Noncompliance and dropouts as a problem of longitudinal studies in child psychology

1433-9285

Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000

Medicine

Summary At two points in time a cohort of Mannheim children born in 1970 participated (at the ages of 8 and 13) in a broadly designed epidemiological survey in child psychiatry. The rate of dropouts from t1 to t2 was 18.1%, a figure which did not, however, result in a misrepresentation of the “true” prevalence of psychiatric disorders. Overall there was no significant difference between those who cooperated and those who dropped out. A closer look at the dropouts, however, leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to distinguish between neutral dropouts who are simply inaccessible, and passive and active refusers. Active refusal of cooperation occurred both on the part of the parents as well as the children. The so called ‘neutral’ dropout was mainly found in a mobile upper social class. A problem group (fortunately very small) consists of the passive refusers who failed to keep several appointments without explicitly cancelling. Active parent and child refusers did not appear equivalent as the child refusers were mainly girls who were above average achievers while the parent refusers were mainly parents of boys who were below average achievers. That is why special precautions should be taken for a scheduled t3-survey.

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