ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the problem of early predictors of later psychopathology from very different perspectives. Disregarding methodological considerations, one is puzzled by differences across the three investigations in rate of identified psychiatric disorder. But, surprisingly, the group at higher risk for behavioral problems, the lower class disadvantaged group, is the one in which the lower prevalence of psychiatric problems was found. In view of the theoretical underpinnings of the study, different patterns of psychological dysfunction would be expected in the low- and high- risk groups. The results are most impressive, and at the same time most troubling, with regard to the continuity of psychiatric disorder from age 4 on. Clinical descriptions of the patients with depressive disorders in the adolescent sample would enable comparison between the two studies’ results. For instance, of the 15 patients included among those with recent depressive disorders, five received diagnoses that are equivocal in their relationship to affective symptomatology.
