An epidemiological investigation of emotional and behavioral problems in primary school children in Japan. The report of the first phase of a WHO collaborative study in Western Pacific Region.

1860 primary school children, aged from 6 to 12 years, from urban suburban and rural areas in Japan were assessed by their school teachers according to the Rutter scale. The prevalence of children with deviant scores in the general population was 3% and this figure was lower than that for any other country assessed by the same scale. Eighty-four percent of the deviants were of an antisocial type but only 7% were neurotic. The ratio of antisocial to neurotic was higher than those from other countries. The prevalence of children with deviant scores was higher in boys than in girls, and also higher in early and middle school years than in late school years. Area, family occupation, sibship size, birth order and one-parent family had only limited effects on the deviant behaviour of the children.