The multiproblem family presents in a children's outpatient psychiatric clinic.

This study focuses on children from multiproblem families when they appear at an outpatient psychiatric clinic for children. The sample consisted of the first 50 children and their families referred to a large children's outpatient psychiatric facility early in 1974. A multiproblem family was defined in terms of the number of helping agencies and/or professionals contacted by family members within the 3-year period prior to the current psychiatric evaluation and by the number of households in which the designated child patient had lived. Eighteen percent of the 50 cases met the criteria established for a multiproblem family. These indicators successfully differentiated multiproblem from nonmultiproblem families along a number of socioeconomic, demographic, family health, and family stability dimensions. Special difficulties encountered in psychiatrically evaluating children of such multiproblem families are presented, and ways of dealing with them are discussed.