We examined social anxiety and internalizing symptoms using the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), the Social Anxiety Scale for Children -Revised (SASC-R), and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) in a sample of fifty-four high-functioning subjects with autism or Asperger syndrome (HFA/AS) (M = 11.2 +/- 1.7 years) and 305 community subjects (M = 12.2 +/- 2.2 years). Children and adolescents completed the SPAI-C and SASC-R, and their parents completed the CBCL Internalizing scale. Adolescents with HFA/AS scored higher than the community sample on all measures. Behavioural avoidance and evaluative social anxiety increased by age within the HFA/AS group, whereas behavioural avoidance decreased by age in control participants. Data support that HFA/AS in adolescents may be associated with clinically relevant social anxiety symptoms.

The present study identifies the prevalence and types of comorbid psychiatric disorders associated with Asperger syndrome (AS)/high-functioning autism (HFA) in a combined community- and clinic-based sample of fifty 9- to 16-year-old subjects using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children, Present and Lifetime Version. The level of functioning was estimated using the Children's Global Assessment Scale. The results support common (prevalence 74%) and often multiple comorbid psychiatric disorders in AS/HFA; behavioral disorders were shown in 44%, anxiety disorders in 42% and tic disorders in 26%. Oppositional defiant disorder, major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders as comorbid conditions indicated significantly lower levels of functioning. To target interventions, routine evaluation of psychiatric comorbidity in subjects with AS/HFA is emphasized.

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It is generally understood that the teeth of pre-school-aged children are healthy, but the improvement in the dmft index has halted in the industrialized countries. Those few children who have caries have more of it than before. Little is known of the family-related factors which are associated with this polarization of caries. A representative population-based sample consisted of 1443 mothers expecting their first child. The children were followed at well-baby clinics and public dental health clinics for over five years. The objective was to study the prevalence of dental caries and its predictors in five-year-old children and to assess children's own dental health habits and the meaning of family-related factors in dental health. The findings were based on questionnaire data from parents and on clinical dental examinations of the five-year-old children as completed by 101 public health dentists. In firstborn five-year-old children, dental health was found to be good in 72%, fair in 20%, and poor in 8% of the cases. The final multivariate analysis illustrated that the dmft index > 0 was independently associated with the mother's irregular toothbrushing (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.4-3.5), annual occurrence of several carious teeth in the father (OR 2.6; 95% CI 1.9-3.6), daily sugar consumption at the age of 18 months (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.4-4.1), occurrence of child's headaches (OR 3.7; 95% CI 1.5-8.8), parents' cohabitation (OR 3.3; 95% CI 1.5-7.6), rural domicile (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2-4.5), and mother's young age (OR 5.0; 95% CI 1.3-19.8). The findings indicated that attention should be paid not only to the child's dental health care but also to that of the whole family. Parents should be supported in their upbringing efforts and encouraged to improve their children's dental health habits. In everyday life, parents function as role models for their children, and therefore, parents' own dental hygiene habits are very meaningful.