Juvenile court versus child guidance referral: psychosocial and parental factors.

The authors compared the psychiatric symptoms, socioeconomic status, family structure, family size, and occurrence of treated parental mental illness in 136 children referred to a juvenile court and 82 children referred to a child guidance clinic. The prevalence of psychiatric and organic symptoms and treated parental psychopathology in both groups of children did not differ significantly. Juvenile court clinic children, however, tended to come from larger families and to lack a biological mother in the home. The authors explore explanations for the routing of sick children to the juvenile court rather than to a treatment facility.