itself.
2¢, no change. (Teehee!)