Les enfants de la cohorte GAZEL: II - Motifs des contacts avec le systeme medico-educatif, par age et sexe

An epidemiological survey of 2582 French children aged 4 to 16 has been conducted to assess patterns of service use in relation to psychological disturbances. Details on the design, sample, survey instruments, response rate, and 12-months prevalence rates of contacts with a range of different professionals were presented in a previous article. In this second article, the psychological motives leading to contact with family doctors, school-based professionals, speech and language therapists, and mental health specialists are analyzed. The age and gender effects are assessed for each motives. On the whole, consistent sex differences were found for the types of complaints presented by service users, with emotional symptoms being more frequent amongst girls, and behavioural, developmental and learning difficulties being more frequent amongst boys. Mental health specialists were attended for a variety of reasons. Family doctors were contacted for minor emotional difficulties. Because family doctors were consulted by a high proportion of children and adolescents of our sample, the role of these professionals in the detection and management of minor psychological morbidity is emphasized.