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Prevalence of Emotional and Behavioural Disorders among Strictly Orthodox Jewish Pre-School Children in London

Tavistock Clinic, UK

Stephen Frosh

Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, s.frosh{at}bbk.ac.uk

Kate Loewenthal

Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Esther Spitzer

Research Officer, UK

Although the frequency and importance of emotional and behavioural difficulties in the pre-school period are well established in the general population, relatively little is known about the situation among members of some specific minority groups. This article reports data from a study of 262 children living in the strictly orthodox Jewish community of North London, whose teachers and parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Rates of emotional and behavioural disorder, comparisons between parents' and teachers' ratings, predictors of difficulties, gender differences and a comparison with data from a general community sample are provided. The community is characterized by considerable family cohesion, with the overwhelming majority of children living with both parents. It is also characterized by very large family sizes and high levels of economic privation. Our data show that teachers are more likely than parents to rate these pre-school children as having difficulties, especially of the `hyperactive' kind, and that the levels of such difficulties are probably epidemiologically significant. There is some evidence that the strictly orthodox Jewish children had lower rates of disorder than is found in the general population. There were few relevant predictive factors of difficulties, although children already perceived by their teachers as having `special educational needs' had a heightened risk.

Key Words: orthodox Jews • pre-school disorders • religion • SDQ

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol. 8, No. 4, 459-472 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/13591045030084004


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