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Biomedical subjects

A R Nicol

Publications and source records attributed to A R Nicol.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Multple criterion screen for identifying secondary school children with psychiatric disorder: characteristics and efficiency of screen.

A multiple criterion screen was developed as part of a study which was designed to assess different types of intervention for school children with psychiatric disorder. The foremost requirement was that false positives be kept to a minimum, with selected children being unequivocally disturbed. Children were identified for treatment by the following measures: (a) teacher rating on the Rutter B2 Scale, giving a total score and subscores for neurotic and antisocial behaviour; (b) peer ratings on a sociometric measure, yielding isolation and rejection scores; and (c) self ratings on the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory, specifically the neuroticism dimension. A weighting system was developed so that children could be selected on the basis of extreme scores on either teacher or self-rating measures alone, or by a combination of less extreme scores on more than one measure. The results are presented and discussed.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1977

Screening schoolchildren for high risk of emotional and educational disorder.

Junior schoolchildren were screened for high risk of emotional and educational disorder. The information was gathered from the school, using standard and objective tests. The multiple criterion screen employed, comprised: (a) classroom behaviour scale (Rutter B Scale), rated by teachers; (b) sociometric tests; choice of companions by classmates. From these, lack of positive choices was taken as a measure of isolation and a high rate of negative choices, as a measure of rejection; (c) Reading quotient of 75 or below on the Young Reading Test; (d) Absence from school for reasons considered by teachers to be trivial. The number of cases identified by the screening was found to be 322 children per thousand. They may be seen as representing a high risk rate. Using extreme scores as indicative of high risk, approximately 17 per cent of children were identified on the basis of the behaviour test; 12 per cent by the reading test; 9 per cent by the isolation test; 8 per cent by the rejection test and 3 per cent by the absenteeism test. Seventy per cent of the identified children were rated clinically as disturbed. Absenteeism identified the smallest percentage of cases and made the smallest independent contribution of identification. Isolation was not impressively related to neurotic or antisocial behaviour. The three important criteria, therefore, were behaviour, rejection and reading. Corrected disturbance rates for our population of 7-8-year-old children, including those not identified by the screen, were 6-8 per cent markedly maladjusted and 33-7 per cent somewhat maladjusted.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1976

Psychoneurotic disturbance and drug-taking in Borstal boys.

Their own accounts of their use of drugs, together with a detailed description of psychiatric history and present mental state, were obtained from a sample of institutionalized delinquents, Subjects reporting extensive involvement in drug abuse were found to be disturbed on a number of psychiatric variables; however, those reporting some limited abuse were less disturbed than subjects reporting no experience of drug taking. The results and their implications are discussed.

Adolescent↗